The Irishman – Picture Credit: Netflix
In 2019, Netflix scored its first Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards with Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma. Since then, the streaming service has yet to win the top prize. However, it is not due to a lack of quality or effort.
The company has supported some of the best filmmakers working today – David Fincher, Guillermo del Toro, Spike Lee, Jane Campion, and Martin Scorsese, to name a few – to craft some epic and personal work for the streaming service.
Netflix has made great movies when they’ve written artists big checks to do as they please. Here are 10 of those great movies that have garnered acclaim and awards recognition over the years:
Da 5 Bloods
- Genre: Drama, War
- Rating: R
- Release Date: June 12, 2020
- Director: Spike Lee
- Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Jean Reno, Paul Walter Hauser, Delroy Lindo
- Language: English
- Runtime: 154 min
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Da 5 Bloods was yet another case of a Spike Lee joint getting snubbed by the Academy. It was nominated only for Best Original Score by Terence Blanchard, but was shut out in every other category. Pure ridiculousness, given Lee’s hypnotic direction, both avant-garde and realistic, and the powerhouse ensemble. Every main performer, including the recently nominated Delroy Lindo (Sinners), deserved recognition in this tale of Vietnam vets returning to the country. It’s another Lee film about the past and present that feels alive and immediate in every frame. Thankfully, many critics groups and ceremonies beyond the Academy recognized the film’s merits.
Dolemite Is My Name
- Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama
- Rating: R
- Release Date: October 25, 2019
- Director: Craig Brewer
- Cast: Eddie Murphy, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Wesley Snipes, Keegan-Michael Key
- Language: English
- Runtime: 118 min
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Dolemite Is My Name is a rare biopic: it’s hilarious. The story of Rudy Ray Moore and a band of dreamers creating his signature blaxploitation character, Dolemite, is every bit as heartfelt as it is funny. It’s a film that champions not just the singular artist, but the collective. Craig Brewer’s movie played like gangbusters, with Eddie Murphy reaching another career highlight that should have earned him an Academy Award nomination. Dolemite Is My Name is a beautiful comedy that was beloved by audiences and critics.
Frankenstein
- Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
- Rating: R
- Release Date: November 7, 2025
- Director: Guillermo del Toro
- Cast: Mia Goth, Burn Gorman, Charles Dance
- Language: English
- Runtime: 149 min
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Netflix especially needs to keep writing Guillermo del Toro checks to do as he pleases. The maestro and his crew paint a vast, sweeping portrait of Mary Shelley’s classic horror story. It’s faithful, yet new in ways that suit today. Grand-scale horror is seldom seen in theaters or on streaming, but del Toro’s epic is a feast not only for the eyes, but for the soul. Emotion aches in every vivid frame, especially when Frankenstein’s monster is shown in his truest state: alone in a cold, man-made world. Frankenstein, now up for Best Picture among other awards, is another hand-crafted achievement from del Toro.
The Irishman
- Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
- Rating: R
- Release Date: November 27, 2019
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Anna Paquin, Jesse Plemons
- Language: English
- Runtime: 209 min
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The Irishman is more than a three-and-a-half-hour crime epic about hitman Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) and his decades-long friendship with the infamous Teamster Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), whose disappearance remains a mystery. No, The Irishman is just as much about Martin Scorsese and his filmography as it is about the mob. It serves as a conclusion to his men-of-violence stories, including Goodfellas and Casino. These stories end in misery and death. Scorsese’s rumination on mortality is an epic, vital addition to his body of work and perhaps to cinema at large.
K-Pop Demon Hunters
- Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure
- Release Date: June 20, 2025
- Director: Chris Appelhans, Maggie Kang
- Cast: Rolando Davila-Beltran
- Language: English
- Runtime: 99 mins
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K-Pop Demon Hunters is a phenomenon still bringing joy around the world. It’s a powerful piece of animation and a sincere celebration of friendship, culture, and music. Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans struck an undeniable chord in pop culture — something Netflix hasn’t always managed to do, even with its most popular titles. The movie is far more than simply popular, though. It’s a great action film featuring a dynamic trio singing earworms and fighting demons. Can’t ask for much more than that in a terrific popcorn movie.
