Rained in? Here’s how you can watch some of the best movies of the last year…

The 2024 Academy Awards featured some modern cinematic greats competing for the industry’s most coveted gongs. We’ve rounded up some of the biggest winners and shared where you can watch them right now, from your UAE-based smart TVs, devices and set-top boxes.

Where to watch Oppenheimer in the UAE

Platform: OSN+. Free with OSN+ subscription (Dhs35 per month)

What did it win?: Best Picture (among seven others)

Why should I watch it? It certainly feels like a masterpiece. Every shot, each line of dialogue, all the seemingly inconsequential interactions, disparate conflicting elements, the score, and the philosophical toiling that explodes on the screen in a skin-melting cinematic mushroom cloud might have come together in a 57 day shoot (according to an article in The Washington Post) but their individual atomic signatures suggest a journey that spans an entire career.

Where to watch Barbie in the UAE

Platform: Rent it through Apple TV Dhs21.99

What did it win?: Best Original Song

Why should I watch it?: With Greta Gerwig at the helm it was never going to be a simple homage to a children’s toy, and whilst the satirical swipe at the Kentriarchy wasn’t everyone’s Dream House of a movie – those who got it, adored it. And if you need further cause, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are absolutely fantastic as celluloidal plastic.

Where to watch American Fiction in the UAE

Platform: OSN+. Free with OSN+ subscription (Dhs35 per month)

What did it win?: Best Adapted Screenplay

Why should I watch it?: Directed by Cord Jefferson, starring Jeffrey Wright, based on a book by Percival Everett, and currently sitting at 94 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes – American Fiction is a farce masterwork, exquisitely delivered. A novelist (Wright) who writes a deliberately satirical ‘black’ book – that gets mistaken for a serious one, and is heaped with praise.

Where to watch Poor Things in the UAE

Platform: Disney+. Free with Disney+ subscription (Dhs39.99 per month)

What did it win?: Best Actress (among others)

Why should I watch it?: a gloriously bizarre ride through the mind of post-modern director Yorgos Lanthimos. It’s a Frankenstein’s Monster meets Sophie’s World story of a girl (Emma Stone) with a transplanted brain, who in her exploration of this brightly painted, visually epic world is confronted with the churning eddies of its philosophies, extremities and manipulating influences.

Where to watch 20 Days in Mariupol in the UAE

Platform: Rent it through Apple TV Dhs19.99

What did it win?: Best Documentary Feature Film

Why should I watch it?: Journalist Mstyslav Chernov’s powerful dispatch from the frontline in war-torn Ukraine is a harrowing view of modern warfare. His 20-day stint in a city under siege during the Russian invasion pours light onto the darker side of humanity – of death, of suffering, perseverance, and despair.

Where to watch The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar in the UAE

Platform: Netflix. Free with Netflix subscription (from Dhs29 per month)

What did it win?: Live Action Short Film

Why should I watch it?: Wes Anderson, directing Benedict Cumberbatch in an adaptation of a little known Roald Dahl belter. That’s all you need to know.

Where to watch Anatomy of a Fall in the UAE

Platform: Rent it through Apple TV Dhs19.99

What did it win?: Best Original Screenplay

Why should I watch it?: One of my favourite films of the last 12 months, this French thriller skipped right over International Feature Film and earned its place in the Best Picture category (as well as picking up nominations in four other categories). Directed by Justine Triet – the bulk of the film’s drama is tied up in a courtroom battle, where a woman desperately tries to prove her innocence in the crime of her husband’s murder. A perfect movie for a generation irrevocably hooked on true crime.

Where to watch The Last Repair Shop in the UAE

Platform: Disney+. Free with Disney+ subscription (Dhs39.99 per month)

What did it win?: Best Documentary Short Film

Why should I watch it?: A touching glimpse into a musical instrument repair workshop in Downtown LA. The organisation is mandated to provide free restoration for damaged flutes, violins, recorders – any article of musical paraphernalia that’s not functioning quite as it should – for public school students. The film profiles those who perform this sonic triage, and some of those whose lives have been touched by the dying artform.

Images: Movie stills