25 wonderful Oscar–profitable films you may watch on Netflix

Few nights in Hollywood’s calendar 12 months come near the glitz and glamour of the Academy Awards. An Oscar statuette is a crowning achievement for anybody concerned within the manufacturing of movie, and those that garner a number of of the gold collectible figurines win the proper to label themselves “Academy Award–winning” for the remainder of historical past. Plus, there’s the profession enhance that comes with it. 

With the terrifically entertaining 96th Academy Awards behind us, let’s look again at a few of the extra memorable previous winners in numerous classes, or no less than those which are presently streaming on Netflix (in no specific order).

Listed here are the very best Oscar-winning films now streaming on Netflix.

1. My Octopus Trainer

Received: Finest Documentary Function 

My Octopus Trainer could have a title that’ll elevate some eyebrows, however there is a extra profound story of surprising friendship ready to shock you. The documentary follows Craig Foster, a free diver who befriends a younger octopus dwelling in a bay close to Cape City, South Africa. We watch this younger octopus develop keen on Foster as she performs round with him and invitations him into her world. It is a gripping story of our relationship with nature and the teachings ready to be realized from our many stunning animal buddies. — Yasmeen Hamadeh, Leisure Intern 

watch: My Octopus Trainer is streaming on Netflix.

2. The Hateful Eight

Received: Finest Unique Rating (Ennio Morricone)

Celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2025, the eighth movie from Quentin Tarantino now feels underrated among the many director’s pretty good filmography. A chamber piece Western that traps eight outlaws with overlapping murderous motives (performed by Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern) inside a cabin throughout a blizzard, it’d simply be the director’s nastiest piece of labor. It definitely lives as much as its title, since just about each character is an asshole to the nth diploma.

However all of the actors are very clearly having the occasions of their lives twirling their metaphorical or literal mustaches — maybe none greater than the lone feminine within the bunch, Jennifer Jason Leigh, who scored a Supporting Actress nomination for her unhinged, nigh rabid flip as “Crazy” Daisy. And DP ‘s Robert Richardson’s also-nominated cinematography, which maps the cabin’s claustrophobic interiors out by way of wide-screen scope, is actually one thing astonishing to behold. The Hateful Eight is a gem hiding in plain sight worthy of rediscovery and appraisal. — Jason Adams, Contributing Author 

watch: The Hateful Eight is now streaming on Netflix.

3. Selma

Received: Finest Unique Track, “Glory” (John Legend and Frequent)

Director Ava DuVernay’s recreation of the lead-up to the 1964 march throughout Alabama for voting rights led by Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) is unbelievable in its potential to make these larger-than-life icons carrying out their legendary feats someway really feel actual, lived-in, and human-sized. Refraining from hagiography, King in Oyelowo’s palms stays prickly, troublesome, and flawed, and in flip, the scope of what the person achieved solely feels all of the extra stratospheric. 

And it isn’t simply The Oyelowo Present. DuVernay’s movie provides underappreciated performers like Carmen Ejogo, André Holland, Lorraine Toussaint, Stephan James, and Wendell Pierce loads of house to shine. A too-rare instance of textbook historical past being made to really feel alive and now. — J.A.

watch: Selma is now streaming on Netflix.

4. Godzilla Minus One

Received: Finest Visible Results

Returning the large lizard to literal fundamentals, the thirty seventh (!!!) movie within the franchise would possibly simply be its greatest? Written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, Godzilla Minus One transports us again to the tail-end of World Battle II, the place the Japanese defeat by way of atomic weaponry as soon as once more provides beginning to our favourite fire-breathing kaiju monster — the large distinction being that this film provides us a human story set within the rubble down underneath the beast’s rise that is each ounce as transferring and devastating because the sweep of his massive rear-end. 

Kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), full of remorse about his personal survival when so many others (together with his personal dad and mom) perished, returns dwelling crippled by disgrace. However he is compelled to get on with life anyway as a stranger named Noriko (Minami Hamabe) and a baby she’s adopted present up someday and grow to be, earlier than he even realizes it, his makeshift household. And Godzilla Minus One will get us caring deeply about these individuals, so when the nuclear dinosaur begins stomping round, we’re really invested emotionally of their security and safety. Add on that Yamazaki additionally oversaw the movie’s Oscar-winning visible results, which value an unbelievably low 15 million {dollars} (aka the lunch finances on a Marvel film), and Godzilla Minus One is a blast on all fronts. — J.A.

watch: Godzilla Minus One is now streaming on Netflix. 

5. Roma

Received: Finest Director, Finest Overseas Language Movie, Finest Cinematography

Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-winning drama follows Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a housekeeper working for a rich household in Mexico Metropolis. Because of Cuarón’s writing, route, and cinematography (every of which garnered its personal respective Oscar), the movie is remarkably immersive, enveloping us in Cleo’s world in a means most films attempt for and might by no means even contact. We really feel the consolation in her mundane day-to-day, the sting of her boyfriend’s betrayal, and blinding panic and trauma within the movie’s remaining act. It is a shocking piece of cinema that must be talked about for many years to return. — Proma Khosla, Leisure Reporter

watch: Roma is streaming on Netflix.

6. American Manufacturing facility

Received: Finest Documentary Function

This 2020 Finest Documentary Function winner takes viewers inside a shuttered Basic Motors manufacturing unit in Ohio, not too long ago bought and re-staffed by a Chinese language billionaire, for a shocking have a look at employee exploitation within the trendy age. A fancy presentation of multiculturalism and its impacts on the worldwide economic system, American Manufacturing facility is an uncomfortable watch that continues to be steadfastly goal from begin to finish however nonetheless manages to make its level. — Alison Foreman, Leisure Reporter

watch: American Manufacturing facility is streaming on Netflix.

7. 8 Mile

Received: Finest Unique Track, “Lose Yourself” (Eminem)

In 2002, it appeared, to place it mildly, unbelievable {that a} film starring Eminem in a flippantly fictionalized retelling of his rise by way of Detroit’s “rap battle” scene would go on to grow to be an Oscar-winner — heck, it appears unbelievable now on reflection. But it surely was silly to underestimate the formidable powers of late director Curtis Hanson, who’d beforehand made film magic out of every part from killer nanny thrillers (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) to James Ellroy diversifications (L.A. Confidential), and positive sufficient, he turned this rough-and-tumble biopic right into a official vital darling and awards contender. Additionally on show right here – two positive and fiery performances from Brittany Murphy (RIP) and Kim Basinger because the rapper’s love curiosity and mom, respectively. — J.A. 

watch: 8 Mile is now streaming on Netflix. 

8. Marriage Story

Received: Finest Supporting Actress (Laura Dern)

Author/director Noah Baumbach’s tense story of a pair ending their marriage divided audiences, with some viewers reporting they had been shocked by whose “side” they ended up on. However vital reception for the movie was virtually common in its reward of the story’s execution and affect, with leads Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver singled out for his or her magnetic scene work.

On the 92nd Academy Awards, Marriage Story took dwelling just one Oscar from the six classes during which it was nominated. Nonetheless, this clever depiction of intimacy stays a triumph of romantic storytelling, venturing far past the Fortunately Ever After audiences know so nicely. — A.F.

watch: Marriage Story is streaming on Netflix.

9. Man on Wire

Received: Finest Documentary

Overlook Robert Zemeckis’ fictionalized retelling starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This 2008 documentary telling the story of efficiency artist Philippe Petit’s unlawful high-wire stroll between the 2 World Commerce Heart towers in 1974 incorporates all of the dizzying spectacle you might ever want. Staged like a real-life heist film, director James Marsh listens to Petit clarify how he pulled the unbelievable feat off step-by-step, and the planning and execution is as riveting as something Hollywood’s ever dreamed up. And the movie does not draw back from the person’s troublesome character both — it is a profound portrait of goals turning into obsessions that brush away any value. — J.A.

watch: Man on Wire is now streaming on Netflix.

