Credit score: Barbie / Warner Bros. Footage
The Academy Awards ain’t every thing. Typically the films that win actually characterize one of the best movies of their years; generally they replicate a pattern or a zeitgeist that winds up wanting somewhat backward after a while has handed; generally they’re simply fully inexplicable.
However let’s deal with the instances the Academy has awarded films which are really fairly good, or that no less than replicate their eras sufficient to be attention-grabbing. Listed here are 25 of one of the best award winners presently streaming on Netflix (preserving in thoughts that among the streamer’s buzziest awards contenders—assume The Irishman and Maestro—acquired a lot of nominations however no wins).
Barbie (2023)
The pink-drunk optimism of the summer time of Barbenheimer feels impossibly distant at this darkish level within the. winter of 2025, so why not recapture somewhat of that magic by revisiting the film that made feminism palatable to the plenty for a short while (no less than till it was rudely shoved again beneath the mattress in late 2024). I should not must promote you on it: A star-making flip from Margot Robbie as Barbie, a delightfully egoless supporting flip from Ryan Gosling as her Ken, and a message of feminine empowerment that appeared somewhat trite till I noticed that lots of people apparently nonetheless have not absorbed it.
Oscar for: Greatest Authentic Track
The Great Story of Henry Sugar (2023)
Audiences and critics had combined reactions to Wes Anderson’s different 2023 launch, the feature-length Asteroid Metropolis, however there was little division over this quick movie, an adaptation of the Roald Dahl story, and it lastly earned Anderson his first Oscar—not that he was there to gather it. Benedict Cumberbatch stars because the pseudonymous Henry Sugar, a person who makes use of his inherited fortune to fund his playing behavior. When he learns of a secret technique of profitable by seeing via the eyes of others, he involves understand greater than he, maybe, bargained for. It is a cute and candy, and amongst one among Anderson’s most visually creative works (which saying fairly a bit). And, at 40 minutes (39, really), it by no means has time to wear down its welcome. Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade additionally star.
Oscar for: Greatest Reside Motion Quick Movie
Roma (2018)
Stepping again from the cerebral science-fiction of Kids of Males and Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón gained his second Greatest Director Oscar for this semi-autobiographical drama impressed by his personal childhood in Mexico Metropolis of the Nineteen Seventies, in the course of Mexico’s lengthy, violent Soiled Warfare. Yalitza Aparicio performs Cleo Gutiérrez, a Mixtec live-in maid for an upper-middle-class couple with 4 kids whose marriage is slowly disintegrating. When husband Antonio leaves together with his mistress, spouse Sophia and the pregnant Cleo bond over their surprising conditions. Cuarón is splendidly adept at creating a way of time and place, and the performances are indelible. Roma gained Greatest Overseas Language Movie, however was additionally nominated for Greatest Image, and it is a far stronger work than the yr’s precise winner, Inexperienced Guide.
Oscars for: Greatest Director (Alfonso Cuarón), Greatest Overseas Language Movie (Mexico), Greatest Cinematography (Alfonso Cuarón)
Marriage Story (2020)
Nominated for six Oscars, Noah Baumbach’s delicate, devastating story of a crumbling marriage looks like a contemporary American replace of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, and earns the best to be talked about in the identical firm. As warring couple Nicole and Charlie Barber, Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver give emotionally uncooked performances, however the actual story is Laura Dern as Nicole’s lawyer Nora Fanshaw; she’s one among our most interesting actresses, with many years of wonderful work, and it was excessive time she gained her first Oscar. Driver and Johansson had been additionally nominated, as was Baumbach for his authentic screenplay
Oscar for: Greatest Supporting Actress (Laura Dern)
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)
Extra Oscar love for Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, The Form of Water). Ho hum. But, as up to now, it is well-deserved. Set in Fascist Italy between the World Wars, this longtime ardour venture for the director boasts beautiful stop-motion animation. Extra importantly, it embraces the darkness inherent in Carlo Collodi’s authentic fantasy novel—del Toro recognizing {that a} kids’s story want be neither cloying nor condescending, and that youngsters acknowledge, in addition to anybody, that generally the one method to the sunshine is thru the darkish. The gifted, however not distracting voice solid contains Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, and Cate Blanchett.
