How to Stream Every Oscar Best Picture Nominee (and What Order to Watch Them)

Director: Chloé Zhao
Cast: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Linda May
Streaming on: Hulu for free, or for $14.99 on iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Microsoft, Fandango Now, Vudu, and Amazon Prime
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Frances McDormand), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing

If you only have time to watch one Best Picture nominee this year, make it Nomadland. Director Chloé Zhao is a favorite to take home the coveted Best Picture prize, which would make her the first woman of color to ever win the award. Plus, it’s a beautiful film—an authentic depiction of the subculture of financially struggling older Americans who have opted to live a nomad lifestyle out of vans and campers.

Where to watch Nomadland

Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Cast: Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Alan Kim, Noel Kate Cho, Youn Yuh-jung, and Will Patton
Streaming on: Buy it for $19.99 on YouTube, iTunes, Vudu, Googe Play, Microsoft, Prime Video, FandangoNow
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress (Yuh-Jung Youn), Best Original Score

Don’t let the $19.99 price scare you—Minari is a must-watch film this awards season. There’s a chance that Lee Isaac Chung’s poignant family drama—based on his own experience growing up in Arkansas as the son of immigrants from Korea—will nab Best Picture, and there’s a very good chance that the excellent Yuh-Jung Youn, who plays the grandmother, will take home the Oscar. Plus, it’s just a really good film, and you should watch it.

Where to watch Minari

Director: George C. Wolfe
Cast: Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman, with Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, and Michael Potts
Streaming on: Netflix
Nominated for: Best Actress (Viola Davis), Best Actor (Chadwick Boseman), Best Costume Design, Best Makeup & Hairstyling and Best Production Design

This film adaptation of August Wilson’s play is almost certain to win a posthumous Oscar for Chadwick Boseman, who died of cancer in 2020. And he’ll deserve it, too, for his heart-wrenching performance as Levee, a hotshot trumpet player trying to make a name for himself in the viciously racist music world in 1927.

Watch Ma Rainey's Black Bottom on Netflix

Director: Emerald Fennell
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, and Connie Britton
Streaming on: Buy or rent it on YouTube, iTunes, Vudu, Google Play, Prime Video, and more
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Carey Mulligan), Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing

Perhaps the most divisive Best Picture nominee is Promising Young Woman, a stylish thriller about a woman who is determined to teach men (and women!) a hard lesson about rape culture. Personally, I loved it, and there’s a good chance Carey Mulligan will take home the Oscar, for her career-defining performance.

Where to watch Promising Young Woman

Director: Darius Marder
Cast: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff, and Mathieu Amalric
Streaming on: Free on Amazon
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actor (Riz Ahmed), Best Supporting Actor (Paul Raci), Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound

Don’t let the excellent Sound of Metal slip through the cracks when you’re catching up on the Oscar nominees, especially because it’s so easy to watch, free on Amazon. You’ll immediately see why Ahmed has earned so many accolades for his meticulous performance as a punk-metal drummer who loses his hearing. Your heart will break for him over and over again as he struggles to accept his new reality.

Watch Sound of Metal on Amazon Prime Video

Director: Shaka King
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback, Ashton Sanders
Streaming on: Rent it for $19.99 on iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu, Microsoft and more (Unfortunately, it is no longer streaming on HBO Max)
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Stanfield and Kaluuya), Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Song, Best Cinematography

Daniel Kaluuya has a good chance of winning Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton, who was shot and killed by authorities after William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) sold him out to the FBI.

Where to watch Judas and the Black Messiah

Director: Florian Zeller
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, and Olivia Williams
Streaming on: Rent for $19.99 on YouTube, Google Play, Fandango Now, iTunes, Amazon Prime
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actor (Hopkins), Best Supporting Actress (Colman), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design

Fair warning that this film is a bleak one, and if you’re caring for a loved one who is struggling with dementia, it may hit a little too close to home. But it is a beautiful film, starring Hopkins as an elderly man dealing with memory loss. And if you’re an Olivia Colman fan, it’s a must-watch—she once again proves she is the best of the best in her role as Anne, the daughter that Hopkins only sometimes recognizes.

Where to watch The Father

Director: Aaron Sorkin
Cast: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Jeremy Strong, and Ben Shenkman
Streaming on: Netflix
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Baron Cohen), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Song, Best Film Editing

Aaron Sorkin’s courtroom drama—which tells the true story of the Chicago Seven, a group of anti-Vietnam War protestors who were charged with conspiracy in 1969—was not the favorite of every critic this year, but it exactly the sort of old-fashioned, feel-good ensemble drama that the Oscars tends to love. Personally, I liked it, though it’s not quite on the level of some of these other films.

Watch The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix

Director: David Fincher
Cast: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Arliss Howard
Streaming on: Netflix
Nominated for:  Best Picture, Best Actor (Oldman), Best Supporting Actress (Seyfried), Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling

While Mank seems like the perfect Oscar-bait movie, given that it’s a movie about Hollywood, this stylish biopic about Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz was not the critical grand-slam that many cinephiles were expecting. If you’re not a superfan of the Golden Age of Hollywood, you might find there’s not a lot to grab onto in Mank. But, given the Academy’s penchant for flattery, it may still take home some awards.

Watch Mank on Netflix

Here are just a few Oscar-nominated films are not up for Best Picture but are easy to watch on streaming services:

• One Night in Miami... free on Amazon Prime Video: Nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Leslie Odom Jr., Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Song (“Speak Now”)
• Borat Subsequent Moviefilm free on Amazon Prime Video: Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Mari Bakalova.
• The United States Vs. Billie Holiday on Hulu: Nominated for Best Actress for Andra Day
• Pieces of a Woman on Netflix: Nominated for Best Actress for Vanessa Kirby
• Soul on Disney+: Nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best Original Score, and Best Sound
• Da 5 Bloods on Netflix: Nominated for Best Score
• Crip Camp on Netflix: Nominated for Best Documentary Feature
• Time free on Amazon Prime Video: Nominated for Best Documentary Feature
• My Octopus Teacher on Netflix: Nominated for Best Documentary Feature
• Two Distant Strangers on Netflix: Nominated for Best Live Action Short
• Greyhound on Apple TV+: Nominated for Best Sound
• Wolfwalkers on AppleTV+: Nominated for Best Animated Feature
• If Anything Happens, I Love You on Netflix: Nominated for Best Animated Short