Eight Oscar-winning movies you can watch on Netflix right now

The Focus breaks down a list of eight Oscar-winning movies you can stream and enjoy right now on Netflix, spanning multiple genres.

Movie fans are still riding the wave of the 96th Academy Awards, which saw Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer take home such major awards as Best Picture, Director, and Actor. A wide range of efforts were celebrated across a night to remember, including Poor Things, The Zone Of Interest, Anatomy Of A Fall, and more. Although these aren’t movies you’ll find on Netflix, the streamer does have a modest selection of Academy Award winners from years past that I recommend streaming…

All Quiet On The Western Front

Joining the shortlist of all-time great war movies alongside the likes of Come And See and Saving Private Ryan, All Quiet On The Western Front was an experience that left me absolutely devastated and drained when I saw it in 2022, as incredible war movies should.

Based on the 1929 novel of the same name from writer Erich Maria Remarque, this unflinching depiction of World War I follows a soldier drafted to endure the greatest horrors imaginable.

Rarely has war been portrayed so hellishly, and it deserved to win four of the nine Academy Awards it was nominated for, taking home Best International Feature Film, Production Design, Cinematography, and Original Score.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

The year before Oppenheimer took home the ceremony’s most prestigious award, Everything Everywhere All At Once took home Best Picture as well as six other awards: Best Actress for Michelle Yeoh, Best Supporting Actor for Ke Huy Quan, Best Supporting Actress for Jamie Lee Curtis, Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Screenplay.

Needless to say, the movie was the major triumph of the year, proving a colossal box office success for A24 and earning a 94% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Michelle plays Evelyn, a Chinese immigrant and laundromat owner who embarks upon a sci-fi adventure to save the multiverse. It’s one of the most creative and outlandish movies ever to win Best Picture, and if you don’t believe so, many attested to crying at rocks watching it… Rocks.

Jurassic Park

Steven Spielberg‘s timeless 1993 action sci-fi movie is one of the most iconic movies of a decade full of iconic masterpieces.

Arguably needing no introduction, the film takes place at a theme park where cloned dinosaurs are its main attraction. As exciting as that sounds, things take a terrifying turn when the creatures manage to break free from their exhibits.

It may not have taken home Best Picture, but it did score three Oscars for Best Visual Effects, Sound, and Sound Effects Editing. Like lots of others, I could rewatch this anytime, but my hot take is this… it’s kind of a horror film, isn’t it?

Marriage Story

Noah Baumbach (The Squid And The Whale) is a fantastic filmmaker but my very favorite of his is, without contest, Marriage Story.

Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson play a couple going through a separation, navigating the painful repercussions of falling out of love when there’s a child in the mix.

Laura Dern won Best Supporting Actress for her perfectly-pitched turn as smooth-talking lawyer Nora Fanshaw, and while I’m glad it won at least one, it was nominated in six categories and Adam should’ve scooped Best Actor at the very least. He’s never been better, before or since.

Minari

I’m really looking forward to seeing director Lee Isaac Chung’s upcoming Twisters, a sequel to the 1990s disaster movie gem, which is a bold and impressive change of pace after the quaint 2020 drama Minari.

Starring The Walking Dead‘s Steven Yeun alongside Han Ye-ri, Alan Kim, and more, the film centers on a family of South Korean immigrants relocating to rural Arkansas and chasing the American dream in the 1980s.

Out of six nominations, it only won one for Supporting Actress (Youn Yuh-jung), Youn’s being only one of the emotional, unmissable performances Minari has to offer.

Roma

Even though a fair amount of time has passed since Alfonso Cuarón’s deeply personal 2018 family drama hit screens, I still feel it was robbed of Best Picture.

Shining a light on the experiences of an indigenous housekeeper living with an upper-middle-class Mexican family, Alfonso’s semi-autobiographical take on his upbringing and love letter to the powerful women who shaped him is a masterpiece that deserves classic status down the line.

Best Picture may have been just out of reach, but it still earned three of its 10 nominations: Best Foreign Language Film, Director, and Cinematography.

Silver Linings Playbook

David O. Russell’s acclaimed 2012 rom-com drama follows Pat (Bradley Cooper), a man released from a mental institution who sparks a relationship with a depressed woman named Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence).

Their chemistry is off the charts and the sharp writing makes this an absolute delight to revisit.

Out of its six nominations, only Jennifer took home the gold statue for Best Actress—undoubtedly well deserved, even with competition from the likes of Naomi Watts and Jessica Chastain.

Whiplash

Has there ever been a more deserving Best Supporting Actor winner than J.K. Simmons for his frightening, powerful performance as music instructor Terence Fletcher?

Director Damien Chazelle has since gone on to helm La La Land and Babylon, but many still consider Whiplash his best work, chronicling the efforts of music student Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) to become one of the drumming greats under the immense pressure and tutelage of Terence.

Put simply, Whiplash is that rare movie that just feels perfect. I still remember being left breathless by its final act seeing it in theaters, and even watching at home it has that same stranglehold effect over me. Flawless filmmaking.