Oscar for: Greatest Animated Function Movie
All Quiet on the Western Entrance (2022)
A second adaptation of the 1929 anti-war novel from Erich Maria Remarque, this model did not take dwelling Greatest Image nor Greatest Director as the unique 1930 model did, however nonetheless, All Quiet wound up being the second-most awarded movie on Oscar evening 2023, behind Greatest Image winner Every thing All over the place All at As soon as. If it would not have fairly the influence of the sooner adaptation, it is nonetheless a strong movie concerning the futility of conflict, set amid the trenches of World Warfare I.
Oscars for: Greatest Worldwide Function (Germany), Greatest Authentic Rating (Volker Bertelmann), Greatest Manufacturing Design (Christian M. Goldbeck and Ernestine Hipper), Greatest Cinematography (James Good friend)
My Octopus Trainer (2020)
Filmmaker Craig Foster spent a yr forming a relationship with a wild widespread octopus in a South African kelp forest, transferring among the classes realized to his relationship together with his personal son. If Foster might kind a bond with such an alien intelligence in its personal pure (and naturally harmful) atmosphere, absolutely there’s hope for humanity? Possibly?
Oscar for: Greatest Documentary Function
Ma Rainey’s Black Backside (2020)
One sweaty, blues-filled afternoon within the Chicago of 1927, the nice Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) exhibits up on the studio to make a brand new album. She’s been contracted by white promoters, and she or he’s absolutely conscious that their deference to her is solely depending on her bankability as a singer. Over the course of the session, tensions rise and conflicts erupt, notably between Ma Rainey and Chadwick Boseman’s Levee Inexperienced. Davis earned a Greatest Actress nomination, and is so good that she’s virtually channeling the take-no-shit blues legend, whereas Chadwick Boseman was seen as a near-lock for a posthumous Greatest Actor award. Sadly, the Academy’s infamous stinginess relating to Black performing appears to have gained out—there’s been precisely one Black Greatest Actress winner in 95 years of awards (Halle Berry), and solely 5 Black performing winners total.
Oscars for: Greatest Costume Design (Ann Roth), Greatest Make-up and Hairstyling (Sergio López-Rivera, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson)
Mad Max: Fury Highway (2015)
Whereas the long-awaited prequel/followup Furiosa undeservedly bombed on the field workplace and with Oscar voters, it by no means tarnishes the repute of this 2015 motion masterpiece. Looking back, director George Miller’s magnum opus would have been a much better Greatest Image decide than the precise winner (when is the final time anybody thought of, not to mention watched, The Revenant?), and it is all the time an excellent time to revisit the highway rage mayhem alongside Max, Immortan Joe, the Warfare Boys, and, after all, the Doof Warrior himself.
Oscars for: Costume Design (Jenny Beavan), Movie Enhancing (Margaret Sixel), Make-up and Hairstyling (Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega, and Damian Martin), Manufacturing Design (Colin Gibson, Lisa Thompson), Sound Enhancing (Mark Mangini and David White), Sound Mixing (Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff, and Ben Osmo)
RRR (2022)
It is wild that RRR wasn’t nominated in additional classes, given its epic scope, sharp commentary, and crowd-pleasing type—however taking dwelling India’s first Authentic Track Oscar was no small feat both, particularly on condition that the competitors included numbers from the likes of Rihanna and Girl Gaga. The film itself is a blockbuster finished proper, with brilliantly choreographed motion sequences and rousing musical numbers buttressing a robust “f*ck colonialism” message. Hopefully Hollywood was taking notes.
