Netflix, Amazon and Hulu have all released their respective list of films debuting on their sites in September, and each has a better selection than usual. Numerous Oscar-winning and nominated films are among the bunch, and as a film buff and Oscar lover, it’s always fun to look back on old favorites and catch up on films I may have missed.
The more notable films debuting on streaming services include Best Picture nominees like Dead Poets Society, Gangs of New York, Jaws, Pulp Fiction and Roman Holiday, alongside some of my favorite films in recent years, like Carol, Requiem for a Dream and The Talented Mr. Ripley. The list also includes animated films like Hercules and Mulan, foreign language films like Amores Perros and City of God and documentaries like The Cove.
Check out the lineup of new Oscar-nominated films available on Netflix, Amazon and Hulu in September.
Netflix
Pulp Fiction (1994)
“The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster’s wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.”
–Won Best Original Screenplay, nominated for Picture, Director for Quentin Tarantino, Actor for John Travolta, Supporting Actor for Samuel L. Jackson, Supporting Actress for Uma Thurman and Film Editing
Dead Poets Society (1989)
“English teacher John Keating inspires his students to look at poetry with a different perspective of authentic knowledge and feelings.”
–Won Best Original Screenplay, nominated for Picture, Director for Peter Weir and Actor for Robin Williams
Jaws (1975)
“A giant great white shark arrives on the shores of a New England beach resort and wreaks havoc with bloody attacks on swimmers, until a local sheriff teams up with a marine biologist and an old seafarer to hunt the monster down.”
–Won Best Original Score, Sound and Film Editing, nominated for Picture
Gangs of New York (2002)
“In 1863, Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points area of New York City seeking revenge against Bill the Butcher, his father’s killer.”
-Nominated for Best Picture, Director for Martin Scorsese, Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, Original Screenplay, Film Editing, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Sound and Original Song (“The Hands That Built America”)
Carol (2015)
“An aspiring photographer develops an intimate relationship with an older woman in 1950s New York.”
-Nominated for Best Actress for Cate Blanchett, Supporting Actress for Rooney Mara, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Costume Design and Original Score — available 9/20
City of God (2002)
“Two boys growing up in a violent neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro take different paths: one becomes a photographer, the other a drug dealer.”
-Nominated for Best Director for Fernando Meirelles, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Film Editing
Ali (2001)
“A biography of sports legend Muhammad Ali, focusing on his triumphs and controversies between 1964 and 1974.”
-Nominated for Best Actor for Will Smith and Supporting Actor for Jon Voight
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
“The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep.”
-Nominated for Best Actress for Ellen Burstyn
Mulan (1998)
“To save her father from death in the army, a young maiden secretly goes in his place and becomes one of China’s greatest heroines in the process.”
-Nominated for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score
Hercules (1997)
“The son of the Greek Gods Zeus and Hera is stripped of his immortality as an infant and must become a true hero in order to reclaim it.”
-Nominated for Best Original Song (“Go the Distance”)
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
“Two Boston area detectives investigate a little girl’s kidnapping, which ultimately turns into a crisis both professionally and personally.”
-Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Amy Ryan
The Squid and the Whale (2005)
“Follows two young boys dealing with their parents’ divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980s.”
-Nominated for Best Original Screenplay
Amores Perros (2000)
“A horrific car accident connects three stories, each involving characters dealing with loss, regret, and life’s harsh realities, all in the name of love.”
-Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film
Amazon
The Cove (2009)
“Using state-of-the-art equipment, a group of activists, led by renowned dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry, infiltrate a cove near Taijii, Japan to expose both a shocking instance of animal abuse and a serious threat to human health.”
–Won Best Documentary Feature
Carrie (1976)
“Carrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.”
-Nominated for Best Actress for Sissy Spacek and Supporting Actress for Piper Laurie
Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
“A delusional young man strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the Internet.”
-Nominated for Best Original Screenplay
Dirty Dancing (1987)
“Spending the summer at a Catskills resort with her family, Frances “Baby” Houseman falls in love with the camp’s dance instructor, Johnny Castle.”
-Won Best Original Song (“(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”)
Hulu
Roman Holiday (1953)
“A bored and sheltered princess escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman in Rome.”
–Won Best Actress for Audrey Hepburn, Story and Costume Design — Black and White, nominated for Picture, Director for William Wyler, Supporting Actor for Eddie Albert, Story and Screenplay, Art Direction — Black and White, Cinematography — Black and White and Film Editing
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
“Ben Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his alcoholism, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.”
–Won Best Actor for Nicolas Cage, nominated for Director for Mike Figgis, Actress for Elisabeth Shue and Adapted Screenplay
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
“In late 1950s New York, Tom Ripley, a young underachiever, is sent to Italy to retrieve Dickie Greenleaf, a rich and spoiled millionaire playboy. But when the errand fails, Ripley takes extreme measures.”
-Nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Jude Law, Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Costume Design and Original Score
The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)
“A film is being made of a story, set in 19th century England, about Charles, a biologist who’s engaged to be married, but who falls in love with outcast Sarah, whose melancholy makes her leave him after a short, but passionate affair. Anna and Mike, who play the characters of Sarah and Charles, go, during the shooting of the film, through a relationship that runs parallel to that of their characters.”
-Nominated for Best Actress for Meryl Streep, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, Art Direction, Costume Design
Sicario (2015)
“An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.”
-Nominated for Cinematography, Sound Editing and Original Score — available 9/23
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
“A British woman is determined to improve herself while she looks for love in a year in which she keeps a personal diary.”
-Nominated for Best Actress for Renée Zellweger — available 9/15
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
“In New Jersey in 1935, a movie character walks off the screen and into the real world.”
-Nominated for Best Original Screenplay
The Ides of March (2011)
“An idealistic staffer for a new presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail.”
-Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay
The First Wives Club (1996)
“Reunited by the death of a college friend, three divorced women seek revenge on the husbands who left them for younger women.”
-Nominated for Best Original Score
Heaven’s Gate (1980)
“A dramatization of the real-life Johnson County War in 1890 Wyoming, in which a Sheriff born into wealth, attempts to protect immigrant farmers from rich cattle interests.”
-Nominated for Best Art Direction