10. Darkest Hour

Received: Finest Make-up and Hairstyling, Finest Actor (Gary Oldman)

Set within the early years of World Battle II, Darkest Hour follows Winston Churchill (remarkably performed by Gary Oldman) as he navigates Britain’s place within the ensuing struggle, together with the trials and tribulations that comply with. On Oldman’s Oscar–profitable efficiency, Mashable’s Angie Han writes, “Oldman knows the difference between packaging and performance… There’s a living, breathing soul underneath all that makeup, at the center of all those tics, and Oldman makes him fascinating to watch.” So come for a masterclass in appearing by Oldman, and keep for the gripping story that follows; it is definitely worth the watch. — Y.H. 

watch: Darkest Hour is streaming on Netflix.

11. The Great Story of Henry Sugar

Received: Finest Stay Motion Quick Movie

In 2023, Wes Anderson directed a sequence of brief movies based mostly on Roald Dahl tales for Netflix. It was the longest and most substantial of the 4 that lastly acquired the director his long-overdue Oscar statue. (Let’s fake it is an apology for the crime that was not giving his 2023 masterpiece Asteroid Metropolis a single nomination.) The Great Story of Henry Sugar (taken from the 1977 assortment of brief tales with the identical identify) tells the story of a disaffected gambler (Benedict Cumberbatch) who learns find out how to harness the ability of his thoughts from a legendary yogi (Ben Kingsley) to win massive. However what occurs upon getting every part? This 39-minute brief hits that remaining mark fantastically. 

Mashable Prime Tales

When you love Anderson’s signature aesthetic, you would be smart to observe all 4 of those Netflix commissioned. They’re all great. (My specific favourite is The Rat Catcher, which greater than any of the opposite 4 actually nails Dahl’s nasty streak as we watch an hilariously aggressive Ralph Fiennes as a sharp-toothed rodent-hunter on the prowl.) — J.A.

watch: The Great Story of Henry Sugar is now streaming on Netflix.

12. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Received: Finest Animated Function

You already know when hitting play on this film that the unbelievable horror visionary Guillermo del Toro is not going to be telling Walt Disney’s model of Pinocchio. That means no offense to that 1940 animated masterpiece, however del Toro took that basic’s scattered-about scary moments — the donkeys, oh god, the donkeys! — and multiplied them by infinity. 

Setting the story of the little picket boy who will get wished to life by his depressed carver Geppetto in WWII-era fascist Italy, del Toro slathers his model of the fairy story in politics and righteously disturbing anti-war propaganda. And that is earlier than he violently kills off our important character a number of occasions. That includes voice appearing by Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett, and Christoph Waltz, plus revelatory stop-motion work from the animators at ShadowMachine, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is like no different. — J.A.

watch: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is now streaming on Netflix.

13. Ma Rainey’s Black Backside

Received: Finest Costume Design and Finest Make-up and Hairstyling

The ultimate movie of Chadwick Boseman (launched posthumously and netting him one other appearing nomination) is a becoming tribute to the Black Panther star’s non-superhero abilities – he tap-dances the display screen on hearth because the over-ambitious trumpeter working within the band of the titular blues singer Ma (Viola Davis, having a blast). Primarily based on August Wilson’s 1982 play, Ma Rainey’s Black Backside is about throughout a single scorcher of a July 1927 day as Ma’s band tries to wrangle her to file a single observe, with each conceivable interruption getting of their means. Directed by stage director George C. Wolfe (who went on to direct Rustin in 2023 with Colman Domingo, who performs one other band member right here) the film is stagey however electrifyingly so — you actually really feel such as you’re trapped on this airless scorching basement with these extraordinarily proficient musicians, making music that sizzles whereas dwelling simply as loud. — J.A.

watch: Ma Rainey’s Black Backside is now streaming on Netflix.

14. Whiplash

Received: Finest Supporting Actor (J.Okay. Simmons), Finest Modifying, Finest Sound

When he was simply 29 years outdated, author/director Damien Chazelle’s second function movie, 2014’s Whiplash, took Sundance by storm. By the point he was 30, he had snagged himself a Finest Tailored Screenplay nom, together with a slew of different honors for the adrenaline-fueled indie. Thank goodness he did not let all of that early success go straight to his head and blow all his movie-making capital on an amazing massive self-importance challenge subsequent! (He waited, making two extra films and profitable a Finest Director Oscar for La La Land earlier than bestowing upon us the poisonous epic that’s Babylon.) 

