There are more than a few Oscar winners currently streaming on Netflix. Indeed, the streamer’s collection of award winners includes the 2000 docudrama that netted Julia Roberts her one and only Oscar to date, as well as a widely beloved superhero film that actually managed to take home one of the Academy Awards’ top prizes. In case neither of those films interests you, Netflix also has “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle’s Oscar-winning debut film and a 2012 blockbuster that is as entertaining as it is thematically compelling.
Here are the seven best Oscar-winning movies on Netflix right now.
“Erin Brockovich” (2000)
Julia Roberts rightly took home the Best Actress Oscar in 2001 for her fierce, layered lead performance in director Steven Soderbergh’s endearing docudrama “Erin Brockovich.” A dramatization of a true story, the film follows an unemployed single mother (Roberts) who initiates a legal case against a powerful gas and electric company over its role in contaminating the groundwater of a small California town.
Susannah Grant’s screenplay cuts right to the drama at the heart of the film’s story without losing the details and sharp edges of its heroine’s life, personality and journey. The resulting movie is one of the best examples of both Soderbergh’s versatility and Roberts’ innately luminous star power.
“Ford v Ferrari” (2019)
Released the same year as “Parasite,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Marriage Story,” “Little Women” and a number of other acclaimed films, director James Mangold’s “Ford v Ferrari” still found a way to take home the 2020 Oscars for Best Sound and Film Editing. That is a testament to the level of craftsmanship and care on display in practically every frame of “Ford v Ferrari,” which tells the real-life story of how automotive designer Caroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and English racing driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) teamed up to build a car that could actually compete against Ferrari in the legendary 24-hour race at Le Mans in France.
Together, Damon and Bale make for a charismatic, likable duo in “Ford v Ferrari,” a film which is as superficially entertaining as it is unexpectedly moving. As far as recent sports dramas go, it’s a contemporary classic.
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (2018)
Heading into its release in late 2018, no one expected “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” to be as good as it was. At that point in time, the “Spider-Man” property as a whole felt like it had already been thoroughly explored by Hollywood, and yet “Into the Spider-Verse” managed to breathe new, vibrant life into its comic book universe.
It did so not only with a visually stunning, boundary-pushing animation style but also by telling a multiversal story that uses its eponymous hero’s defining tragedies and traits to get to the heart of what makes Spider-Man such an enduring pop cultural figure — no matter who is under the mask. In hindsight, it is no surprise that “Into the Spider-Verse” won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film in 2019. It was well-deserved.
“Marriage Story” (2019)
“Marriage Story” earned six Oscar nominations in 2020, but only Laura Dern ended up taking a Best Supporting Actress award home that night. Looking back, it feels like writer-director Noah Baumbach’s intimate, operatic divorce drama might have been more successful had it come out in a less overcrowded year. Its underwhelming awards success does not take away from the power of “Marriage Story,” though, which explores the shattering, sometimes explosive emotional turmoil experienced by its leads (played by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson) as their divorce and ensuing custody battle become increasingly nasty and hurtful.
Anchored by Johansson and Driver’s career-best performances, “Marriage Story” is an unflinching, deeply moving drama. It is not just the most emotionally affecting film Baumbach has ever made, but also the best.
“Skyfall” (2012)
2012’s “Skyfall” remains one of the James Bond franchise’s highest peaks. Daniel Craig’s third big-screen stint as Bond sees the character return from a near-fatal accident only to find himself facing a nefarious, twisted villain (Javier Bardem’s Raoul Silva) whose story eerily mirrors his own. Directed with elegant grace by Sam Mendes and filled with one beautiful image after another by cinematographer Roger Deakins, “Skyfall” pushes its hero farther than almost any other Bond film.
It finds frequently surprising, psychologically compelling ways to explore Bond’s toxic attachment to MI6, as well as the complicated history of the British Empire, without ever sacrificing an ounce of its franchise’s established entertainment value or action-movie thrills. Along the way, it finds in Bardem’s Silva the Bond franchise’s best villain, and Adele’s theme track rightly won the Oscar in 2013 for Best Original Song.
“Whiplash” (2014)
“Whiplash” served as both an exciting artistic announcement for “La La Land” writer-director Damien Chazelle and a long-overdue career celebration for J.K. Simmons, who won the 2015 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film. A nerve-wracking psychological drama about an ambitious jazz drummer (Miles Teller) who is pushed to his physical and mental limits by his abusive instructor (Simmons), “Whiplash” is a drama full of astonishing style, blackly comic humor and thorny questions about the value and cost of all-consuming ambition.
Despite it being his first feature film, Chazelle exercises a commanding level of artistic control in every moment of “Whiplash,” a film that benefits greatly from the razor-sharp editing by Tom Cross, who also took home an Oscar in 2015 for his contributions.
“Misery” (1990)
“Misery” remains one of the greatest achievements of the late, great Rob Reiner’s storied Hollywood career. The actor-turned-filmmaker’s masterful adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name follows a successful novelist (James Caan) who, after a car accident, ends up the hostage of an obsessive fan (Kathy Bates) unhappy with the direction of his latest book.
Behind the camera, Reiner steers right into the uncomfortable, suffocating and surreal horror of King’s original novel, producing a movie that commands your attention whilst making you squirm in your seat. Kathy Bates famously won the Best Actress Oscar in 1991 for her terrifying performance in the film, and when you watch “Misery,” you are not left with any questions about why she became one of the few actors to win an Oscar for a horror movie.
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