Watch the best movies of the last year from the comfort of your own home…

The 2024 Academy Awards is set to take place on March 11, with some modern cinematic greats competing for the industry’s most coveted gongs. We’ve rounded up some of the strongest contenders, and shared where you can watch them now, from your UAE-based smart TVs, devices and set-top boxes. Plus one extra, that’s just come out at screens here in the UAE.

Where to watch Killers of the Flower Moon in the UAE

Platform: Apple TV. Free with Apple TV subscription (Dhs27.99 per month)

What’s it up for?: Best Picture (among others)

Why should I watch it?: A Martin Scorsese-directed epic western, based on a true story, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Brendan Fraser and Lily Gladstone. It’s the story of a people whose land sat on an almost incalculable wealth of oil. It’s a tale of changing winds, of blood, creed and greed, and of the incidental foundations of the FBI.

Where to watch Barbie in the UAE

Platform: Rent it through Apple TV Dhs21.99

What’s it up for?: Best Picture (among others)

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 a further, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are absolutely fantastic as celluloidal plastic.

Where to watch Maestro in the UAE

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

What’s it up for?: Best Picture (among others)

Why should I watch it?: A touching biopic of legendary American composer Leonard Bernstein – portrayed (and directed) by Bradley Cooper (in a prosthetic nose); as with many of the great film biographies, you feel at time as if you’re watching a posthumously put together documentary; the team of producers includes Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg; and Bernstein’s beloved wife in the movie is played by a magnificent Carey Mulligan.

Where to watch American Fiction in the UAE

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

What’s it up for?: Best Picture (among others)

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 Tomatos – American Fiction is a farce masterwork, eqsquisitely 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’s it up for?: Best Picture (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 Oppenheimer in the UAE

Platform: Rent it through Apple TV Dhs17.99

What’s it up for?: Best Picture (among 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 Past Lives in the UAE

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

What’s it up for?: Best Picture (among others)

Why should I watch it?: A semi autobiographical love story (by director Celine Song) in as much as it’s a story about love, or the possibility of love – being pulled apart by distance and time. It’s a simple film, relying on subtlety, realism and daydreams of the heart to make you fall in love with it.

Where to watch Napoleon in the UAE

Platform: Apple TV. Free with Apple TV subscription (Dhs27.99 per month)

What’s it up for?: Visual Effects (among others)

Why should I watch it?: Ridley Scott’s biopic of the scrappy eponymous Corsican (played by Joaquin Phoenix) who rose through the military ranks to become Emporer of France. The best parts of Napoleon aren’t the impressive battle sequences – they’re in watching pride, ambition, and love – undo a capable man.

Where to watch The After in the UAE

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

What’s it up for?: Live Action Short Film

Why should I watch it?: An incredibly hard hitting 18 minutes of cinema, that follows the a man who’s life is ripped into grief-ridden ribbons following the horrific murder of his wife and child right in front of his eyes.

Where to watch El Conde in the UAE

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

What’s it up for?: Cinematography

Why should I watch it?: A Chilean black horror that portrays IRL Latin dictator General Pinochet as a vampire, seeking the sweet relief of death.

Where to watch Elemental in the UAE

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

What’s it up for?: Animated Feature Film

Why should I watch it?: There are few studios that have the track record of Pixar. It’s almost zero miss with critics and audiences alike. And whilst Elemental might not be the finest example of their work – it’s a nevertheless expertly crafted commentary on multiculturalism and the beauty in diversity.

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

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

What’s it up for?: 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 Rustin in the UAE

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

What’s it up for?: Colman Domingo has been nominated for Actor In A Leading Role

Why should I watch it?: This Obama-backed biopic follows the life of activist Bayard Rustin, who was an instrumental character in the 1960s American civil rights struggles, and played a key role in organising the 1963 Washington March alongside Martin Luther King Jr.

Where to watch To Kill a Tiger in the UAE

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

What’s it up for?: Documentary Feature Film

Why should I watch it?: it’s not really about tigers, sadly it’s something altogether more harrowing and human. It’s the story of a family in Jharkhand, India – a brutal assault, and the emotional turmoil that follows.

Where to watch Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse in the UAE

Platform: Buy from Apple TV (Dhs59.99)

What’s it up for?: Animated Feature Film

Why should I watch it?: Arguably the greatest ever big screen outing for a Spider-Man, possibly the best comic book adaption (although I know many would fight me on this claim) of all time. It’s a visual masterpiece, the webbed yarn is unravelled sublimely, the cameos are red hot and there’s so much fan service it feels like your own private massage.

Where to watch Society of the Snow in the UAE

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

What’s it up for?: International Feature Film

Why should I watch it?: The true story of, slight spoiler alert, a plane that crashed in the Andes, and – because they were outside of Deliveroo coverage range (and coverage epoch), had to eat each other to stay alive. Obviously it’s a bit more nuanced and brooding than that, challenging your moral compass to an ethical duel over what you’d have done in the same situation.

Where to watch Anatomy of a Fall in the UAE

Platform: Rent it through Apple TV Dhs19.99

What’s it up for?: Best Picture (among others)

Why should I watch it?: Another fully worthy contender, 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 husbands murder. A perfect movie for a generation irrevocably hooked on true crime.

Where to watch American Symphony in the UAE

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

What’s it up for?: Music (Original Score)

Why should I watch it?: A documentary that charts the journey of lauded musician Jon Batiste, as he composes his first symphony. A surprisingly emotional watch.

Where to watch The Holdovers in the UAE

Platform: At the cinema now. Book here

What’s it up for?: Best Picture (among others)

Why should I watch it?:  Directed by Alexander (Sideways, The Descendents) Payne, starring Paul Giamatti – it’s a (loosely) festive, tragic comedy that tells the tale of a tyrant teacher forced to look after children over a school Christmas break. All is very much not well.

Images: Movie stills