Nonetheless, it is easy to see why all people fell for Whiplash, a ferocious music faculty story the place we watch an excessively decided drumming prodigy (Miles Teller) meet his match in an abusive trainer (J.Okay. Simmons). Asking questions concerning the harmful lengths we’re tempted to go to be the very best, the movie was forward of its time in taking a tough have a look at the reasons we make for the sake of so-called genius. — J.A.

watch: Whiplash is now streaming on Netflix.

15. Icarus

Received: Finest Documentary Function

This one tells the story of Russian scientist Grigory Rodchenkov and his whistleblowing towards the Olympic doping routines of the Russian state, which he was intimately concerned in as the top of the nation’s Anti-Doping Heart for a number of a long time. Filmmaker Bryan Fogel, an beginner bike owner when not directing movies, began his documentary off as an experiment to see if he may get across the sport’s doping guidelines with out being caught. This check led him to Rodchenkov, and earlier than you knew it Rodchenkov was fleeing his dwelling nation and being put into witness safety as his former colleagues had been being murdered round him. It is fairly the terrifying snowball of a story, and a very good explainer of the methods a fascist state will insinuate itself into each side of our existence. — J.A. 

watch: Icarus is now streaming on Netflix.

16. Mank

Received: Finest Manufacturing Design, Finest Cinematography

Director David Fincher’s father Jack had a decades-long obsession with the story of the making of Orson Welles’ masterpiece Citizen Kane. Particularly, he was fascinated by screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (aka Mank) and the way a lot credit score he deserved for the ultimate product, given the well-known incontrovertible fact that Mank was a fall-down drunk. And so Jack wrote a movie script concerning the story, hoping he and his son may make the film collectively. However the challenge languished and Jack handed away in 2003, by no means seeing it realized. 

David Fincher stayed decided although. In 2020 he lastly delivered a movie starring Gary Oldman as Mank that feels not like virtually the rest the Social Community director has completed. Awash in nostalgia and a hard-fought sincerity, you may really feel Fincher’s love for his father thrumming by way of the film — most particularly within the methods the movie itself side-eyes a creator’s potential to twist reality into fiction. Amanda Seyfried, great within the position of real-life actress Marion Davies, sees straight by way of to how Mank can spin reality into fiction with one clack of his typewriter key, and offers the film its tremulous coronary heart. — J.A. 

watch: Mank is now streaming on Netflix.

17. Legends of the Fall

Received: Finest Cinematography (John Toll)

An overwrought romance novel given lush old school cinematic life, Edward “Glory” Zwick’s 1994 household epic stars cover-boy Brad Pitt on the absolute top of his prettiness – these lengthy golden locks! – as Tristan, the main man in a love quadrangle between three brothers (additionally together with Aidan Quinn and Henry Thomas) and the lady named Susannah (performed by Julia Ormond) who steals all of their hearts. 

Though the movie spans a long time, nearly all of the story takes place within the aftermath of World Battle I, which has left one brother useless, one brother wounded, and Pitt’s wild man a shell-shocked husk of unhappy dream hunk. Susannah yearns for him (which, comprehensible) however is compelled by exterior forces to take the extra accountable route, which inevitably results in tragedy. And all of the whereas, papa (a deliriously overacting Anthony Hopkins) is bellowing from the sidelines at all people. It is perfection, of the nonsense type. — J.A.

watch: Legends of the Fall is now streaming on Netflix.

