At the 98th Academy Awards, Netflix took home major Oscar gold.
Though host Conan O’Brien cracked some jokes at Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos‘ expense, the streamer ended up clinching awards in several above and below-the-line categories.
Watch With Us recommends three excellent movies you can watch right now on Netflix that are officially Academy Award winners.
While our first pick is Frankenstein starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi, be sure to check out the two worthy short films that follow it.
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‘Frankenstein’ (2025)
Mary Shelley’s classic novel is transposed beautifully onto director Guillermo del Toro‘s extravagant gothic horror sensibilities. The story follows the ambitious surgeon Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), whose experiments involving the reanimation of human flesh get him expelled from the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh. However, his work finds new life (no pun intended) with a mysterious benefactor named Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz). Frankenstein is able to continue with his experiments and successfully resurrects a full human man cobbled together from parts (Jacob Elordi). But Frankenstein ultimately condemns his Creature to death, and when the Creature unknowingly survives, he sets out to find his killer and creator.
Frankenstein took home Oscars for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design — all well-deserved, as the movie looks incredible and is richly textured by its sumptuous costumes and the extensive prosthetics plastered to Elordi’s face (at the ceremony, it was revealed that Elordi had to sit in makeup for a total of 400 hours throughout the course of filmmaking). But in addition to being a visually ravishing film, the movie is also a tender and deeply human story that adapts Shelley’s classic novel and turns it into something all its own.
‘All the Empty Rooms’ (2025)
The winner of Best Documentary Short Film is this heartbreaking film about school shootings in America, produced by the mother of a child who was killed in the 2022 Uvalde school shooting. The movie is a seven-year-long project following journalist Steve Hartman as he sets out to memorialize the empty bedrooms of students who have been killed by gun violence in their own classrooms. Hartman traveled across the country visiting eight families whose children were killed within the last few years, with four being featured in the documentary. The four rooms remain almost entirely untouched.
All the Empty Rooms is an urgent, necessary and difficult watch, a movie which places clear emphasis on the devastation wrought by gun violence in America while at the same time showcasing the evolution that Hartman has gone through by carrying out this admirable project. The movie is a sobering reminder of the horrific violence we have become desensitized to, and it refuses to let those affected by it be forgotten.
‘The Singers’ (2025)
Starring professional singers Judah Kelly and Mike Yung, The Singers features performers discovered through social media videos and street casting and is based on the 19th-century Russian story of the same name by Ivan Turgenev. The plot takes place in a blue-collar bar, where a construction worker is hounding patrons. To get him to stop, the bartender (Yung) challenges him to compete in a sing-off against an older regular, which turns into an impromptu singing competition for the entire bar. The best singer will win $100 and free drinks.
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The Singers took home Oscar gold for Best Live Action Short Film, but it also made history because its win was part of a tie shared between Two People Exchanging Saliva. Both wins are well deserved, and The Singers shines as a warm-hearted movie featuring fantastic acting and impressive vocal performances. The movie is a spirited and uplifting tale that gives one hope for human connection and the good in all of us.
