Oscars 2022: Where to Watch All 10 Best Picture Nominees
The 94th Academy Awards are officially in full swing. The world still has to wait until March 27, 2022 to discover which stars will go home Oscar winners. But in the meantime, fans eager to catch up with all of the nominated films can officially begin doing just that. After all, streaming services such as Netflix are getting more and more attention at the Oscars, making it even easier to see the Best Picture nominees at home. Here’s where to watch all 10 movies.
A few Best Picture nominees are still in theaters
In 2020, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Best Picture would return to allowing 10 nominated films with the 94th Academy Awards. The age of streaming has made the 2022 Oscar-nominated films more accessible, a few of them are still unavailable to watch from home. So for the time being at least, fans might have to venture out to their local movie theater to ensure they see all 10 Best Picture contenders before Oscar night.
As of this writing, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza is exclusively playing in theaters. Likewise, Japanese drama Drive My Car from director Ryusuke Hamaguchi is still midway through its limited theatrical release. The film is currently the most difficult of the 10 nominated films to track down. And West Side Story — Steven Spielberg’s take on the iconic 1961 musical — is now playing in theaters, though it hits Blu-ray on March 15, 2022.
Also playing in some theaters is Belfast, director Kenneth Branagh’s coming-of-age tale. But if fans don’t get a chance to hit the multiplex, the film is available to rent for a premium price. And then it hits Blu-ray on March 1, 2022. Speaking of physical media, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and King Richard from director Reinaldo Marcus Green are also both out on Blu-ray. The latter even timed its release perfectly with news of its six Oscar nominations.
Which Oscar-nominated films are now streaming?
Thankfully, fans hoping binge the Oscar-nominated movies at home are in luck. Several Best Picture contenders are available to watch — exclusively, in fact — on popular streaming services. Director Sian Heder’s CODA, for instance, is an Apple TV+ film. And it is currently only available to watch on that streaming service. Moreover, Netflix subscribers only can watch Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog and Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up at home.
At the same time, Nightmare Alley — directed by Guillermo del Toro — is streaming on both HBO Max and Hulu. The film struggled theatrically with only a $10 million domestic gross, according to Box Office Mojo. So this streaming release, which began on Feb. 1, 2022, should give more fans a chance to watch until its Blu-ray release in late March. A black-and-white version, titled Nightmare Alley: Vision in Darkness and Light, is also playing in theaters.
Which movie will win Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars?
The academy intended to add more diverse — and perhaps, more mainstream — movies into the mix when it expanded the Best Picture field to 10 nominees. And that progress is arguably illustrated in this batch of nominees. From smaller international releases to a lavish musical from the legendary Spielberg, there is truly something for every kind of movie fan in the Oscars 2022 Best Picture race.
But when that fateful moment comes, which of these 10 movies will be on the receiving end of Oscar gold? Many consider The Power of the Dog the current frontrunner. Right now, it’s easy to imagine any of these being the next Best Picture winner. However, films such as Belfast, West Side Story, and Dune could deliver the most surprising Best Picture twist since that whole Moonlight/La La Land snafu from 2017. Only time will tell who takes the top prize.
