With award season looming large around the corner, we thought we’d take some time and do a deep dive into our streaming platforms in order to gather up some of the best Oscar winners available to watch, right now. Turns out, there are tons!
We separated the best of the best — aka the Best Picture winners –— into a list which can be found right here. That being said, with so many incredible performances and films that missed out on the top Oscar gong left over, we figured you may also like to see some of these great performances and films as well. After all, the more options, the better, right?
Here are 40 Oscar winners from years past:
1. American Sniper (2014)
What it won: Best Sound Editing
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Bradley Cooper, Best Adapted Screenplay: Jason Hall, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing
Synopsis: Navy S.E.A.L. sniper Chris Kyle’s (Bradley Cooper’s) pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him into a legend. Back home to his wife and kids after four tours of duty, however, Chris finds that it is the war he can’t leave behind.
Streaming on: Netflix
2. The Big Short (2016)
What it won: Best Adapted Screenplay: Charles Randolph, Adam McKay
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale, Best Director: Adam McKay, Best Film Editing
Synopsis: In 2006-2007 a group of investors bet against the US mortgage market. In their research they discover how flawed and corrupt the market is.
Streaming on: Netflix
3. The Blind Side (2009)
What it won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock
Other nominations: Best Picture
Synopsis: The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatised boy who became an All-American football player and first-round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family.
Streaming on: Netflix
4. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
What it won: Best Director: Ang Lee, Best Adapted Screenplay: Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana, Best Original Score
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Heath Ledger, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Jake Gyllenhaal, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Michelle Williams, Best Cinematography
Synopsis: A raw, powerful love story of two young men who meet in the summer of 1963 and form a life-long bond.
Streaming on: Stan
5. Capote (2006)
What it won: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Catherine Keener, Best Director: Bennett Miller, Best Adapted Screenplay: Dan Futterman
Synopsis: In 1959, Truman Capote, a writer for The New Yorker, learns about the horrific and senseless murder of a family of four in Kansas. Inspired by the story material, Capote and his partner, Harper Lee, travel to the town to research for an article.
Streaming on: Stan
6. Cold Mountain (2003)
What it won: Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Renée Zellweger
Other nominations: Best Actor in a Leading Role: Jude Law, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Original Song: “Scarlet Tide”, “You Will Be My Ain True Love”
Synopsis: Toward the end of the American Civil War, a wounded soldier embarks on a perilous journey back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with his sweetheart.
Streaming on: Stan
7. Darkest Hour (2017)
What it won: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Gary Oldman, Best Makeup
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design
Synopsis: In May 1940, the fate of Western Europe hangs on British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler, or fight on knowing that it could mean a humiliating defeat for Britain and its empire.
Streaming on: Netflix
8. The Dark Knight (2008)
What it won: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Heath Ledger, Best Sound Editing
Other nominations: Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects
Synopsis: When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.
Streaming on: Netflix
9. Dead Poets Society (1989)
What it won: Best Original Screenplay: Tom Schulman
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role: Robin Williams, Best Director: Peter Weir
Synopsis: It’s 1959, and Professor John Keating is a passionate and unconventional educator at the Welton Academy. As he educates his students, he broadens their minds and challenges them to live life to the fullest, changing their lives forever.
Streaming on: Stan
10. Dreamgirls (2006)
What it won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Jennifer Hudson, Best Sound Mixing
Other nominations: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Eddie Murphy, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Original Song: “Listen”, “Love You I Do”, “Patience”.
Synopsis: A tale of dreams, stardom, and the high cost of success in a cutthroat industry. It’s the 60’s, and three singers are about to find out just what it’s like to have their wildest dreams come true.
Streaming on: Stan
11. The Exorcist (1973)
What it won: Best Adapted Screenplay: William Peter Blatty, Best Sound
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role: Ellen Burstyn, Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Jason Miller, Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Linda Blair, Best Director: William Friedkin, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Best Film Editing
Synopsis: When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.
Streaming on: Netflix
12. Fargo (1996)
What it won: Best Actress in a Leading Role: Frances McDormand, Best Original Screenplay: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role: William H. Macy, Best Director: Joel Coen, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing
Synopsis: A man deeply in debt hires two inept crooks to kidnap his wife and split the ransom money. The deal goes bad.