Oscars for: Greatest Authentic Track (“Naatu Naatu”)
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Julia Roberts lastly took dwelling an Academy Award for her irresistible flip because the title character, a feisty small city paralegal who manages to carry an enormous company to its knees with a lawsuit over poisonous air pollution. Given the speedy dissolution of presidency companies just like the Environmental Safety Company and an more and more corporate-friendly judiciary, it kinda performs like a stupendous fairytale today, thanks in no small half to full of life course from Steven Soderbergh (who gained the Oscar the identical yr for guiding a special film altogether—and whereas Site visitors is an effective too, spending time with Erin Brockovich is much more enjoyable.)
Oscars for: Greatest Actress (Julia Roberts)
The Energy of the Canine (2021)
Like Brokeback Mountain, a lot of the press round Jane Campion’s movie needed to do with its queer themes (homosexual cowboys? what’s subsequent!?), however its energy lies in its deliberate, unhurried course from Campion (a rarity today), and likewise in its lovely cinematography. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as one among two very completely different brothers, whose tenuous peace is shattered by the arrival of newcomers at their Montana ranch circa 1925.
Oscar for: Greatest Director (Jane Campion)
Interval. Finish of Sentence. (2018)
The quick (round 25 minutes) movie follows a bunch of ladies within the Indian village of Kathikera, about 50 miles from Delhi, who work to beat centuries of disgrace related to menstruation. Studying that sanitary pads could be made with native supplies, native girls begin a manufacturing unit to fabricate and promote their very own pads, beginning a quiet however wanted revolution in menstrual well being.
Oscar for: Greatest Documentary Quick Topic
The Final Days (1998)
Within the final yr of World Warfare II and the Holocaust, the Nazis in occupied Hungary accelerated their program of deportation and extermination, even at the price of conflict technique. This documentary follows 5 survivors—and naturalized Americans—touring again to the camps they narrowly escaped.
Oscar for: Greatest Documentary Function
The White Helmets (2016)
It is easy to lose sight of documentaries coping with conflict and disaster amid the numerous of that type which have acquired Oscar nominations and wins, however there are standouts even in that very specific crowd. The White Helmets paperwork the story of the Syrian Civil Protection, an all-volunteer group of Syrians who carry out search and rescue operations in response to bombings. The true draw of this (comparatively) quick movie is within the interludes with volunteers discussing their on a regular basis lives, earlier than and throughout the conflict; these moments clarify the price of the continued battle. Although seven years previous, the Syrian Civil Warfare continues, tragically, as does the work of the SCD.
Oscar for: Greatest Documentary (Quick Topic)
American Manufacturing facility (2019)
The primary movie from Barack and Michelle Obama’s manufacturing firm, Larger Floor Productions, goes and wins an Oscar. The movie appears at an deserted GM plant in Ohio bought by a Chinese language billionaire for his firm, glass producer Fuyao. The plant got here to make use of 2,000 American staff, however the sophisticated dynamic between the Chinese language management and working-class American employers shortly factors to probably insurmountable issues. The film takes a fly-on-the-wall strategy, with none narrative past what we’re seeing and listening to contained in the manufacturing unit itself; there’s no overriding sense that there are heroes or villains right here—simply lots of people making an attempt to determine all of it out.
Oscar for: Greatest Documentary Function
Apollo 13 (1995)
Ron Howard’s all-star astronaut docudrama isn’t solely a greater movie than the one which gained Greatest Image in its yr (Braveheart), it is also a greater image than the one the director took dwelling the Oscar for (A Lovely Thoughts). Concurrently heart-stopping and subdued, the true story of the aborted moon mission generates stress with out going overboard on the histrionics.
Oscars for: Greatest Movie Enhancing (Mike Hill and Daniel Hanley), Greatest Sound (Rick Dior, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan and David MacMillan)
The Sting (1973)
Very a lot the sort of film they do not make anymore, and never merely as a result of it is a depression-era interval piece. George Roy Hill, who had directed Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Child just some years earlier, reunited Paul Newman and Robert Redford in a equally good-natured caper movie. The 2 play a few con males with an elaborate scheme to get revenge on the crime boss who murdered their pal. The interval particulars are as meticulously crafted because the film’s central scheme, and it is finally an all-time nice crowd-pleaser.
