20 Oscar-Winning Movies You Can Stream on Netflix Right Now
What's a better stamp of excellence than an Academy Award?
Say what you want about the Academy, but they’ve nominated and awarded a plethora of amazing films. So, where can you find them? Over the years, Netflix has acquired (and produced) many of them for your viewing pleasure. This year, they even have three original films in the running for the prestigious award. There’s the epic survival film Society of the Snow, the heartwarming Rustin, and the jaw-dropping May December.
While we await their fate, it’s a great time to check out Netflix’s collection of Oscar-nominated films. Below, we’ve rounded up 20 movies that are all available to watch on the streamer. There are plenty of options to keep you entertained, from dramas like The Lost Daughter and Roma to auteur-driven outings like The Hateful Eight and The Irishman. So, grab a seat—and prepare to feel like a member of the Academy.
Nyad
Nominated For: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress
Nyad, which is based on a true story, stars Annette Bening and Jodie Foster as two friends who try to achieve the impossible. Bening plays Diana Nyad, a long-distance swimmer who attempts to swim from Cuba to Florida. If she succeeds, she’ll be the first person to do so—but the feat takes an emotional toll on the athlete.
Society of the Snow
Nominated For: Best International Feature, Best Makeup and Hairstyling
If you don’t know about Flight 571, now is the time to catch up. The remarkable story is depicted in Society of the Snow, which tracks a Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed into the Andes Mountains. In order to make it home, the men resort to unthinkable survival tactics.
May December
Nominated For: Best Original Screenplay
In May December, a Hollywood actress studies a couple 20 years after their romance made national headlines. The film stars Charles Melton as Joe, a man who was groomed and assaulted by his grade-school teacher, Gracie (Julianne Moore).
Rustin
Nominated For: Best Actor
Colman Domingo shines in Rustin as the civil rights hero Bayard Rustin. The film takes place in the '60s, when Dr. Martin Luther King’s plight for racial justice began to popularize. Along the way, he hires Rustin as an advisor—but because Rustin was an openly gay man, his contributions were largely erased from history.
Don't Look Up
Nominated For: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing
This satire about the reality of climate change will make you laugh—and cringe—inside. Two astronomers, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio, try to warn the world about an incoming comet that will destroy Earth, but don't exactly find the reaction they're looking for.
The Lost Daughter
Nominated For: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay
This adaptation of Elena Ferrante's novel of the same name stars Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Paul Mescal. The film was directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who was drawn to the complex story about motherhood.
The Power of the Dog
Won for: Best Director
This Western drama starring Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Benedict Cumberbatch received 12 nominations at the 2022 Academy Awards. It could have been due to the undeniable chemistry between real-life husband and wife Dunst and Plemons, or the powerful direction from Jane Campion—but you'll have to judge for yourself.
The Irishman
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor
Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci. Do I need to say more? This 2019 gangster epic details mobster Frank Sheeran's association with Jimmy Hoffa.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Nominated for: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, Best Original Song
The Coen Brothers came in full force with this Western anthology film, which features six vignettes about the American frontier. The stories are fun, musical, and wildly adventurous. And you'll catch sight of some deeply cool cameos, like Tom Waits and Willie Watson.
13th
Nominated for: Best Documentary Feature
Ava DuVernay's groundbreaking study of race, the criminal justice system, and mass incarceration shook viewers' perceptions when it released. DuVernay examines how slavery has been perpetuated through the disenfranchisement, criminalization of behavior, and how the prison-industrial complex profits off of this. 13th is unflinching in telling brutal truths about the criminal justice system in America.
The Imitation Game
Won for: Best Adapted Screenplay
The historical drama about the real life of Alan Turing was a shoe-in for the Oscars. It had heart-wrenching performances, impossibly high stakes, and movingly authentic portrayals of the brutality of the past.
Phantom Thread
Won for: Best Costume Design
Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps star in this Paul Thomas Anderson-directed historical drama about a haute couture dressmaker whose life as an eligible bachelor takes a turn when he meets his newest muse. Though Phantom Thread was a prime contender across multiple categories, it ultimately took home the Oscar for best Costume Design–which seems fitting.
Mank
Won for: Best Cinematography, Best Production Design
Netflix’s own Mank, a 1930s-set Hollywood love letter directed by David Fincher, lost the Oscar for Best Picture at the 2021 Oscars to Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland. But the film, which follows screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he works to write the 1941 classic "Citizen Kane,” still took home two trophies—for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design—and offers stellar performances from acting nominees Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Won for: Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Costume Design
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is another Netflix picture, adapted from August Wilson’s play of the same name. With powerful performances from Colman Domingo, Best Actress nominee Viola Davis, and posthumous Best Actor nominee Chadwick Boseman, the film follows the events of a tense recording session for blues singer Ma Rainey in 1920s Chicago. Although it didn’t nab either acting trophy, the emotional film took home the awards in the Makeup & Hairstyling and Costume Design categories.
My Octopus Teacher
Won for: Best Documentary Feature
A controversial winner (but a winner nonetheless!), nature doc My Octopus Teacher follows filmmaker Craig Foster as he spends time with and forms a bond with a wild octopus off the Cape Town, South Africa coast over the course of a year. It’s different—there’s no denying that—but also undoubtedly original, wholly captivating, and even touching.
Marriage Story
Won for: Best Supporting Actress (Laura Dern)
Noah Baumbach's semi-autobiographical film about the dissolution of a marriage was a major player at the 2020 Academy Awards. Though the only trophy it took home was for Best Supporting Actress for Laura Dern, the film was also up for Best Picture, Best Actor (Adam Driver), Best Actress (Scarlett Johansson), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Original Score.
The Hateful Eight
Won: Best Original Score
Quentin Tarantino's thriller is an Agatha Christie-style mystery set in the American West just after the Civil War, with legendary composer Ennio Morricone earning his first Oscar for its score.
Icarus
Won: Best Documentary Feature
Documentarian Bryan Fogel intended to experiment with doping in order to win a cycling competition—only his investigations into the practice opened up a bigger, more sinister scandal.
Roma
Won: Best Director (Alfonso Cuarón), Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography
Alfonso Cuarón's gorgeous autobiographical film follows Cleo (Oscar nominee Yalitza Aparicio), a live-in maid for a middle-class Mexico City family, throughout one year as both her life and the lives of her employers are changed forever.
The White Helmets
Won: Best Documentary (Short Subject)
This short film follows a team of volunteer rescue works who risk their lives daily in order to attend to innocent civilians living in war-ravaged Syria.
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