18. The Energy of the Canine

Received: Finest Director (Jane Campion)

Tailored from Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel, The Energy of the Canine sees Benedict Cumberbatch slip his twisted beanpole self right into a pair of soiled dungarees as Phil Burbank, a deeply closeted cowboy in 1925 Montana on the tail finish of the time for such ranch-haunting relics. In the future on the town, Phil’s brother George (Jesse Plemons) finds himself a spouse named Rose (Kirsten Dunst), and Phil doesn’t like that one bit! As soon as Rose and her weirdo son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) transfer in with the brothers, it is a struggle of the wills, and just one queer cowpoke’s gonna be left standing. A psychotic marvel of a film that solely Jane Campion may’ve delivered. — J.A.

watch: The Energy of the Canine is now streaming on Netflix.

19. RRR

Received: Finest Track (M. M. Keeravani and Chandrabose)

A Tollywood spectacle, this three-hour-plus epic from director S.S. Rajamouli tells the Twenties-set story of the very best buddies Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.) and Raja (Ram Charan), who find yourself on reverse sides of the revolution towards the British Raj. Will they battle? Will they make up? Will they sing and dance? Completely. 

All of those questions, many tigers, and far, way more make RRR‘s three hours an absolute breeze. A very over-the-top endeavor with motion and romance and several other musical sequences, it was the latter that acquired the Academy’s consideration, with the unforgettable dance quantity “Naatu Naatu” stomping all its rivals out of the way in which for the little gold man statue in the long run. — J.A.

watch: RRR is now streaming on Netflix.

20. 1917

Received: Finest Cinematography, Finest Sound Mixing, and Finest Visible Results

Sam Mendes’ 2019 movie drops us proper right into a day within the lifetime of two British troopers (George Mackay and Sport of Thrones’ actor Dean-Charles Chapman) combating in France through the first World Battle. It does not let as much as take a breath — utilizing digicam trickery outdated and new, 1917 makes its two-hour run-time look like it was captured in a complete of two large pictures. (The reality isn’t that, however it positive seems prefer it anyway.) 

As the 2 painfully younger troopers work their means throughout fields, each inexperienced and battle, tasked with delivering a message attempting to cease the advance of a doomed mission, we’re sucked proper in alongside them. The you-are-really-there is powerful with this one, capturing the unfathomable horror of struggle in scale concurrently epic and intimate. — J.A.

watch: 1917 is now streaming on Netflix.

21. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Have been-Rabbit

Received: Finest Animated Movie

As cemented as our favourite cheese-loving inventor and his whip-smart canine sidekick appear now in popular culture, there have solely been two feature-length Wallace & Gromit movies launched to today — most not too long ago, 2024’s Vengeance Most Fowl after which this one, from 2005. After all you add on the 4 brief movies that span 1989 to 2008 and you have extra of an entire image, however nonetheless — appears like there must be extra. (That is actually simply me begging for a brand new Wallace & Gromit each different 12 months, if that wasn’t clear.)

But when there’s one factor Aardman Animation masterminds Nick Park and Steve Field have confirmed it is that taking one’s time to get it proper pays myriad dividends, since all six chunks of the continuing Wallace & Gromit story unfold out throughout 4 a long time now (!!!) are glowing little masterpieces. And The Curse of the Have been-Rabbit is probably the masterpieciest of all, telling a Jekyll-and-Hyde impressed story of gigantic bunny terrorizing our twosome’s quaint little hamlet on the eve of its annual Large Vegetable Competitors. A hysterical riff on outdated horror films (Common and Hammer-flavored alike), the Have been-Rabbit‘s creativeness and laughs are countless. — J.A.

watch: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Have been-Rabbit is now streaming on Netflix.

22. Phantom Thread

Received: Finest Costume Design

Early on within the filmmaking course of, very severe artists author/director Paul Thomas Anderson and actor Daniel Day-Lewis had been attempting to determine a reputation for the lead character of their subsequent collaboration. Naturally, their textual content thread led to a dick joke that, in flip, birthed the moniker “Reynolds Woodcock.”

That film grew to become Phantom Thread, a darkly hilarious romance a few stuffy dressmaker who meets his match in a blushing waitress (Vicky Krieps). There’s one thing good about all of it being constructed on a dick joke. Phantom Thread is in the end a satire of male domination, and an ode to the armies of ladies who’ve trussed up the egos of pampered males and gotten the roles completed despite them. 

