25 excellent Oscar–winning movies you can watch on Netflix
The Academy Awards may come once a year, but the joy of Oscar movies is eternal. Whatever the season (awards or otherwise), you might well crave a drama, comedy, or horror film that is not just good, it's Academy Award winning. And Netflix has a terrific array of such prestigious titles.
Whether you're in search of a deep-dive documentary, a drama with luxurious production design, an action movie with epic fight sequences, or a movie with an unforgettable performance, we've got you covered.
Here are the best Oscar–winning movies now streaming on Netflix
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1. My Octopus Teacher
Won: Best Documentary Feature
My Octopus Teacher may have a title that'll raise some eyebrows, but there's a more profound story of unexpected friendship waiting to surprise you. The documentary follows Craig Foster, a free diver who befriends a young octopus living in a bay near Cape Town, South Africa. We watch this young octopus grow fond of Foster as she plays around with him and invites him into her world. It's a gripping story of our relationship with nature and the lessons waiting to be learned from our many beautiful animal friends. — Yasmeen Hamadeh, Entertainment Intern
How to watch: My Octopus Teacher is streaming on Netflix.
2. The Hateful Eight
Won: Best Original Score (Ennio Morricone)
Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2025, the eighth film from Quentin Tarantino now feels underrated among the director's fairly perfect filmography. A chamber piece Western that traps eight outlaws with overlapping murderous motives (played by Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern) inside a cabin during a blizzard, it might just be the director's nastiest piece of work. It certainly lives up to its title, since pretty much every character is an asshole to the nth degree.
But all the actors are very clearly having the times of their lives twirling their metaphorical or literal mustaches — perhaps none more than the lone female in the bunch, Jennifer Jason Leigh, who scored a Supporting Actress nomination for her unhinged, nigh rabid turn as "Crazy" Daisy. And DP 's Robert Richardson's also-nominated cinematography, which maps the cabin's claustrophobic interiors out via wide-screen scope, is really something astonishing to behold. The Hateful Eight is a gem hiding in plain sight worthy of rediscovery and appraisal. — Jason Adams, Contributing Writer
How to watch: The Hateful Eight is now streaming on Netflix.
3. Mad Max: Fury Road
Won: Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Production Design
The dusty dystopia of Mad Max: Fury Road is not one we'd ever wish to live in, but it's one that enthralls us every single time we visit. In some ways, this is a pretty simple film: The meat of the plot is, basically, one long car chase followed by a second long car chase in the opposite direction. What George Miller does with that basic template, though, will leave you positively giddy. There's the striking look of its universe, all rusty reds and dirty browns. And the pounding score by Junkie XL, working as your own Doof Warrior to get your heart rate up. Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy lead the cast with two perfectly matched, tough-as-nails performances. And the film even gets in a sharp message about toxic masculinity and female agency. But above all, there's the action: propulsive and inventive, employing mostly practical effects and a minimum of CG to deliver blows that actually feel like they land, and races that get your adrenaline pumping. Don't blame us if you find yourself running in circles around your own living room by the end of it.* — Angie Han, Deputy Entertainment Editor
How to watch: Mad Max: Fury Road is streaming on Netflix.
4. Godzilla Minus One
Won: Best Visual Effects
Returning the big lizard to literal basics, the 37th (!!!) film in the franchise might just be its best? Written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, Godzilla Minus One transports us back to the tail-end of World War II, where the Japanese defeat via atomic weaponry once again gives birth to our favorite fire-breathing kaiju monster — the big difference being that this movie gives us a human story set in the rubble down under the beast's rise that's every ounce as moving and devastating as the sweep of his big rear-end.
Kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), filled with regret about his own survival when so many others (including his own parents) perished, returns home crippled by shame. But he's forced to get on with life anyway as a stranger named Noriko (Minami Hamabe) and a child she's adopted show up one day and become, before he even realizes it, his makeshift family. And Godzilla Minus One gets us caring deeply about these people, so when the nuclear dinosaur starts stomping around, we're truly invested emotionally in their safety and security. Add on that Yamazaki also oversaw the film's Oscar-winning visual effects, which cost an unbelievably low 15 million dollars (aka the lunch budget on a Marvel movie), and Godzilla Minus One is a blast on all fronts. — J.A.
How to watch: Godzilla Minus One is now streaming on Netflix.