Streaming on: Stan
13. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
What it won: Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Kevin Kline
Other nominations: Best Director: Charles Crichton, Best Original Screenplay: John Cleese (screenplay/story), Charles Crichton (story)
Synopsis: A comedy about an intricate diamond heist that’s peppered with the hijinks of its hilarious cast of characters.
Streaming on: Stan
14. Frida, (2002)
What it won: Best Original Score, Best Makeup
Other nominations: Best Actress in a Leading Role: Salma Hayek, Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Original Song: “Burn It Blue”
Synopsis: A biopic of artist Frida Kahlo, who came from humble beginnings and earned fame as an artist with a unique vision. From her friendship with her mentor and husband, Diego Rivera, to her scandalous affairs, her uncompromising personality inspired her greatest creations.
Streaming on: Stan
15. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)
What it won: Best Film Editing
Other nominations: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Rooney Mara, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing
Synopsis: Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) and Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), an investigator for a security firm, probe into an unsolved 40-year-old murder.
Streaming on: Stan
16. Good Will Hunting (1997)
What it won: Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Robin Williams, Best Original Screenplay: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role: Matt Damon, Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Minnie Driver, Best Director: Gus Van Sant, Best Film Editing, Best Original Song: “Miss Misery”, Best Original Score
Synopsis: Will Hunting is the most brilliant mind at MIT, but after too many run-ins with the law, his last chance is a psychology professor, who might be the only man who can reach him!
Streaming on: Stan
17. The Help (2011)
What it won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Octavia Spencer
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Viola Davis: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Jessica Chastain
Synopsis: An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids’ point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
Streaming on: Stan
18. The Hours (2002)
What it won: Best Actress in a Leading Role: Nicole Kidman
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Ed Harris, Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Julianne Moore, Best Director: Stephen Daldry, Best Adapted Screenplay: David Hare, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score
Synopsis: In 1920s London, Virginia Woolf battles insanity as she writes “Mrs. Dalloway”. In 1949 Los Angeles a housewife reads “Mrs. Dalloway” and considers making a change, and a woman in New York plans a party for a brilliant poet dying of AIDs.
Streaming on: Stan
19. The Imitation Game (2014)
What it won: Best Adapted Screenplay: Graham Moore
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Benedict Cumberbatch, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Keira Knightley, Best Director: Morten Tyldum, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Production Design
Synopsis: During World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians.
Streaming on: Netflix
20. The Iron Lady (2011)
What it won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Meryl Streep, Best Achievement in Makeup
Synopsis: The biopic of Margaret Thatcher, a woman who came from nowhere to smash through barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male dominated world.
Streaming on: Stan
21. Jaws (1975)
What it won: Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score
Other nominations: Best Picture
Synopsis: When a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community, it’s up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.
Streaming on: Netflix
22. Lincoln (2012)
What it won: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis, Best Production Design
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Tommy Lee Jones, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Sally Field, Best Director: Steven Spielberg, Best Adapted Screenplay: Tony Kushner, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing
Synopsis: As the American Civil War continues to rage, America’s president struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on the decision to emancipate the slaves.
Streaming on: Netflix
23. Lost in Translation (2003)
What it won: Best Original Screenplay: Sofia Coppola
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role: Bill Murray, Best Director: Sofia Coppola
Synopsis: A faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.
Streaming on: Netflix
24. The Matrix (1999)
What it won: Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects
Synopsis: A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.
Streaming on: Netflix
25. Midnight Express (1978)
What it won: Best Adapted Screenplay: Oliver Stone, Best Original Score
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role: John Hurt, Best Director: Alan Parker, Best Film Editing
Synopsis: Billy Hayes (Brad Davis) — an American college student — is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.
Streaming on: Netflix
26. Mississippi Burning (1991)
What it won: Best Cinematography
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role: Gene Hackman, Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Frances McDormand, Best Director: Alan Parker, Best Sound, Best Film Editing
Synopsis: Based on a true story, this is the fictionalised version of the murders of three civil rights activists on June 21, 1964 in Mississippi.
Streaming on: Stan
27. Mystic River (2003)
What it won: Best Actor in a Leading Role: Sean Penn, Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Tim Robbins
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Marcia Gay Harden, Best Director: Clint Eastwood, Best Adapted Screenplay: Brian Helgeland
Synopsis: Jimmy, Dave and Sean were childhood friends until they drifted apart in the wake of a tragedy. Years later, when Jimmy’s daughter is murdered in cold blood, the friends are reconnected.
