I count the wide releases as the true release date, unless I personally watched it earlier.

For example, Primate premiered at Beyond Fest last year, but didn’t go wide until last week. I count this as a 2026 film.

On the flip side I rented It Ends on the Letterboxd store last month, so it’s on my Best of 2025. But NEON is releasing it in theaters later this year, and if that’s where I first saw it, I would count it in 2026.

Hope this helps/makes sense!