Mank
- Genre: Biography, Drama
- Rating: R
- Release Date: December 4, 2020
- Director: David Fincher
- Cast: Lily Collins, Tuppence Middleton, Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried
- Language: English
- Runtime: 131 min
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David Fincher’s film about the screenwriter of Citizen Kane is a drunken, tragic ball. It’s looser than the average Fincher movie, which still means not that loose at all, but it plays a bit like a hangout film with Herman J. Mankiewicz. He’s a flawed man you want to spend time with as he drinks, writes, and calls out hypocrisy. Gary Oldman is magnetic as Mank in a movie that’s also more tender than many of Fincher’s prior stripes. There’s heart here proving that Fincher can depict goodness as skillfully as he does darkness. Who would’ve thought his film with the most light would be in black and white?
The Power of the Dog
- Genre: Drama, Romance, Western
- Rating: R
- Release Date: December 1, 2021
- Director: Jane Campion
- Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons
- Language: English
- Runtime: 126 min
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Jane Campion became the second director of a Netflix film to win Best Director at the Academy Awards, following Alfonso Cuarón for Roma. Campion, known for The Piano and the underrated In the Cut, crafted a real original with The Power of the Dog. It’s a more nuanced portrayal of men and women in the Old West than the average western. The souls of the troubled run deep here, depicted with the visual richness expected from the genre. It’s a soulful Western, both traditional and subversive.
Society of the Snow
- Genre: Adventure, Drama, History
- Rating: R
- Release Date: January 4, 2024
- Director: J.A. Bayona
- Cast: Enzo Vogrincic, Simon Hempe, Matías Recalt
- Language: Spanish
- Runtime: 144 min
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Society of the Snow is a harrowing story of survival. J.A. Bayona’s film chronicles the Uruguayan rugby team whose flight crashed into the Andes. The survivors lean on one another and, ultimately, turn to cannibalism to survive. Bayona does not sugarcat this true story. It’s an unflinching look at survival — one well suited to the director of The Orphanage. For its unwavering portrait of death, The Society of the Snow ranks high among Netflix’s finest films.
Train Dreams
- Genre: Drama
- Rating: PG-13
- Release Date: November 21, 2025
- Director: Clint Bentley
- Cast: Kerry Condon, Felicity Jones, Joel Edgerton
- Language: English
- Runtime: 102 min
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This life-affirming film is nominated for Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards. Clint Bentley’s adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novella aches with beauty, pain, and everything in between and beyond. The story of a day laborer (played by Joel Edgerton) in the early 20th century runs just around 100 minutes, yet it’s packed with much of life’s trials and tribulations. It’s an extraordinary yet universal story about the passage of time, love and loss, and the homes we build for ourselves. Train Dreams is one of those movies that runs beyond its runtime, keeping audiences in tune with its emotion for days, weeks, months, and who knows, maybe even years to come.
The Harder They Fall
- Genre: Drama, Western
- Rating: R
- Release Date: November 3, 2021
- Director: Jeymes Samuel
- Cast: Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, RJ Cyler
- Language: English
- Runtime: 130 min
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Director Jeymes Samuel’s The Harder They Fall performed well among critics’ groups and voting bodies, but its craftsmanship and stacked ensemble should have received more attention from the Academy. The film is such action-packed fun overlooked for its electric cast of characters and performers, along with its musical costume design, production design, and cinematography. Like The Power of the Dog, The Harder They Fall offers a fresh vision within the Western genre. It’s an exciting slice of action with laughs and stakes as hard as the gunfire.
Those are our picks of the best Oscar-nominated movies streaming on Netflix – what are yours?
