GoKawiilIt seems like Netflix's presence at award shows gets bigger every year, and the 2026 Academy Awards have proven that the streamer is a force to be reckoned with. Six Netflix original films earned 18 nominations this year, taking home seven, including for best animated feature and best original song for KPop Demon Hunters, best documentary short for All the Empty Rooms and best live-action short for The Singers. Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein also took home three technical awards for best production design, costume design and makeup and hairstyling.
The streaming giant's combination of original films and a diverse library from other studios makes it a reliable source of entertainment, although it can sometimes be hard to narrow down what to watch. This week's biggest arrival might be Hamnet, the Oscar-winning drama directed by Chloe Zhao that dramatizes the life of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife, Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley) and deal with the death of their young son, Hamnet. This is just one of the many great movies currently on the platform, and here's a list of our favorites.
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Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features Hamnet (2025) Jessie Buckley won an Oscar for her role as Agnes Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare in the 2025 film Hamnet, which is out now on Netflix. The film depicts the early courtship of Agnes and William (played by Paul Mescal) and later, the shared grief they experience after their young son, Hamnet, dies of bubonic plague. The cast also includes Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn and Jacobi Jupe as young Hamnet.
20th Century Fox Gone Girl (2014) David Fincher directed the film adaptation of Gillian Flynn's best-selling mystery Gone Girl (Flynn wrote the screenplay, too), starring Rosamund Pike as Amy Dunne, a woman whose husband (Ben Affleck) is the number one suspect in her mysterious disappearance. There are too many spoilers to give away if you haven't seen the film, but safe to say that Amy is not at all who she seems to be. The film also stars Carrie Coon in her first film role, and Neil Patrick Harris in a role unlike anything you've seen him in before.
Gramercy Pictures Fargo (1996) The Coen Brothers are masters of the darkly comedic crime thriller, and Fargo is one of their best. In the 1996 classic, Frances McDormand plays Marge Gunderson, the pregnant police chief in Fargo, North Dakota investigating Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), a car salesman who hired two criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife to extort a ransom from her wealthy father. As Gunderson investigates Jerry, Gaear and Carl's ineptitude creates chaos and the situation goes awry. Come for the regional accents, stay for the body in the wood chipper.
Universal Pictures Born on the Fourth of July (1989) Oliver Stone directed the 1989 drama Born on the Fourth of July, about Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic (played by Tom Cruise), a soldier who became an anti-war activist after his service. The film is one of three Vietnam-themed films that Stone has made, and it earned Stone an Oscar for his direction. It co-stars Kyra Sedgewick, WIllem Defoe and Frank Whaley. The film arrived on Netflix on July 1.
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