If you're looking for movies to add to your queue, Netflix lists previous movie award winners from the Razzies, Sundance, AFI, Independent Spirit Awards, and the Academy Awards.
Inga writes, "Why doesn't Netflix have an option on its website to look up movies by Oscar Winners/Nominees by year? For instance, I'd love to see all the short films that were nominated for Oscars this year. But it's very hard to find them on Netflix. The "Oscar" option would have helped with the search a lot! I am sure, it would be a very helpful feature to add to the website. It would drive a lot of movie lovers to check out movies in a more systematic and convenient way."
The Academy has posted a list of all of the winning movies, but most of the nominated movies were really good. For convenience here are the 81st Annual Academy Award nominated movies available from Netflix:
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Wall-E, The Changeling, Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, The Dark Knight, Frozen River, The Duchess, Australia, Wanted, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Kung Fu Panda, In Bruges, and Encounters at the End of the World.
Coming Soon
Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, Rachel Getting Married, The Wrestler, Frost/Nixon, Happy Go Lucky, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Reader, Doubt, Revolutionary Road, Bolt, The Betrayal: Nerakhoon, The Garden, Trouble the Water, The Baader Meinhof Complex, The Class, Departures, Revanche, and Waltz with Bashir.
Man on Wire and The Visitor.
The documentary shorts, animated shorts, and live action short films are not available on Netflix yet.
What did you think of the show? Did the right movies, actors, and directors win?
i could give a crap about the oscars. the best movie of last year was Dark Knight. straight up. and it doesn't even get a nomination? the whole thing is political crap. every year the nominated films are : anti conservative (Frost), pro gay(milk), and WW II era (reader) . it will be the same thing next year.
slumdog was okay, but they were acting like its a freaking masterpiece. its an entertaining movie, that is only okay if you don't think about it too much. not to mention all the blather about proposition 8. sorry your side lost, but there are huge things going on in the world besides one vote in one state on one issue. Also, you had to love penelope cruz saying that the oscar brings ''all the world together''. i'm sure they are dancing in the streets of darfur right now because dark knight won for best sound editing. anyway, no, if you want to know if a movie is good, the oscars is the last place to start.
/end rant. love you guys!
Posted by: i <3 rotten tomatoes | February 23, 2009 at 03:49 PM
Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, The Reader, instead of Dark Knight? It's almost like the oscars are decided entirely by mature adults.
Posted by: kh | February 23, 2009 at 04:32 PM
Yeah, sorry to say, but The Dark Knight was definitely NOT the best film of the year. Don't get me wrong, it's a really good movie, but it's 30 minutes too long, and one character transforms to a villain in literally 10 minutes, which is totally unbelievable.
I do recommend watching Man on Wire right now, since it's available instantly. I'm not a big documentary guy, but it's such a compelling film, I found myself saying "holy crap" at least a few times during it.
Anyone that says that 2008 was a "bad" or "mediocre" year for film should see some of the awesome movies nominated, like Wall-E or Slumdog.
Posted by: Brian | February 23, 2009 at 05:05 PM
A minor correction: Milk, Rachel Getting Married, and Happy-Go-Lucky will not be available until March 10, according to the NF site.
Posted by: Lester | February 23, 2009 at 05:17 PM
Dark Knight may have it's minor flaws as already pointed out but it is unfortunately dismissed by too many as just another summer popcorn movie. But it actually has alot of layering and depth. And unlike most films which are either/or, it's also entertaining. When a film is both of the above, that's when it becomes worthy of Oscar contention in my opinion.
Posted by: Bart | February 23, 2009 at 06:25 PM
Lester,
Thanks -- I moved the three movies into the "Coming Soon" category. Sorry about that!
- Mike
Posted by: MikeK. | February 23, 2009 at 07:37 PM
Netflix's website has a way to look at WINNERS, just not all the nominees.
(It's under "Browse | Award Winners".)
http://www.netflix.com/AwardsHome
Posted by: Craig | February 23, 2009 at 09:24 PM
Shameless plug for my own lists, but as many of you know I list all 81 years of Oscar nominees in 10 major categories, and am always building more lists. My lists are here: http://www.netflix.com/StrangerLists?prid=174138950&lnkctr=fsb2slst
Posted by: The Professor | February 23, 2009 at 11:50 PM
Hmm... I watched the Oscars last night. Did I miss something? I was expecting Grand Torino at least to get nominated for several categories. Whatsup with that? Am I the only one who thought it was one of the best movies EVER and a timely, sensitive look at healing U.S. racism we have inherited from our past. I think it is the best story since Shawshank Redemption. Wow. And I am not even a big Clint Eastwood fan. He is fabulous. It is his best. Go see it.
Posted by: bunny | February 24, 2009 at 03:53 AM
I always enjoy going through the Spirit, Sundance, and Oscar lists and checking out movies I might have missed during the year. I don't expect them all to be great, but it's a fun excercise.
Some 2008 Indie Spirit noms that are available instantly are Chop Shop, The Order of Myths, and as already mentioned Man on Wire and The Visitor.
One more thing. If anyone lives in a city with an Angelika Theater (as I do) they are going to compile all of the Best Short Film nominees and offer them as a single showing. They are also doing it with Best Animated Short noms. Sounds like fun to me!
Posted by: Kam | February 24, 2009 at 11:41 AM
What did you think of the show?
I did not enjoy the 81st version of the show for several production & presentation reasons. The personalization approach to Best & Best Supporting category announcement was the worst new idea among the changes. I thought the presentation for In Memoriam was poorly conceived & mangled at execution. Meanwhile, back in the production trailer, the broadcast director was making stupid decisions on which camera to cut to next. And I swear the TV audience was being fed stock sound tracks of crowd applause in many moments of the evening. I want genuine & authentic presentation of the event, not spin.
Did the right movies, actors, and directors win?
The Academy is a closed society so it’s really about them pleasing themselves for their own purposes and who they’re going to slap on the back & call special. I think the Oscar does mean something to most people receiving it. I have to come to my conclusions well after-the-fact since many nominees have yet to release in DVD/Blu-ray.
Posted by: dAVe | February 24, 2009 at 12:50 PM
I don't care much about the Oscars other than that they remind me of one or two movies I might want to see.
I want to second that "Man on Wire" is incredible. Don't miss it!
It would be nice if there was an award for the most satisfying or enjoyable movie of the year. The latest Die Hard wouldn't win (fun, but brain dead) and the Oscar-nominated Doubt wouldn't win (probably good, but heavy and difficult.) But movies such as Dark Knight and Wall-E could compete for top honors, without people worrying if they were serious enough.
Posted by: CopaceticOpus | February 24, 2009 at 06:25 PM
I agree that the Dark Knight was not the best movie of the year. And thought I watched it with pleasure ( http://file.sh/the+dark+knight+torrent.html ), there were more better movies this year :(
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Posted by: kaea | October 03, 2009 at 05:01 AM
whatever... I don't care about Oscars
Posted by: Timbaland | November 17, 2009 at 06:20 AM