Oscars for: Greatest Image, Greatest Director (George Roy Hill), Greatest Authentic Screenplay (David S. Ward), Greatest Artwork Path (Henry Bumstead and James W. Payne), Greatest Costume Design (Edith Head), Greatest Movie Enhancing (William Reynolds) Greatest Scoring (Marvin Hamlisch)
Dallas Patrons Membership (2013)
Whereas it is not precisely one of the best instance of trans rep—casting a cis actor as a transwoman, and Jared Leto, no much less—a roughly well-intentioned queer story with large identify stars, together with Matthew McConaughey in an Oscar-winning function, looks like…one thing anyway, given trans of us have turn out to be a serious goal for hate within the decade since. Set amid the AIDS disaster, this story of a struggling group preventing to outlive would possibly even remind you that higher instances are potential, in principle.
Oscars for: Greatest Actor (Matthew McConaughey), Greatest Supporting Actor (Jared Leto)
Godzilla Minus One (2023)
Produced on a shoestring finances (no less than by blockbuster phrases), the thirty-third installment within the venerable Japanese sci-fi franchise (not counting the Hollywood entries) is each a supremely entertaining kaiju romp and a touching story concerning the influence of conflict on these “fortunate” sufficient to outlive it. And additional kudos for characterizing Godzilla as mainly a large, offended cat.
Oscar for: Greatest Visible Results (Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi, and Tatsuji Nojima)
Parasite (2019)
The 2020 Oscars had been handed out simply weeks earlier than the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, making the Greatest Image win for Parasite—South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s darkly shaggy dog story of sophistication warfare and the merciless hand of destiny—really feel like some sort of demarcation between “Then” (a time when a international movie talking fact to energy might come out on high in Hollywood) and “Now.”
Oscars for: Greatest Image, Greatest Director (Bong Joon-ho), Greatest Authentic Screenplay (Bong Joon-ho), Greatest Worldwide Movie
Whiplash (2014)
Miles Teller performs Andrew Neiman, an bold and gifted jazz musician in his first yr on the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory in New York Metropolis. He’s come to the college with large desires, and shortly will get seen by the conductor of the conservatory’s studio band, Terence Fletcher (a terrifying J. Ok. Simmons). Fletcher is obsessive and merciless, which solely feeds Neiman’s overwhelming need to succeed.
Oscars for: Greatest Supporting Actor (J. Ok. Simmons), Greatest Movie Enhancing (Tom Cross), Greatest Sound Mixing (Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, and Thomas Curley)
Schindler’s Listing (1993)
Steven Spielberg shed his repute as a maker of popcorn entertainments with this sobering true-life story of a German manufacturing unit proprietor (Liam Neeson) who risked his personal security to guard Jewish staff in his make use of throughout the darkest days of the Holocaust. It isn’t precisely an “entertaining” alternative, however then once more, it is all the time good to have one thing to level to while you want a reminder that, sure, fascism is dangerous. And Nazis? No good.
Oscars for: Greatest Image, Greatest Director (Steven Spielberg), Greatest Tailored Screenplay (Steve Zaillian), Greatest Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), Greatest Artwork Path (Allan Starski, Ewa Braun), Greatest Movie Enhancing (Michael Kahn), Greatest Authentic Rating (John Williams)
Mank (2020)
David Fincher’s movie about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) and the event of Citizen Kane is impressively dramatic, and even often harrowing. It additionally did a bit higher at Oscar time than the film whose making it dramatizes: Kane acquired 9 nominations and one win, whereas Mank picked up 10 nominations and gained two of them.
Oscars for: Greatest Cinematography (Erik Messerschmidt), Greatest Manufacturing Design (Donald Graham Burt and Jan Pascale)
If Something Occurs I Love You (2020)
The very quick (beneath quarter-hour) movie, with a reasonably easy animation type, manages to generate extra emotion than many movies many instances its size. The film follows two dad and mom, grieving the loss of life of their daughter in a faculty taking pictures, as they discover themselves rising aside within the aftermath.
Oscar for: Greatest Animated Quick Movie
