How to watch 2018 Oscar nominees

Oscar weekend is here! Some of the nominees are still only available in theaters, but a number are available on Amazon, iTunes, or Netflix. And don’t forget to join the Twitter party Sunday a little before 5 – when the show officially starts! – for live-tweeting from @GrokNation with the hashtag #GrokOscars!

First, the full-length feature films!

Best Picture

Most of the Best Picture nominees are still in theaters, and several are streaming on Netflix, Amazon, iTunes or otherwise on-demand, either as rentals or as purchases.

Call Me By Your Name – Theaters, Amazon (purchase only)
A romance between a seventeen year-old boy and a summer guest at his parents’ cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera. Beautifully shot, with standout performances by Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg, and moving songs by Sufjan Stevens.

Darkest Hour – Amazon, On-demand
As Hitler’s forces storm across the European landscape and close in on the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) is elected the new Prime Minister. With his party questioning his every move, and King George VI skeptical of his new political leader, it is up to Churchill to lead his nation and protect them from the most dangerous threat ever seen.

Dunkirk – iTunes, Amazon rental
In 1940, when Germany advanced into France, Allied troops were trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk, and were slowly and methodically evacuated from the beach using every serviceable naval and civilian vessel that could be found. At the end of this heroic mission, 330,000 French, British, Belgian and Dutch soldiers were safely evacuated.

Get Out – HBO/HBO Now
Political social satire meets horror movie as a black man visits his white girlfriend’s family for the weekend, uncovering a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries that lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined. Jordan Peele is to thank for this creative blend of genres, as well as for the social and racial realities the film highlights throughout.

Lady Bird – Amazon rental, On-demand
“Lady Bird,” a quirky, self-possessed teenager clashes with her strong-willed mother over college plans and other conflicts born of stubbornness, adolescence and economic circumstance. It’s probably no surprise we loved Lady Bird. Read why here and here.

Phantom Thread – Theaters only
Set in the glamour of 1950’s post-war London, Phantom Thread is the story of a dressmaker who dresses royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames until he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love.

The Post – Theaters only
A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country’s first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between the press and the government. The film is particularly resonant in our time, when journalism is under attack from the White House and censorship is an issue.

The Shape of Water – Theaters, Amazon (purchase only)
A lonely janitor at a secret research facility forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity. Guillermo del Toro’s cinematic visions are always ambitious and layered.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Amazon rental, On-demand
A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter’s murder when they fail to catch the culprit. Frances McDormand, one of our finest living actresses, stars.

Best Animated Feature

The Boss Baby – Netflix, Amazon
This comedy shows how a new baby’s arrival impacts a family, especially the older brother.

The Breadwinner – Amazon
An 11-year-old girl growing up under the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 dresses like a boy to support her family when her father is arrested.

Coco – Amazon, on-Demand
An aspiring young musician named Miguel embarks on an extraordinary journey to the magical land of his ancestors.

Ferdinand – Theaters only
Ferdinand, a giant bull with a big heart, and his friends help him to return to his family.

Loving Vincent – Amazon
Vincent van Gogh’s life and death told by his paintings and by the images within them. Featuring 120 of van Gogh’s paintings.

Best Documentary (Feature)

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail – Amazon
Abacus, a small family-run bank, becomes the only U.S. bank to face criminal charges in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The indictment and subsequent trial forces the Sung family to defend itself — and its bank’s legacy in the Chinatown community — over the course of a five-year legal battle.

Faces Places – Theaters only
Director Agnes Varda and photographer/muralist J.R. journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.

Icarus – Netflix
An American cyclist gets involved with a vast Russian doping scandal after meeting the Russian scientist who has orchestrated the whole thing.

Last Men in Aleppo – Netflix
A film about the White Helmets, an organization comprised of ordinary citizens who are the first to rush towards military strikes and attacks in the hope of saving lives.

Strong Island – Netflix
Filmmaker Yance Ford investigates the 1992 murder of her brother, 24-year-old William Ford Jr.

Short Films

What’s a “short film”? According to the Academy, it’s a film that’s under 40 minutes long. The nominees for Best Documentary Short, Best Animated Short, and Best Live Action Short are showing in a select number of theaters – visit Shorts.TV to find out what’s playing near you. The same website indicates that some of the shorts will be available to stream online, promising that they’re “coming soon” – but might not be soon enough to stream them before the Oscars.

We haven’t seen them all but have identified a few particularly timely or interesting ones to check out if you can…

Best Documentary Short

Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 – view on YouTube
Mindy Alper is a tortured and brilliant 56-year-old artist: acute anxiety, mental disorder and devastating depression have caused her to be committed to mental institutions to undergo electro shock therapy and survive a 10 year period without the ability to speak. Her hyper self awareness has allowed her to produce a lifelong body of work that expresses her emotional state with powerful psychological precision. Through interviews, reenactments, the building of an eight and a half foot paper mache bust of her beloved psychiatrist, and examining drawings made from the time she was a child, we learn how she has emerged from darkness and isolation to a life that includes love, trust and support.

Heroin(e) – view on Netflix
This short Neflix doc examines America’s opioid epidemic through profiles of three women working to change the drug abuse cycle in Huntington, West Virginia: Fire Chief Jan Rader spends the majority of her days reviving those who have overdosed; Judge Patricia Keller presides over drug court; and Necia Freeman of Brown Bag Ministry provides meals to the women selling their bodies for drugs.

Knife Skills – view on YouTube
Edwins is a Cleveland eatery aiming to be a world-class restaurant: its 80 employees are men and women who are recently out of prison, most of whom had never cooked before.

You can see trailers for these and the other Documentary Short nominees here.

Best Animated Short

Dear Basketball – view on go90.com
This short film, written and narrated by Kobe Bryant, charts his love for – and his unavoidable goodbye to – basketball.

You can see trailers for the rest of the films nominated for Animated Short here.

Live Action Short Film

DeKalb Elementary
This short, based on a 911 call about a would-be school shooter who was convinced to lay down his weapon, is particularly resonant in the aftermath of February’s Parkland shooting, and shows how in this case, loss of life was averted.

The Silent Child
A deaf 4-year-old girl named Libby lives in a world of silence until a caring social worker teaches her to use sign language to communicate.

You can see trailers for the rest of the films nominated for Live Action Short here.

What’s top of your list to catch before the Oscars? Which film would you like to see walk away with a gold statue?