The films you need to watch to get ready for the Oscars

If you’ve ever told yourself you’re going to have a ‘calm one’ on Oscars night, you’re lying to yourself, to your friends and to cinema. The Academy Awards aren’t just an awards show: they’re a ritual. A chaotic, sleep-deprived, caffeine-soaked (or in my case, Coca Cola-fuelled) celebration of the year in film, where you either witness history in real time or wake up to spoilers and a thousand tweets screaming about snubs.

This year’s race is stacked: epic dramas, sharp satires and intimate stories that leave you staring at the ceiling at 3am questioning everything. And while you could rely on TikTok recaps the morning after, where’s the fun in that?

So, to make sure you know what everyone is talking about as things unfold, here are the essential films you need to watch before the Oscars. The ones everyone will be discussing, the ones shaping the conversation and the ones you’ll want in your arsenal when the group chat inevitably turns into a warzone.

Sinners

Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover an even greater evil waiting to welcome them back.

With a record-breaking 16 nominations, Sinners has become the film of the year: the kind of cinematic event that reminds you why you fell in love with movies in the first place. Jordan, up for Best Actor, reunites with director Ryan Coogler and the result is exactly what you’d expect from a partnership that simply does not miss. It’s bold, muscular filmmaking, completely unafraid to blend horror, myth and history with blockbuster momentum.

And yes, Jack O’Connell as a vampire is as iconic as it sounds. Add a killer soundtrack, a fever-dream atmosphere and Miles Caton’s star-making debut, and you’ve got a film that feels like a statement. A twist on the vampire myth that’s beautifully played and deserving of every award.

One Battle After Another

When their evil nemesis resurfaces after 16 years, a band of ex-revolutionaries reunites to rescue the daughter of one of their own. One Battle After Another is dystopian drama at its most unnerving, not because it’s wildly futuristic, but because it feels like a slightly warped mirror of the world we already live in. 

Leonardo DiCaprio, nominated for Best Actor, anchors the chaos with a performance that’s equal parts frantic and painfully human, while Sean Penn steals scenes as Colonel Steven Lockjaw with terrifying charisma and an unexpected streak of dark humour. It’s also hard not to mention the real heartbreak: Chase Infiniti delivers one of the most electric performances in the film and still got snubbed. Unforgivable.

In years to come, when this appears on TV late at night, it’ll be impossible to switch off. It’s just one of those films, a stone-cold instant classic.

Marty Supreme

A24 always hits, and Marty Supreme is proof.

Timothée Chalamet returns to the Best Actor conversation for the second year in a row and honestly, this might be his best shot yet. He plays Marty Mauser, a working-class New Yorker in 1952 with a dream nobody respects: becoming the world’s greatest table tennis player. Yes, it sounds absurd and it might be, but the film treats Marty’s ambition like life or death, taking him through obsession, humiliation, triumph and total collapse in pursuit of greatness.

It’s heartfelt, explosive and raw, powered by an immaculate soundtrack and a third act that goes fully unhinged in the best way. You’ll laugh, you’ll wince and you’ll somehow end up emotional about ping pong. A24 magic.

Hamnet

If you want to cry before the Oscars, Hamnet is your film.

Adapted from the beloved novel by Maggie O’Farrell, this is the powerful story of love and loss that inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It’s quiet in the way grief is quiet: until it isn’t and hits like a wave you don’t see coming.

Jessie Buckley, in line for Best Actress, delivers a performance so raw it barely feels like acting. She makes you feel every unspoken thought, every moment of heartbreak, every attempt to survive the unbearable. Paul Mescal continues his streak of playing devastatingly broken men with real tenderness, while child actor Jacobi Jupe is astonishing, giving the kind of performance that has you fighting back tears just watching him fight back tears.

With strong performances in service to a clear and confident vision from Chloé Zhao, Hamnet is one of the most emotionally punishing films of the year but in the best possible way.

Bugonia

Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth. In other words: Bugonia is the film for anyone who has ever opened their phone and instantly regretted it.

A razor-sharp dark satire, it skewers the way conspiracies breed online, fuelled by corporate corruption, class resentment and rage towards anyone perceived as “above” you. It’s funny until it isn’t and then it becomes genuinely chilling.

Emma Stone, nominated for Best Actress (and already an Academy Award winner), is brilliant as tech CEO Michelle Fuller; composed, calculating and maybe not entirely what she seems. It’s another Yorgos-Lanthimos-meets-Emma-Stone win.

Train Dreams

If you’re looking for something quieter, more poetic and lingering, then Train Dreams is the perfect film for you.

Available on Netflix, this Best Picture nominee follows Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), a gentle logger living in early 20th-century Washington State, searching for meaning as the world shifts around him. It’s a film about time, how it passes, how it changes you and how it leaves you behind.

Edgerton delivers a deeply felt performance that never demands attention but earns it anyway. The craft is stunning. Every frame feels carved out of memory. Haunting, serenely composed and quietly devastating, Train Dreams is an elegy for a life and a country that used to be.

Sentimental Value

Sisters Nora and Agnes reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav, a once-renowned director who offers stage actress Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. When she turns it down, he gives the part to an eager young Hollywood star (played by Elle Fanning, nominated for Best Supporting Actress) instead.

Few films understand family like Sentimental Value does: the resentment, the longing, the ways people hurt each other simply because they don’t know how to love properly. It’s sharp and painfully real, especially in the way it explores art as both legacy and weapon.

With Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård at their best, and director Joachim Trier once again proving he’s one of the great observers of modern emotion, this is a moving drama that lingers long after the credits roll.

Secret Agent

Wagner Moura is having a moment and the Oscars are paying attention.

Set in 1977 Brazil, Secret Agent follows Marcelo, a technology specialist fleeing a mysterious past, who returns to Recife in search of peace, only to realise the city is far from the refuge he imagined. Moura, nominated for Best Actor (and fresh off a Golden Globe win), brings a quiet intensity that makes every glance feel loaded and every silence feel dangerous.

Beyond the performances, this is one of the most culturally and historically rich films of the year: immersive, textured and filled with tension that creeps under your skin. The supporting cast is phenomenal and the world feels so lived-in you can almost smell the heat coming off the pavement. A must-watch.

Frankenstein

Some stories never die, just evolve. This year’s Frankenstein is tragic, beautiful and surprisingly emotional: a Gothic spectacle with real heart. Jacob Elordi, nominated for the first time for Best Supporting Actor, delivers a performance that’s tender and haunting, turning the Creature into something far more than a monster.

Mistreated and malcontent, the patchwork being seeks revenge on its egotistical creator, Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac). But what hits hardest is the Creature’s humanity: he didn’t ask to be alive, didn’t choose the body he was born into, didn’t ask to be feared. He only wanted to be loved and to no longer be alone.

Brought to life in glorious Gothic fashion by Guillermo del Toro’s painstaking artistry and Mike Hill’s elegant creature design, it’s part fairytale, part dark fantasy, part body horror and a big film with a huge beating heart. Streaming on Netflix, it’s one you can watch at home but it deserves the lights off, the volume up and your full attention.

Whether you’re building your Oscars predictions or just trying to avoid being the person in the group chat asking “Wait, who is that?”, these are the films to prioritise. Now stock up on snacks, charge your phone and mentally prepare for the chaos because the Oscars aren’t for the weak.