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2021 was a weird year for movies. Well, not for movies themselves, but for moviegoing. Studios like Warner Bros. tried new hybrid release models, dropping their big films—Dune, The Matrix Resurrections—on HBO Max the same day they hit theaters. Streaming services continued to pump out scores of content, like Netflix’s Don’t Look Up and The Power of the Dog. Audiences, meanwhile, just tried to navigate what was playing where. (Don’t worry, they always found it. Spider-Man: No Way Home, which was a theater exclusive, brought in nearly $260 million domestically in its opening weekend, even as Covid-19 cases surged.)
If you’re wondering, though, how all of this impacted this year’s Oscar race, it did and it didn’t. On the one hand, quite a few nominees—more than half of this year’s Best Picture contenders—got their footing on streamers. But others—Drive My Car, Licorice Pizza—are strictly theatrical.
Either way, you can currently stream most of the top nominees already from the comfort of your own home—and surely you haven’t had time to watch all of them already. Here’s how to catch up before the Oscars airs on March 27.
Director Jane Campion’s Netflix film led the pack this year with 12 nominations, including nods for Best Picture and one for Campion herself. It’s easy to see why. It’s a slow-burn about toxic masculinity and closeted desire set against a backdrop of the American West. Also, it’s beautiful.
Dune, which started its run on HBO Max as well as in theaters, got a whopping 10 nominations, including one for costumes, aka those amazing stillsuits. Curiously, director Denis Villeneuve did not get a nod. Dune is not currently on WarnerMedia’s streaming service, but it is available to rent or buy from many others—and will likely be returning to HBO Max sometime in the future.
What would happen if a meteor were about to destroy Earth and no one listened, or just tried to politicize it? What if it was also a metaphor for the struggle of being a scientist in a world where no one wants to hear about climate change? That’s Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up, which nabbed four nominations for Netflix.
It’s almost a cliché to say Guillermo del Toro has done it again, but with Nightmare Alley, he did. Much like his Oscar-winning Shape of Water, Nightmare Alley—adapted from the novel by William Lindsay Gresham that was also turned into a film in 1947—is a blend of everything the director does best: supernatural elements, noir styling, using Ron Perlman. Naturally, it got four nods, including in technical categories like production design and cinematography.
The acronym CODA stands for “child of deaf adult,” and Apple TV+’s film of same name puts one such teenager at the forefront. Ruby (Emilia Jones) is a hearing kid in a deaf family who can sing, but would need to break away from her home to do so. A sweet coming-of-age story that just snagged three nominations, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Troy Kotsur—the first for a deaf man.
This adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic from Joel Coen—an Apple Original Film—earned a tidy three nods, including one for its lead Denzel Washington.
Weirdly, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s feature-directing debut, based on Elena Ferrante’s novel, didn’t get a nomination for Best Picture, but it did get a much-deserved one for lead Olivia Colman, and one for Gyllenhaal for Best Adapted Screenplay.
OK, so maybe this movie was made for TikTok, but that didn’t stop it from getting three nominations, including one for Best Animated Feature. Disney+ subscribers can watch it there, but it's also available to rent elsewhere.
Writer-director Kenneth Branagh’s black-and-white film, set amid the tumult of life in Northern Ireland in the 1960s, swept through a lot of the Oscars’ major categories, including Best Picture, nabbing seven nominations. Originally, it was only in theaters, but now you can buy it on other services.
This biopic about Richard Williams, the father of tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams, was also an HBO Max offering. Currently nominated for six Academy Awards—including one for Best Actor for Will Smith, who plays Richard—the movie is currently available to rent on a variety of services.
Adapted from a Haruki Murakami short story, Drive My Car follows stage actor-director—and recent widower—Yusuke Kafuku (played by Hidetoshi Nishijima), as he goes to direct a new production in Hiroshima, and the young woman (Toko Miura) who serves as his chauffeur to and from the production’s many rehearsals. It’s a heart-wrenching tale of loss that snagged four nominations.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, loosely based on events of his own youth in Southern California, was also a theatrical-only release. But luckily the film, which got three Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture, is now available to rent.
The Academy gave Steven Spielberg’s take on the classic musical an impressive seven nods.
Best Picture:
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story
Belfast
CODA
Don’t Look Up
Drive My Car
Best Director:
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Steven Spielberg, West Side Story
Best Actor:
Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Andrew Garfield, Tick, Tick … Boom!
Will Smith, King Richard
Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth
Best Actress:
Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
Penélope Cruz, Parallel Mothers
Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos
Kristen Stewart, Spencer
Best Supporting Actor:
Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog
J.K. Simmons, Being the Ricardos
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog
Best Supporting Actress:
Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
Judi Dench, Belfast
Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog
Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard
Best Original Screenplay:
Belfast
Don’t Look Up
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
The Worst Person in the World
Best Adapted Screenplay:
CODA
Drive My Car
Dune
The Lost Daughter
The Power of the Dog
Best Costume Design:
Cruella
Cyrano
Dune
Nightmare Alley
West Side Story
Best Original Score:
Don’t Look Up
Dune
Encanto
Parallel Mothers
The Power of the Dog
Best Animated Short:
Affairs of the Art
Bestia
Boxballet
Robin Robin
The Windshield Wiper
Best Live-Action Short:
Ala Kachuu—Take and Run
The Dress
The Long Goodbye
On My Mind
Please Hold
Best Documentary Feature:
Ascension
Attica
Flee
Summer of Soul (… Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Writing With Fire
Best Documentary Short:
Audible
Lead Me Home
The Queen of Basketball
Three Songs for Benazir
When We Were Bullies
Best International Feature:
Drive My Car, Japan
Flee, Denmark
The Hand of God, Italy
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, Bhutan
The Worst Person in the World, Norway
Achievement in Sound:
Belfast
Dune
No Time to Die
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story
Best Visual Effects:
Dune
Free Guy
No Time to Die
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Best Production Design:
Dune
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story
Best Film Editing:
Don’t Look Up
Dune
King Richard
The Power of the Dog
Tick, Tick … Boom!
Best Cinematography:
Dune
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story
Best Makeup and Hairstyling:
Coming 2 America
Cruella
Dune
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
House of Gucci
Best Animated Feature:
Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Raya and the Last Dragon
Best Original Song:
“Be Alive,” King Richard
“Dos Oruguitas,” Encanto
“Down to Joy,” Belfast
“No Time to Die,” No Time to Die
“Somehow You Do,” Four Good Days
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