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With last night marking the 95th Academy Awards, it is a good time to look at the winners and where they are available to stream. There were a few surprises in terms of what moves took home what hardware and, unlike last year where 12 movies took home awards, this year only nine unique movies won.
Everything Everywhere All At Once (Showtime/Paramount+ with Showtime Add-On): Everything Everywhere All At Once entered the night as the odds-on favorite to win Best Picture having won top prizes at the DGA, SAG, and WGA awards and did not disappoint. It took home Best Picture, Best Director, Best Lead Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. If there is a movie that is worth seeing on this list, it is certainly this one as it was hands down the best movie of last year.
All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix): Outside of its numerous wins, it is interesting that All Quiet on the Western Front got nominated (and garnered more wins) in the same year as Top Gun: Maverick. While All Quiet on the Western Front is a cautionary tale about patriotism gone too far and the dangers of war, Top Gun: Maverick is a celebration of how great the military is and how cool anyone who joins the navy is. That said, All Quiet on the Western Front took home more awards than most people expected with four including Best International Feature, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, and Best Cinematography.
The Whale (PVOD through Amazon or other digital marketplaces): Probably the best example of a movie defined by a singular acting performance in the last year, The Whale took home two wins. The one for Brendan Frasier’s performance was not a shock, however it did manage to also win Best Makeup and Hairstyling, most likely due to the prosthetic work required for Frasier’s character.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Disney+): With its win for Best Costume Design, the Black Panther franchise becomes the first franchise based on a comic book to win an Academy Award for multiple entries. Beyond that, Rihanna also took home an award for Best Original Song for “Lift Me Up.” If there is a snub at this year’s awards (and that term has been blown totally out of proportion lately but in the more traditional definition) it would be that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever did not get nominated for Best Original Score.
Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount+): For whatever reason, Top Gun: Maverick is being treated as the movie that saved movie theaters when it grossed $500 million less than Spider-Man: No Way Home (and if one really wanted to go there, the movie that proved theaters still had power in a post-pandemic world was Venom: Let There Be Carnage which set the all-time record for an opening weekend in the month of October). That said, it did take home one award for Best Sound which it did deserve.
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (Netflix): This year’s Best Animated Feature category was one of the most diverse in terms of visual styles in years. That said, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio was so well crafted it deserved the win in the category and it really helped promote stop-motion animation as a medium worth investing in. It is also worth noting that there was a very obvious correction that the Academy made with the introduction that Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt gave to the correction following last year’s backlash with “it’s the category for kids movies” being the introduction.
Avatar: The Way of Water (PVOD starting on March 28th): Much like Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water is not a great movie, however, it is beautiful to look at. It is fitting that the movie took home the award for Best Visual Effects, however, that was basically a foregone conclusion going into the night. Notably, the movie is still in theaters which is probably the only way this behemoth of a movie is tolerable.
Navalny (HBOMax): If one wants to see the nominees for Best Documentary Feature, HBOMax is definitely the place for them to look. While Fire of Love is on Disney+ and Hulu, Navalny (which won), All That Breathes, and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed are available to stream there. Navalny tells the story of Alexei Navalny who spoke out against Putin in Russia and is currently in prison for it.
Women Talking (PVOD through Amazon or other digital marketplaces): Probably the biggest shock of the night comes in the form of Women Talking winning Best Adapted Screenplay. This is not because the movie is bad, but because the movie was thought to just be overlooked by the Academy in the same way Till and The Woman King were. It is a fantastic movie and well deserving of this award, that said it is only available on premium video on demand with no word as to when it will hit a major streaming service yet.
