Your 2025 Oscar Nominees Streaming Guide
Here's where to catch all the nominated films before March 2nd!
We’re just about two weeks from the 97th Academy Awards! We will have a full Oscars preview coming for you in this newsletter and on the podcast in the coming weeks, but before then, it’s our annual Oscar nominees streaming guide!
If you are behind on catching up with the nominated movies this year, we’re here to point you in the right direction. See what each movie was nominated for and where you can watch them right now, as well as brief words of recommendation for Conclave, Nickel Boys, and Sugarcane. So, plan out your next several days of Oscar-watching and join us in preparing for the big night.
BEST PICTURE
Anora
6 nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Actress in a Leading Role, Actor in a Supporting Role, Original Screenplay, Film Editing
Where to watch now: Available to rent digitally
LISTEN: Do You Like… Gladiator II, Anora, Blitz, & More!
The Brutalist
10 nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Actor in a Leading Role, Actor in a Supporting Role, Actress in a Supporting Role, Original Screenplay, Original Score, Cinematography, Film Editing, Production Design
Where to watch now: In theaters
LISTEN: Do You Like… The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
8 nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Actor in a Leading Role, Actor in a Supporting Role, Actress in a Supporting Role, Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design, Sound
Where to watch now: In theaters
Conclave
8 nominations: Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role, Actress in a Supporting Role, Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design, Original Score, Film Editing, Production Design
Where to watch now: Streaming on Peacock
Drew: While it’s primarily riveting (and pulpy and implausible) entertainment, Conclave is also a thoughtful drama of ideas that touches on faith, the Church, power, and more. I’m always so grateful when we get a sharp, intelligent thriller for adults that I’m often willing to overlook some faults (like the surprising yet rushed late reveal). And the positives far outweigh any faults in this one: the crackling writing, the stabbing score, and the top-drawer performers. It’s often this exact mix of prestige and popcorn we look for when going out to the movies.
Dune: Part Two
5 nominations: Best Picture, Cinematography, Production Design, Sound, Visual Effects
Where to watch now: Streaming on Max and Netflix
LISTEN: Do You Like… Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
13 nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Actress in a Leading Role, Actress in a Supporting Role, Adapted Screenplay, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, Cinematography, Film Editing, International Feature Film, Original Song, Sound
Where to watch now: Streaming on Netflix
I’m Still Here
3 nominations: Best Picture, Actress in a Leading Role, International Feature Film
Where to watch now: In theaters
Nickel Boys
2 nominations: Best Picture, Screenplay
Where to watch now: In theaters and available to buy digitally
Billy: Now that I am past Challengers not having any Oscars recognition, I am onto my next yearly exercise. Which nominated film will have the longest-lasting legacy? Nickel Boys is where I am planting my flag. Nickel Boys, helmed by RaMell Ross, has had a roller coaster of an awards season. Started off with anonymity for most of the year, but festival season buzz shot it into the awards consciousness, then it came back down to earth not finding much love in other prominent award ceremonies. To my delight it was able to get some massive nominations at the Academy Awards, showing clear admiration from the whole industry. Particularly for breakthrough director RaMell Ross, he may not have been nominated for Best Director, but the Best Picture/Adapted Screenplay nomination are powerful placeholders.
A Colson Whitehead (The Underground Railroad was adapted for TV by Barry Jenkins) adaptation seems to be a recipe for success these days amongst the film heads. But seemingly bad luck with timing of the release. Nickel Boys is a tough one to roll out because of the subject matter and the seeming awards aspiration. This is a harsh film with a disorienting perspective of our main characters. A first person point of view for the majority of the film that has a non-traditional perspective shift about halfway through. Creating a minimum reaction of, “this wasn’t for me, but holy shit, RaMell Ross has it.” I loved this movie and his transcendental style is akin to the “Ter(r)ence’s”, Terrence Malick and Terence Davies. This may not be a rewatchable in the traditional sense, but as something that needs to be watched again to fully take in what Ross is doing, it will have legs as soon as the Oscars is over.
The Substance
5 nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Actress in a Leading Role, Original Screenplay, Makeup and Hairstyling
Where to watch now: Streaming on Mubi
Wicked
10 nominations: Best Picture, Actress in a Leading Role, Actress in a Supporting Role, Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, Film Editing, Production Design, Sound, Visual Effects
Where to watch now: Available to rent digitally
OTHERS WITH MULTIPLE NOMINATIONS
Sing Sing
2 nominations: Actor in a Leading Role, Adapted Screenplay
Where to watch now: Available to rent digitally
The Apprentice
2 nominations: Actor in a Leading Role, Actor in a Supporting Role
Where to watch now: Available to rent digitally
A Real Pain
2 nominations: Actor in a Supporting Role, Original Screenplay
Where to watch now: Streaming on Hulu
Nosferatu
4 nominations: Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Cinematography, Production Design
Where to watch now: Available to rent digitally
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Flow
Where to watch now: Streaming on Max
Inside Out 2
Where to watch now: Streaming on Disney+
Memoir of a Snail
Where to watch now: Streaming on AMC+
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Where to watch now: Streaming on Netflix
The Wild Robot
Where to watch now: Streaming on Peacock
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Black Box Diaries
Where to watch now: Streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime
No Other Land
Where to watch now: In theaters
Porcelain War
Where to watch now: In theaters
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Where to watch now: Streaming on Kanopy
Sugarcane
Where to watch now: Streaming on Disney+ and Hulu
Drew: Rarely does a film nominated for Best Documentary match up so neatly with a different film nominated for Best Picture in the same year. Billy wrote about Nickel Boys above, which is about an abusive Florida reform school in the Civil Rights era. Sugarcane uncovers the generational pain and trauma caused by a cruel and inhuman Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. This National Geographic documentary follows both the investigation into the evidence of unmarked graves discovered on the school’s grounds and the survivors detailing the experiences they have been too traumatized to speak about for decades.
Although one is non-fiction and one is dramatized, Sugarcane and Nickel Boys are two heartbreaking portraits into the injustice and evil of which humans are capable. Through very different lenses, these two vital films shine a light on such monstrous acts so that this kind of cruelty can’t continue to thrive in the darkness.
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
I’m Still Here
Where to watch now: In theaters
The Girl with the Needle
Where to watch now: Streaming on Mubi
Emilia Pérez
Where to watch now: Streaming on Netflix
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Where to watch now: Available to rent digitally
Flow
Where to watch now: Streaming on Max