With the 2026 Oscars this Sunday, film fans will be keen to root for their firm favourites to take home the most prestigious prize in the movie industry.
And there’s still time to squeeze in some last-minute viewing before the Academy Awards wrap up another busy showbiz season by crowning the past year’s best and brightest movies.
From vampire horror Sinners and its history-making haul of nominations, to the biting satire of One Battle After Another, the tearful tragedy of Hamnet and the gothic sumptuousness of Frankenstein, the last 12 months of cinema truly offered something for everyone.
The 10 best picture nominees at the Academy Awards also include popular international films like Sentimental Value, and the bold – but entirely different – swings of both Bugonia and Marty Supreme.
However, if you haven’t managed to see them all just yet, read on to find out where to watch them in the UK and check the full set off your ‘to see’ list.
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Bugonia
Premiering at Venice Film Festival late last summer, Bugonia is the latest weird and wonderful collaboration between filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and actress-producer Emma Stone.
Based on the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet!, Bugnoia sees conspiracy theorist and beekeeper Teddy (an outstanding Jesse Plemons) kidnap pharmaceuticals CEO Michelle (Stone), who he believes is an alien sent to destroy Earth.
Wacky and funny with a totally wild third act, Bugonia was met with praise and good reviews – snagging an 88% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes – if slightly less fanfare than the duo’s 2023 film Poor Things.
Landing four Academy Award nominations overall – including for best picture and best actress for Stone, but controversially nothing for the excellent Plemons – the movie is yet to be added to any streamer subscription libraries, but can still be watched at home.
Bugonia is available to rent or buy on platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Sky Store.
Frankenstein
Another to debut at Venice, Frankenstein was a much anticipated movie from gothic master Guillermo del Toro, adapting Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel; it starred Oscar Isaac as the titular inventor and Jacob Elordi as the creature.
It was another generally very strongly reviewed film given the flair of del Toro’s visuals (who had been hoping to make it for 30 years) and the central performances – even if some took issue with the new design for the so-called ‘monster’.
A Netflix film, it only received a short theatrical window in cinemas in the autumn but remained a dark-horse in terms of the awards conversation – ultimately netting a whopping nine Oscar nominations, including best picture, best adapted screenplay and supporting actor for Elordi.
However, del Toro was unable to muscle into the tight directors category.
Frankenstein is streaming now exclusively on Netflix. It is also screening again in select cinemas.
F1
The surprise inclusion in the best picture category for the 2026 Oscars (if less so three further technical categories), F1 was the slickly produced summer blockbuster which Academy voters seem to be making more of an effort to recognise these days.
Brad Pitt leads the cast as hotshot driver from the 1990s, Sonny Hayes, who is convinced to come out of retirement to mentor rookie Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), by a former colleague and owner of struggling team APXGP (Javier Bardem).
F1 made a lot of noise with its big budget (rumoured to be an eye-watering $300million (£220m)), power duo of director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) and super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and unprecedented access to race tracks provided by producer and F1 legend Sir Lewis Hamilton.
A hit with fans, who supported it at the box office and gave Pitt the biggest opening weekend of his career, the Apple Original movie achieved mostly decent reviews too – and has now been included with the main Apple TV subscription.
F1 is streaming now on Apple TV and also available to rent or buy on platforms including Amazon Prime Video and Sky Store. It is also screening again in select cinemas.
Hamnet
Bafta-winning Hamnet is the film that made everyone weep – or accuse it of gross audience manipulation – but it managed to net an impressive eight Oscar nominations, including best picture.
Adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling book of the same name about the young son William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) lose, Hamnet had quality ingredients from the start.
Director Chloé Zhao is in the Oscars mix again – including for adapting the screenplay with O’Farrell – but at this stage everyone seems to agree that Buckley’s lead actress win is all-but secured, while Mescal’s miss in the supporting actor category is a major snub.
Metro‘s four-star review of the movie released in January after its inclusion at Telluride, TIFF and London Film Festival last year, called it ‘a stunningly visceral look at a literary legend’ and predicted Buckley’s performance was one ‘we’ll still be talking about well beyond the Oscars’.
Hamnet is still showing in select UK and Irish cinemas. It’s also available to rent or buy on platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Sky Store and Apple TV.
Marty Supreme
Marty Supreme, Josh Safdie’s electric film about an ambitious wannabe ping-pong world champion played by Timothée Chalamet, has been delighting fans in cinemas since the festive season.
Another major player at the Oscars with nine nominations in total – including best picture, best director and Chalamet’s third nod for best actor – the movie enjoyed rave reviews and glowing word-of-mouth reactions.
This was no doubt bolstered by Chalamet’s full-throated embracing of the film’s imaginative marketing tactics, as the film landed a Rotten Tomatoes score of 94% (although he’s committed a bit of a faux-pas since).