5. Roma
Won: Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography
Alfonso Cuarón's Oscar-winning drama follows Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a housekeeper working for a wealthy family in Mexico City. Thanks to Cuarón's writing, direction, and cinematography (each of which garnered its own respective Oscar), the film is remarkably immersive, enveloping us in Cleo's world in a way most movies strive for and can never even touch. We feel the comfort in her mundane day-to-day, the sting of her boyfriend's betrayal, and blinding panic and trauma in the film's final act. It's a stunning piece of cinema that should be talked about for decades to come. — Proma Khosla, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Roma is streaming on Netflix.
6. American Factory
Won: Best Documentary Feature
This 2020 Best Documentary Feature winner takes viewers inside a shuttered General Motors factory in Ohio, recently purchased and re-staffed by a Chinese billionaire, for a stunning look at worker exploitation in the modern age. A complex presentation of multiculturalism and its impacts on the global economy, American Factory is an uncomfortable watch that remains steadfastly objective from start to end but still manages to make its point. — Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: American Factory is streaming on Netflix.
7. 8 Mile
Won: Best Original Song, "Lose Yourself" (Eminem)
In 2002, it seemed, to put it mildly, improbable that a movie starring Eminem in a lightly fictionalized retelling of his rise through Detroit's "rap battle" scene would go on to become an Oscar-winner — heck, it seems improbable now in retrospect. But it was foolish to underestimate the formidable powers of late director Curtis Hanson, who'd previously made movie magic out of everything from killer nanny thrillers (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) to James Ellroy adaptations (L.A. Confidential), and sure enough, he turned this rough-and-tumble biopic into a legitimate critical darling and awards contender. Also on display here – two fine and fiery performances from Brittany Murphy (RIP) and Kim Basinger as the rapper's love interest and mother, respectively. — J.A.
How to watch: 8 Mile is now streaming on Netflix.
8. Marriage Story
Won: Best Supporting Actress (Laura Dern)
Writer/director Noah Baumbach’s tense tale of a couple ending their marriage divided audiences, with some viewers reporting they were surprised by whose "side" they ended up on. But critical reception for the film was almost universal in its praise of the story's execution and impact, with leads Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver singled out for their magnetic scene work.
At the 92nd Academy Awards, Marriage Story took home only one Oscar from the six categories in which it was nominated. Still, this artful depiction of intimacy remains a triumph of romantic storytelling, venturing far beyond the Happily Ever After audiences know so well. — A.F.
How to watch: Marriage Story is streaming on Netflix.
9. Parasite
Won: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature Film
From the mind of legendary director Bong Joon Ho, Parasite made waves thanks to its historical Academy Award win for Best Picture and its phenomenally layered story that’ll have you digging beneath its surface, much like its characters' homes.
A story of class disparity and capitalism (the scariest monster out there), Parasite follows the Kim family, a painfully penniless bunch, as they sneak their way into the affluent home of the Park family, a painfully penny-full bunch, by pretending to be unassuming, unrelated employees who are just trying to find jobs around the Parks' home. The harmony of their symbiotic relationship is soon cut short when a secret reveals itself, and the film beautifully stumbles into a cinematic second act that asks you: How do you get rid of a parasite when everyone is one?* — Y.H.
How to watch: Parasite is streaming on Netflix.
10. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Won: Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Makeup
In 1984, Arnold Schwarzenegger awed audiences with his iconic portrayal of a ruthless cyborg-assassin in The Terminator. But in 1991, this bold (and even better) sequel rewired this towering robo-foe into a compelling hero. ("Come with me if you want to live.") Now, instead of trying to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) to ensure a robot uprising, T-800 (Schwarzenegger) is sent back in time to protect her teen son, future revolutionary John Connor (Edward Furlong). Together, this unlikely trio must not only survive but defeat an upgraded terminator (Robert Patrick) whose skin can go liquid metal to form any weapon he needs. The word "epic" gets thrown around a lot. But then and now, T2 is epic.* — Kristy Puchko, Entertainment Editor
How to watch: Terminator 2: Judgement Day is streaming on Netflix.
11. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Won: Best Live Action Short Film
In 2023, Wes Anderson directed a series of short films based on Roald Dahl stories for Netflix. It was the longest and most substantial of the four that finally got the director his long-overdue Oscar statue. (Let's pretend it's an apology for the crime that was not giving his 2023 masterpiece Asteroid City a single nomination.) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (taken from the 1977 collection of short stories with the same name) tells the tale of a disaffected gambler (Benedict Cumberbatch) who learns how to harness the power of his mind from a legendary yogi (Ben Kingsley) to win big. But what happens once you have everything? This 39-minute short hits that final mark beautifully.
