5 Oscar contenders you can stream right now – be quick!

It's nearly time for the biggest night in showbiz. Practice your speech and get your smartest suit or sparkliest dress ready because the Oscars are this weekend. 

In years gone by it has often seemed a bit tricky to watch the movies up for the big prizes at the Oscars but thankfully in the era of streaming services, it's easier than ever to stay on top of the prestige pictures. 

Of course, you want to be able to root for someone when watching the ceremony, so make some time - quickly - for these 5 Oscar-nominated movies you can stream right now 

1. Poor Things

Emma Stone is one of the favourites for Best Actress and once you've watched Poor Things (which is also up for Best Picture), you'll understand why. Told with director Yorgis Lanthimos' usual peculiarity, this is a twist on a Frankenstein-style story. 

Stone plays Bella Baxter, a woman with an adult body and the brain of an unborn child. Brought to life by a mad scientist (Willem Dafoe) she grows from someone who can barely walk and form a sentence to a distinguished young woman. 

She escapes her home (and an arranged marriage) to go on a tour of Europe with a caddish lawyer (Duncan Wedderburn) who leads her on a sexual and spiritual awakening through a unique world. It's bizarre, brilliant and absolutely not a movie to watch with the family. 

Poor Things is streaming now on Disney+ (UK) and Hulu (US). 

2. Past lives

We move from a film about sex to one about love, also up for Best Picture. Past Lives is a brilliantly heartfelt semi-autobiographical romance from Celine Song. A story of missed connections, two childhood friends are separated when Na Young is forced to move abroad with her parents to Toronto. 

They try to reconnect over the internet but these things are delicate. It isn't until two decades later (and with Na Young now going by the name Nora) that she meets Hae Sung in New York. A fairytale ending right? Well... no. Nora is already married. Are they even the same people anymore? Brilliant and also heartwrenching at the same time. 

Past Lives is streaming on Netflix (UK) and Paramount Plus (US).

3. Maestro 

A third Best Picture nominee you can stream from your living room, Maestro sees Bradley Cooper as both star and director in this biopic of legendary composer Leonard Bernstein. Even if there was controversy over Cooper's prosthetic noise, with both Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg serving as producers, the film's quality is without question.

The film charts Bernstein's incredible life story with Cooper playing him from the ages of 25 to 70. his marriage to actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan) and his struggles with both substance abuse and his sexuality. 

Maestro is streaming on Netflix. 

4. Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó

Competing for the Best Documentary Short gong is Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó. This seventeen-minute film is a rare bolt of pure happiness. Director Sean Wang spent time during the Covid pandemic living with his two grandmothers (the title characters) and filming their wisdom. 

The two are a classic pair of jokers, we see them discuss farting in bed, downing bottles of booze and making it rain money. But what really makes it a must-watch is some of the nuggets that they come up with talking to the camera, some are hilarious, some are heartwarming and some are heartbreaking. I can't wait for their red carpet appearances. 

Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó is streaming on Disney+. 

5. Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse

The sequel to the genre-defining Into the Spider-Verse this follow-up superhero adventure ups the ante in all the important ways. 

Expect more dimensions, more Spider-Men (and Women and girls and pigs etc...) and more big-name voice talent with Daniel Kaluuya, Jason Schwartzman and Issa Rae joining the cast this time around. 

Even without all of this, the art style is a thing of beauty on its own, this is a strong contender for the Best Animated Feature crown even if Spider-Ham is criminally underused. 

Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse is available on Sky Cinema (UK) and Netflix (US)