Pulling their feminine lead out of nowhere (aka Luxembourg), Anderson gave a task for the ages to the relative newcomer Krieps, who goes toe to toe with the best actor of his era. And, very like Alma the blushing waitress does to Reynolds, she exhibits DDL the way it’s completed. Extremely, whereas each Day-Lewis and Lesley Manville, who performed Reynolds’ deliciously stern sister Cyril, acquired nods — Krieps was snubbed. It is a crime, contemplating the easy means she steals your complete film away from all of them with simply her Mona Lisa smile and a basket of suspicious mushrooms. — J.A. 

watch: Phantom Thread is now streaming on Netflix.

23. Nonetheless Alice

Received: Finest Actress (Julianne Moore)

Remembered now primarily because the automobile that lastly landed Julianne Moore a protracted overdue Oscar, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland’s 2014 movie is a small-scale heartbreaker of a personality examine that deserved extra appreciation each on the time (it acquired knocked as a bald Oscar seize) and now, a decade later.

Adapting Lisa Genova’s ebook a few linguistics professor at Columbia celebrating her fiftieth birthday as she grapples with the consequences of early on-set Alzheimers, Nonetheless Alice cannot be separated from Moore’s tremendously affecting work, however that is simply because it neatly stays so resolutely laser-focused on her. And when is staying laser-focused on an actor as perceptive as Moore ever a nasty factor? That stated, it is the scenes between Moore and Kristen Stewart as Alice’s cussed daughter that actually linger all these years later; two positive, delicate actors talking histories with simply their eyes. — J.A.

watch: Nonetheless Alice is now streaming on Netflix.

24. All Quiet on the Western Entrance (2022)

Received: Finest Worldwide Function, Finest Rating, Finest Cinematography, Finest Manufacturing Design

This is among the uncommon situations the place a remake of a basic movie ended up being a terrific concept. The unique 1930 All Quiet on the Western Entrance was one of many very first Finest Image winners, and it stays nice to today. So, how did they make a remake work? It was a fairly easy concept, truly. Director Edward Berger took the unique story, which drops audiences down within the filth with the German troopers throughout World Battle I, and he filmed it in Germany with German actors. Wild, proper? 

Nonetheless, the 90-year replace on movie methods additionally helped in situating viewers in the midst of that maelstrom. Taking a web page from Sam Mendes’ 1917, Berger and his DP James Pal actually make us really feel like we’re proper there within the trenches, dodging the bullets and bombs as usually as they hit their lethal mark. The anti-war message of the unique comes by way of loud and clear, bolstered by the unforgettable drone of Volker Bertelmann’s rating. The baton-pass nature of the script, which introduces character after character solely to see them get floor up within the horrible equipment of struggle, is a appropriately unsubtle hammering dwelling of fight’s merciless dehumanization. — J.A. 

watch: All Quiet on the Western Entrance is now streaming on Netflix.

25. When We Have been Kings

Received: Finest Documentary Function

Thought-about top-of-the-line, if not the greatest documentary, concerning the sport of boxing, Leon Gast’s When We Have been Kings from 1996 takes a glance again on the legendary “Rumble in the Jungle” match of 1974 between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Controversially staged within the African nation previously referred to as Zaire — then dominated by the brutal dictator Mobutu Sese Seko  — Ali was gunning for the Heavyweight Champion title that he’d had taken away when he refused to be drafted to battle in Vietnam seven years earlier.

In the meantime, Foreman was struggling to rival Ali’s megawatt character— this was nonetheless awhile earlier than he’d fine-tune his grill-selling allure, in any case. Capturing not simply the Primary Occasion but in addition the “Zaire 74” music pageant (aka Black Woodstock), which occurred at roughly the identical time, When We Have been Kings is a larger-than-life doc of sports activities and movie star historical past at its absolute largest. — J.A.  

watch: When We Have been Kings is now streaming on Netflix.

Asterisks (*) point out the entry has been modified from a earlier Mashable record.

UPDATE: Dec. 16, 2024, 5:52 p.m. EST This record has been up to date to replicate Netflix’s present choice.