Marty Supreme also stars Gwyneth Paltrow in her first major role in several years, as well as Odessa A’zion, real-life entrepreneur and reality TV star Kevin O’Leary and Tyler, the Creator (and apparently Robert Pattinson too).
Marty Supreme is still showing in select UK and Irish cinemas. It’s also available to rent or buy on platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Rakuten TV and Apple TV.
One Battle After Another
One of the most talked-about movies of 2025 after critics went giddy over it, One Battle After Another has long been a front-runner for this year’s awards season.
It cemented this by netting an impressive 13 Oscar nominations, including best director and best adapted screenplay for Paul Thomas Anderson, a whopping four acting nods and the all-important best picture recognition.
Inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, One Battle After Another follows ex-revolutionary Bob (DiCaprio) as he’s forced back into his former life when he and his daughter Willa (double Bafta nominee Chase Infiniti) are pursued by corrupt military officer, Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn).
A September release, it’s now available to watch at home – but sadly not yet included in any streaming service libraries.
One Battle After Another is available to rent or buy on platforms including Rakuten TV, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video and Sky Store. It is also screening again in select cinemas.
The Secret Agent
This emerged as a movie of note from Cannes Film Festival last May, where it was the most awarded film with four gongs, including best director for Mendonça Filho and best actor for Wagner Moura.
Like Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent is also nominated for best international feature at the Oscars, while it’s got a nod in the new casting category too – and Moura has earned an impressive spot alongside DiCaprio and Chalamet in the best actor category.
Which film do you want to see win best picture at the 2026 Oscars?
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Bugonia
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Frankenstein
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F1
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Hamnet
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Marty Supreme
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One Battle After Another
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The Secret Agent
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Sentimental Value
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Sinners
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Train Dreams
A crime drama set in the 1977, The Secret Agent Marcelo follows Moura’s tech expert, who finds himself an unwitting target amid political chaos and must flee. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival but soon realises that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting.
Released in the UK last month, The Secret Agent earned particular notice at the Golden Globes in January where Moura won best actor in a motion picture (drama), making him a credible threat come the Oscars.
The Secret Agent is showing in UK and Irish cinemas now.
Sentimental Value
Sentimental Value was the film that seemed to have everyone talking at Cannes after it clocked up a 19-minute standing ovation.
While it’s hard for any film to live up to that kind of hype, it’s true that the Norwegian movie, which has also received unanimous praise for its actors, including Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning, is a refreshingly engaging and funny family drama.
As with many foreign-language releases, it’s flown under the radar more than it deserved to – although it does boast a 97% critics rating and a 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Metro’s review praised it as ‘impactful’, ‘impressively nuanced’ and ‘something of a dark horse going into awards season with its quiet brilliance’.
After releasing in UK cinemas on Boxing Day, with some venues still showing screenings, it’s also now found its streaming home.
Sentimental Value is streaming now on Mubi (and via Amazon Prime Video) in the UK and Ireland. It’s also still showing in select cinemas.
Sinners
Sinners is positioned ahead of the pack as the movie to beat thanks to its record-breaking haul of Academy Awards nominations with 16, counting best picture among them.
It’s also received three acting nods, including for star Michael B. Jordan, best director and original screenplay for Ryan Coogler and multiple nods for music and in technical categories.
While 2025 was a great year for cinema, Sinners wowed critics and fans all the way back in April and has proven to be a huge triumph for both Black excellence in cinema and the horror genre since.
It follows twins Smoke and Stack (both played by Jordan) who, in trying to escape their past, return home to 1930s Mississippi to open a juke joint – only to find a greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
One of the most successful original films at the box office in recent years, grossing over $368million (£270.3m) on a $90m (£66.1m) budget, it has retained a 97% and 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and fans respectively and co-stars Bafta winner Wunmi Mosaku, Delroy Lindo, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell and newcomer Miles Caton.
Unsurprisingly for such a highly regarded film it’s not yet available as part of any standard subscription streaming service, but it still can be watched at home.
Sinners is available to watch on demand on Sky Cinema and NOW TV Cinema. It’s also available to rent or buy on digital platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Rakuten TV, and is screening again in select cinemas.
Train Dreams
This is the dark horse of the best picture Oscar nominees, released without massive fanfare back in November.
However, following a debut at Sundance in January 2025, Clint Bentley’s movie did the film festival rounds – including London in the autumn – and quietly built-up word of mouth praise from critics throughout most of the year.
And luckily, as a Netflix production, it’s one of the easiest Oscar hopefuls to watch.
Praised as ‘extraordinarily beautiful’ and one of the best films of 2025 as it quietly started building up awards recognition, Train Dreams is based on the 2011 novella by Denis Johnson.
With Joel Edgerton in the lead role, it tells the story of Robert Grainier, an orphaned logger who spends his adulthood among the towering forests of the Pacific Northwest in the early twentieth century.
It co-stars Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon and William H. Macy.
Train Dreams is streaming now exclusively on Netflix. It is also screening again in select cinemas.
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