If you love Anderson's signature aesthetic, you'd be wise to watch all four of the ones Netflix commissioned. They're all wonderful. (My particular favorite is The Rat Catcher, which more than any of the other four really nails Dahl's nasty streak as we watch an hilariously aggressive Ralph Fiennes as a sharp-toothed rodent-hunter on the prowl.) — J.A.
How to watch: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is now streaming on Netflix.
12. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Won: Best Animated Feature
You know when hitting play on this movie that the fantastic horror visionary Guillermo del Toro isn't going to be telling Walt Disney's version of Pinocchio. Meaning no offense to that 1940 animated masterpiece, but del Toro took that classic's scattered-about scary moments — the donkeys, oh god, the donkeys! — and multiplied them by infinity.
Setting the story of the little wooden boy who gets wished to life by his depressed carver Geppetto in WWII-era fascist Italy, del Toro slathers his version of the fairy tale in politics and righteously disturbing anti-war propaganda. And that's before he violently kills off our main character multiple times. Featuring voice acting 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 other. — J.A.
How to watch: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is now streaming on Netflix.
13. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Won: Best Costume Design and Best Makeup and Hairstyling
The final film of Chadwick Boseman (released posthumously and netting him another acting nomination) is a fitting tribute to the Black Panther star's non-superhero skills – he tap-dances the screen on fire as the over-ambitious trumpeter working in the band of the titular blues singer Ma (Viola Davis, having a blast). Based on August Wilson's 1982 play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is set across a single scorcher of a July 1927 day as Ma's band tries to wrangle her to record a single track, with every conceivable interruption getting in their way. Directed by stage director George C. Wolfe (who went on to direct Rustin in 2023 with Colman Domingo, who plays another band member here) the movie is stagey but electrifyingly so — you really feel like you're trapped in this airless hot basement with these extremely talented musicians, making music that sizzles while living just as loud. — J.A.
How to watch: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is now streaming on Netflix.
14. Whiplash
Won: Best Supporting Actor (J.K. Simmons), Best Editing, Best Sound
When he was just 29 years old, writer/director Damien Chazelle's second feature film, 2014's Whiplash, took Sundance by storm. By the time he was 30, he had snagged himself a Best Adapted Screenplay nom, along with a slew of other honors for the adrenaline-fueled indie. Thank goodness he didn't let all of that early success go straight to his head and blow all his movie-making capital on a great big vanity project next! (He waited, making two more movies and winning a Best Director Oscar for La La Land before bestowing upon us the toxic epic that is Babylon.)
Still, it's easy to see why everybody fell for Whiplash, a ferocious music school tale where we watch an overly determined drumming prodigy (Miles Teller) meet his match in an abusive teacher (J.K. Simmons). Asking questions about the dangerous lengths we're tempted to go to be the best, the film was ahead of its time in taking a hard look at the excuses we make for the sake of so-called genius. — J.A.
How to watch: Whiplash is now streaming on Netflix.
15. Icarus
Won: Best Documentary Feature
This one tells the tale of Russian scientist Grigory Rodchenkov and his whistleblowing against the Olympic doping routines of the Russian state, which he was intimately involved in as the head of the country's Anti-Doping Center for several decades. Filmmaker Bryan Fogel, an amateur cyclist when not directing films, started his documentary off as an experiment to see if he could get around the sport's doping rules without being caught. This test led him to Rodchenkov, and before you knew it Rodchenkov was fleeing his home country and being put into witness protection as his former colleagues were being murdered around him. It's quite the terrifying snowball of a tale, and an excellent explainer of the ways a fascist state will insinuate itself into every aspect of our existence. — J.A.
How to watch: Icarus is now streaming on Netflix.
16. Mank
Won: Best Production Design, Best Cinematography
Director David Fincher's father Jack had a decades-long obsession with the story of the making of Orson Welles' masterpiece Citizen Kane. Specifically, he was fascinated by screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (aka Mank) and how much credit he deserved for the final product, given the well-known fact that Mank was a fall-down drunk. And so Jack wrote a film script about the story, hoping he and his son could make the movie together. But the project languished and Jack passed away in 2003, never seeing it realized.
David Fincher stayed determined though. In 2020 he finally delivered a film starring Gary Oldman as Mank that feels unlike almost anything else the Social Network director has done. Awash in nostalgia and a hard-fought sincerity, you can feel Fincher's love for his father thrumming through the movie — most especially in the ways the film itself side-eyes a creator's ability to twist truth into fiction. Amanda Seyfried, wonderful in the role of real-life actress Marion Davies, sees straight through to how Mank can spin truth into fiction with one clack of his typewriter key, and gives the movie its tremulous heart. — J.A.
