42 Must-See Movies Eligible for the 2021 Oscar Nominations

Zack Sharf
·2 min read

Theater closures, festival cancellations, and endless release delays throughout 2020 made the state of the 2021 Oscar race unusual, but now here we are with less than two weeks to go before nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards are revealed. The Golden Globes have already crowned “Nomadland” the best dramatic feature of the year, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards have bestowed multiple nominations on the likes of “Minari” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” So which movies will score big on Oscar nominations morning? While the industry awaits that answer, now is the time to catch up on the films most deserving of Oscar buzz from the last over-12 months of eligibility. At the very least, playing catch up on the best films eligible for oscars will leave you excited when “Nomadland” earns multiple nominations and rightfully outraged when films like “Swallow” and “Babyteeth” are left out.

One of the major changes to the 2021 Oscars is a temporary rule that allows streaming and VOD movies that had planned theatrical releases to be eligible for the Academy Awards. To help curate this longer-than-usual Oscar season, IndieWire has put together the following guide to must-see Oscar eligible movies from the 2020-2021 awards season. Some of these titles are bonafide contenders (see “Minari” and “Sound of Metal”) while others are should-be contenders (see “Vast of Night” and “She Dies Tomorrow”). Whatever the reason, these are the 42 films eligible for the 2021 Oscars that are worth seeking out.

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