Streaming on: Stan
28. Pulp Fiction (1994)
What it won: Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role: John Travolta, Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Samuel L. Jackson, Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Uma Thurman, Best Director: Quentin Tarantino, Best Film Editing
Synopsis: The lives of an unforgettable cast of characters — including a pair of low-rent hitmen, their boss’s sexy wife, and a desperate prizefighter — intersect in a wildly entertaining and exhilarating motion picture adventure that both thrills and amuses.
Streaming on: Stan
29. The Revenant (2015)
What it won: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Leonardo DiCaprio, Best Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Best Cinematography
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Tom Hardy, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design
Synopsis: A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
Streaming on: Netflix
30. Sense and Sensibility (1995)
What it won: Best Adapted Screenplay: Emma Thompson
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role: Emma Thompson, Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Kate Winslet, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score
Synopsis: Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The two eldest daughters are the titular opposites.
Streaming on: Netflix
What it won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Jennifer Lawrence
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Bradley Cooper, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Robert De Niro, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Jacki Weaver, Best Director: David O. Russell, Best Adapted Screenplay: David O. Russell, Best Film Editing
Synopsis: Pat (Bradley Cooper) moves back in with his parents after being released from a mental health facility. Soon, he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a mysterious girl with problems of her own.
Streaming on: Stan
32. Some Like It Hot (1959)
What it won: Best Costume Design – Black-and-White
Other nominations: Best Actor in a Leading Role: Jack Lemmon, Best Director: Billy Wilder, Best Adapted Screenplay: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond, Best Cinematography – Black-and-White, Best Art Direction – Set Decoration – Black-and-White
Synopsis: Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon masquerade as women in order to elude irate Chicago mobsters. They also befriend a beautiful singer, played by the one and only Marilyn Monroe.
Streaming on: Stan
33. Sophie’s Choice (1982)
What it won: Best Actress in a Leading Role: Meryl Streep
Other nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay: Alan J. Pakula, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score
Synopsis: Sophie is the survivor of Nazi concentration camps, who has found a reason to live with Nathan, a sparkling, if unsteady, Jewish man obsessed with the Holocaust.
Streaming on: Netflix
34. A Star is Born (2018)
What it won: Best Original Song: “Shallow”
Other nominations: Best Sound Mixing, Best Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Bradley Cooper, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Lady Gaga, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Sam Elliott, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography
Synopsis: A musician helps a young singer find fame as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.
Streaming on: Netflix
35. Thelma and Louise (1991)
What it won: Best Original Screenplay: Callie Khouri
Other nominations: Best Actress in a Leading Role: Geena Davis, Susan Sarandon, Best Director: Ridley Scott, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing
Synopsis: Two friends — unhappy housewife Thelma and strong-willed waitress Louise — leave responsibilities behind, finding adventure on the open road.
Streaming on: Stan
36. There Will Be Blood (2007)
What it won: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis, Best Cinematography
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Sound Editing
Synopsis: An oil man and his son at the turn of the 20th century are challenged by a young preacher and take a journey into an abyss of madness. Love, hope, belief, and the bond between father and son is imperiled by corruption, deception, and the flow of oil.
Streaming on: Stan
37. Training Day (2001)
What it won: Best Actor in a Leading Role: Denzel Washington
Other nominations: Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Ethan Hawke
Synopsis: On his first day on the job as a Los Angeles narcotics officer, a rookie cop goes beyond a full work day in training within the narcotics division of the L.A.P.D. with a rogue detective who isn’t what he appears to be.
Streaming on: Netflix
38. The Untouchables (1987)
What it won: Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Sean Connery
Other nominations: Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score
Synopsis: During the era of Prohibition in the United States, Federal Agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone, and because of rampant corruption, assembles a small, hand-picked team to help him.
Streaming on: Netflix
39. The Usual Suspects (1995)
What it won: Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Kevin Spacey, Best Original Screenplay: Christopher McQuarrie
Synopsis: The non-linear retelling events leading up to a horrific gun battle on a boat, which began when five criminals met at a seemingly random police lineup.
Streaming on: Netflix
40. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
What it won: Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Other nominations: Best Picture, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Jessica Chastain, Best Original Screenplay: Mark Boal, Best Film Editing
Synopsis: Follows the team that worked in secret across the globe for over a decade, in order to find and eliminate Osama bin Laden.
Streaming on: Stan