How to watch: Mank is now streaming on Netflix.
17. Ghost
Won: Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Whoopi Goldberg)
This Best Picture–nominated drama centered on the love story between a dynamic banker (Patrick Swayze) and his sculptor girlfriend (Demi Moore). It was a love so strong that when he dies in a robbery gone wrong, she is is his unfinished business. Yet it was Whoopi Goldberg as reluctant clairvoyant Oda Mae Brown who delivered the most memorable (and Oscar–winning) performance.
Along with a stirring story, Ghost offers several truly iconic scenes, like Swayze and Moore turning a potting wheel session into foreplay or the creepy rampage of a subway ghost played by Vincent Schiavelli. But none compare to the comic genius of Goldberg, whose voice echoes across decades of cinema: "Molly, you in danger, girl."
How to watch: Ghost is streaming on Netflix.
18. The Power of the Dog
Won: Best Director (Jane Campion)
Adapted from Thomas Savage's 1967 novel, The Power of the Dog sees Benedict Cumberbatch slip his twisted beanpole self into a pair of dirty dungarees as Phil Burbank, a deeply closeted cowboy in 1925 Montana at the tail end of the time for such ranch-haunting relics. One day in town, Phil's brother George (Jesse Plemons) finds himself a wife named Rose (Kirsten Dunst), and Phil does not like that one bit! Once Rose and her weirdo son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) move in with the brothers, it's a war of the wills, and only one queer cowpoke's gonna be left standing. A psychotic marvel of a movie that only Jane Campion could've delivered. — J.A.
How to watch: The Power of the Dog is now streaming on Netflix.
19. RRR
Won: Best Song (M. M. Keeravani and Chandrabose)
A Tollywood spectacle, this three-hour-plus epic from director S.S. Rajamouli tells the 1920s-set story of the best buddies Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.) and Raja (Ram Charan), who end up on opposite sides of the revolution against the British Raj. Will they fight? Will they make up? Will they sing and dance? Absolutely.
All of these questions, many tigers, and much, much more make RRR's three hours an absolute breeze. A truly over-the-top endeavor with action and romance and several musical sequences, it was the latter that got the Academy's attention, with the unforgettable dance number "Naatu Naatu" stomping all its rivals out of the way for the little gold man statue in the end. — J.A.
How to watch: RRR is now streaming on Netflix.
20. 1917
Won: Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects
Sam Mendes' 2019 film drops us right into a day in the life of two British soldiers (George Mackay and Game of Thrones' actor Dean-Charles Chapman) fighting in France during the first World War. It doesn't let up to take a breath — using camera trickery old and new, 1917 makes its two-hour run-time seem like it was captured in a total of two massive shots. (The truth is not that, but it sure looks like it anyway.)
As the two painfully young soldiers work their way across fields, both green and battle, tasked with delivering a message trying to stop the advance of a doomed mission, we're sucked right in alongside them. The you-are-really-there is strong with this one, capturing the unfathomable horror of war in scale simultaneously epic and intimate. — J.A.
How to watch: 1917 is now streaming on Netflix.
21. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Won: Best Animated Film
As cemented as our favorite cheese-loving inventor and his whip-smart dog sidekick seem now in pop culture, there have only been two feature-length Wallace & Gromit films released to this day — most recently, 2024's Vengeance Most Fowl and then this one, from 2005. Of course you add on the four short films that span 1989 to 2008 and you've got more of a complete picture, but still — feels like there should be more. (This is really just me begging for a new Wallace & Gromit every other year, if that wasn't clear.)
But if there's one thing Aardman Animation masterminds Nick Park and Steve Box have proven it's that taking one's time to get it right pays myriad dividends, since all six chunks of the ongoing Wallace & Gromit story spread out across four decades now (!!!) are sparkling little masterpieces. And The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is perhaps the masterpieciest of all, telling a Jekyll-and-Hyde inspired tale of gigantic bunny terrorizing our twosome's quaint little hamlet on the eve of its annual Giant Vegetable Competition. A hysterical riff on old horror movies (Universal and Hammer-flavored alike), the Were-Rabbit's imagination and laughs are endless. — J.A.
How to watch: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is now streaming on Netflix.
22. Phantom Thread
Won: Best Costume Design
Early on in the filmmaking process, very serious artists writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson and actor Daniel Day-Lewis were trying to figure out a name for the lead character in their next collaboration. Naturally, their text thread led to a dick joke that, in turn, birthed the moniker "Reynolds Woodcock."
