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The biggest night in Hollywood is fast-approaching – and with the announcement of the Oscar nominations, it's now time to start streaming.
There are plenty of surprising nods this year. Alongside more standard dramatic fare like Chloe Zhao's weepy Shakespeare film Hamnet, to the quietly powerful adaptation of Denis Johnson's novella Train Dreams, the list also includes Ryan Coogler's big, ballsy, bluesy vampire thriller Sinners and Paul Thomas Anderson's gripping, propulsive political thriller One Battle After Another. There are also a few foreign films up for the big prize, including Joaquim Trier's pensive family drama Sentimental Value and Kleber Mendonça Filho's fast-paced political thriller The Secret Agent.
If you're looking to catch up on all of the Best Picture nominees before the winner is crowned at the Academy Awards ceremony on 15 March, you've come to the right place.
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Bugonia
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis
Where to watch: Bugonia is available to rent on Prime and Apple TV+.
A weird and wacky ride starring Emma Stone as a high-powered CEO who is kidnapped by two down-and-out outcasts convinced her girlboss persona is covering her true alien identity. From the director of 2024 Best Picture winner Poor Things, Bugonia is a gritty, surreal film with unexpected philosophic depths – and plenty of the director's signature bizarre humour.
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F1
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Cast: Brad Pitt, Kerry Condon, Damson Idris, Javier Bardem
Where to watch: F1 is available to stream on Apple TV+.
One of the few big blockbusters on the list, F1 is a rip-roaring race car movie that sees Pitt playing an ageing driver on the verge of a comeback.
Frankenstein
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Jacob Elordi
Where to watch: Frankenstein is available to stream on Netflix.
A beautiful gothic fairytale, del Toro's Frankenstein is a dreamy gem of an adaptation, filled with epic, fantastical production design and themes to match. Prepare to fall in love with Jacob Elordi's sensitive, inquisitive Monster.
Hamnet
Director: Chloe Zhao
Cast: Paul Mescal
Where to watch: Hamnet is currently playing in cinemas across the UK.
An adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel of the same name, Hamnet is a beautifully shot, epically scored, fictionalised retelling of William Shakespeare's domestic life. Jessie Buckley delivers a harrowing, gut-wrenching performance as his wife, Agnes. A film about grief, miscommunication and the power of art.
Marty Supreme
Director: Josh Safdie
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion
Where to watch: Marty Supreme is currently playing in cinemas across the UK.
Moving at a hundred miles a minute, this film is kind of a ping pong sports film, but mostly a critique of the striving, searching and embarrassment of the American dream. Chalamet is a headstrong, cocky ping pong prodigy who winds up in all sorts of trouble on his quest to become the best at a game that no one else seems to care much about.
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One Battle After Another
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Teyanna Taylor, Sean Penn
Where to watch: One Battle After Another is available to rent from Apple TV+ and Prime.
DiCaprio stars as an ex-radical revolutionary in hiding who finds himself pulled back into his old life when his teenage daughter Willa goes missing. A timely, troubling action film with an undeniably fun, darkly comic edge, it takes you headfirst into an anxiety-ridden world of corrupt cops and undercover resistance. It has one of the best car chase scenes you'll ever see.
The Secret Agent
Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Cast: Robson Andrade, Rubens Santos, Licínio Januário, Joálisson Cunha, Marcelo Valle
Where to watch: The Secret Agent lands in UK cinemas on 20 February.
Set in 1977 Brazil, this gripping thriller follows Marcelo, a technology teacher, to Recife during Carnival to try to outrun a tumultuous, violent past. However, when his neighbours start to spy on him, he realises starting anew might not be as easy as he thought.
Sentimental Value
Director: Joaquim Trier
Cast: Stellan Skasgård, Renate Reinsve, Elle Fanning
Where to watch: Sentimental Value is currently playing in cinemas across the UK.
A slow, pensive, poetic drama about the ties that bind us to our families – and the strains that threaten to break them. Renate Reinsve plays a spiralling older daughter to an estranged, difficult father, struggling to move on with her adult life. It's a film about the power of art to confront and to heal – and it will force you to do just that yourself.
Sinners
Director: Ryan Coogler
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku
Where to watch: Sinners is available to stream on Now TV.
Part ode to the history of Black blues music in America, part camp vampire epic, Coogler's unexpected Sinners is wholly original and wholly enjoyable. Look out for the stunning, surreal musical moment halfway through the film.
Train Dreams
Director: Clint Bentley
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Willem Defoe
Where to watch: Train Dreams is available to stream on Netflix.
An adaptation of Denis Johnson's beautiful novella, Train Dreams tells the story of an unassuming, quiet logger, from birth to death. It's a poetic, quiet film that invites you to reflect on our place in the delicate fabric of the world and what it means to be alive.
