The 97th Academy Awards are on Sunday, March 2, and it’s no surprise if they’ve got you in a movie night mood. Over the years, the Oscars have largely reserved the most prestigious awards for dramas and romances, but as sci-fi storytelling has grown more provocative and prescient, sci-fi flicks have slowly permeated beyond the technical awards and into the Best Picture category. Case in point: Dune: Part Two was nominated for five awards, including Best Picture.
Streaming services have made it easier than ever to see the Oscar nominees before the big night, but they’ve also provided a great resource to enjoy Oscar winners of years past. Whether you’re a sci-fi aficionado or you’re simply in the mood, these are 5 great Oscar-winning sci-fi movies you should stream right now.
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Dune: Part Two (2024) 79% 79% pg-13 167m 167m Genre Science Fiction, Adventure Stars Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson Directed by Denis Villeneuve Watch on max Well, we lead with Dune: Part Two, which might win on Sunday and is streaming on Max now. (As is the Oscar-winning first film, Dune: Part One.) Continuing Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi epic, Dune: Part Two effectively wraps up the first book in the Dune saga and paces into Dune Messiah. After the fallout from the Harkonnen attack on House Atreides, Paul (Timothée Chalamet) has fully assimilated with wife Chani (Zendaya) and the Fremen of the desert. As Paul taps deeper into his gifts of foresight and begins to pave a divine destiny to preserve the fate of the known universe, he’s forced to make sacrifices and put himself in harm’s way to repel a Harkonnen onslaught.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) 83% 83% g 127m 127m Genre Adventure, Science Fiction, Family Stars Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas Directed by Richard Fleischer Watch on Disney+ One of the first great sci-fi movies, 1954’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea won Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction Oscars. The beloved film adapts Jules Verne’s classic novel of the same name, in which Captain Nemo (Kirk Douglas) and his crew aboard the submarine Nautilus descend to the depths of the ocean to investigate a wave of mysterious sinkings. The mission encounters a monster unlike any the men are prepared to face. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is streaming on Disney+.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 84% 84% g 149m 149m Genre Science Fiction, Mystery, Adventure Stars Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester Directed by Stanley Kubrick Watch on max Widely considered one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made, 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of legendary director Stanley Kubrick‘s defining films. A meditation on human destiny, Kubrick’s odyssey famously begins with our prehistoric ape ancestry before leaping millennia into a future in which humans have colonized space. As astronaut Bowman (Keir Dullea) ventures into uncharted space, time, mortality, and infinity all become merely guidelines, not facts. 2001: A Space Odyssey is streaming on Max now.
Avatar (2009) 83% 83% pg-13 162m 162m Genre Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction Stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver Directed by James Cameron Watch on Hulu A cultural phenomenon upon its release in 2009, Avatar went beyond becoming the highest-grossing film of all-time to nine Oscar nominations and three wins. (2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water had similar box office success but less critical acclaim.) Essentially a reimagining of the Pocahontas story, Avatar takes place in the 22nd century on the distant moon of Pandora, where humans have started a mining colony despite the resistance of the local populace. To study these people, the Na’vi, human scientists have created “avatars,” allowing them to move their consciousness into a Na’vi body. But after countless failures to truly connect with these people, a paraplegic Marine (Sam Worthington) finally makes inroads when he connects with a chieftain’s daughter, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). Avatar is streaming on Hulu now.