That movie became Phantom Thread, a darkly hilarious romance about a stuffy fashion designer who meets his match in a blushing waitress (Vicky Krieps). There's something perfect about it all being built on a dick joke. Phantom Thread is ultimately a satire of male domination, and an ode to the armies of women who've trussed up the egos of pampered men and gotten the jobs done in spite of them.
Pulling their female lead out of nowhere (aka Luxembourg), Anderson gave a role for the ages to the relative newcomer Krieps, who goes toe to toe with the greatest actor of his generation. And, much like Alma the blushing waitress does to Reynolds, she shows DDL how it's done. Incredibly, while both Day-Lewis and Lesley Manville, who played Reynolds' deliciously stern sister Cyril, got nods — Krieps was snubbed. It's a crime, considering the effortless way she steals the entire movie away from them all with just her Mona Lisa smile and a basket of suspicious mushrooms. — J.A.
How to watch: Phantom Thread is now streaming on Netflix.
23. Still Alice
Won: Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
Remembered now primarily as the vehicle that finally landed Julianne Moore a long overdue Oscar, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland's 2014 film is a small-scale heartbreaker of a character study that deserved more appreciation both at the time (it got knocked as a bald Oscar grab) and now, a decade later.
Adapting Lisa Genova's book about a linguistics professor at Columbia celebrating her 50th birthday as she grapples with the effects of early on-set Alzheimers, Still Alice can't be separated from Moore's tremendously affecting work, but that's just because it smartly remains so resolutely laser-focused on her. And when is staying laser-focused on an actor as perceptive as Moore ever a bad thing? That said, it's the scenes between Moore and Kristen Stewart as Alice's stubborn daughter that truly linger all these years later; two fine, delicate actors speaking histories with just their eyes. — J.A.
How to watch: Still Alice is now streaming on Netflix.
24. All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
Won: Best International Feature, Best Score, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design
This is one of the rare instances where a remake of a classic film ended up being a terrific idea. The original 1930 All Quiet on the Western Front was one of the very first Best Picture winners, and it remains great to this day. So, how did they make a remake work? It was a pretty simple idea, actually. Director Edward Berger took the original story, which drops audiences down in the dirt with the German soldiers during World War I, and he filmed it in Germany with German actors. Wild, right?
Still, the 90-year update on film techniques also helped in situating viewers in the middle of that maelstrom. Taking a page from Sam Mendes' 1917, Berger and his DP James Friend really make us feel like we're right there in the trenches, dodging the bullets and bombs as often as they hit their deadly mark. The anti-war message of the original comes through loud and clear, bolstered by the unforgettable drone of Volker Bertelmann's score. The baton-pass nature of the script, which introduces character after character only to see them get ground up in the horrible machinery of war, is a correctly unsubtle hammering home of combat's cruel dehumanization. — J.A.
How to watch: All Quiet on the Western Front is now streaming on Netflix.
25. Moulin Rouge!
Won: Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Baz Luhrmann awed audiences with this 2001 jukebox musical that plunged into pop music, anachronisms, and star power with equal relish.
Set in 1900, Paris, Ewan McGregor stars as Christian, a writer with big dreams who falls for Satine (Nicole Kidman), a showgirl with a rich and dangerous admirer, and a secret up her sleeve. Though poor and subject to the whims of a cruel duke (Richard Roxburgh), Christian and Satine embrace art and each other, creating song-and-dance numbers bursting with earnest romance, gaudy dazzle, and hit songs from Queen, Elton John, Madonna, David Bowie, and many, many more. To match this outrageously flashy soundtrack, Luhrmann had costumes and production design that were eye-poppingly bold in color and glamor. Like Satine, they were impossible not to fall in love with.
How to watch: Moulin Rouge! is now streaming on Netflix.
Asterisks (*) indicate the entry has been modified from a previous Mashable list.
UPDATE: Nov. 20, 2025, 5:52 p.m. EST This list has been updated to reflect Netflix's current selection.
Topics Netflix Oscars Streaming Watch Guides
Jason Adams is a freelance entertainment writer at Mashable. He lives in New York City and is a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic who also writes for Pajiba, The Film Experience, AwardsWatch, and his own personal site My New Plaid Pants. He's extensively covered several film festivals including Sundance, Toronto, New York, SXSW, Fantasia, and Tribeca. He's a member of the LGBTQ critics guild GALECA. He loves slasher movies and Fassbinder and you can follow him on Twitter at @JAMNPP.
