Tonight the entertainment industry will assemble in Hollywood to celebrate this year’s nominees for the Academy Awards. Since it’s an exciting night for families who love movies, it can also be a great time to have some timely history lessons about the Oscars, seize upon teachable moments to have conversations about winning and losing, and make a list of past Academy Award winning and nominated films to stream on Netflix.
Learn About the History of the Academy Awards
This year’s Academy Awards begins at 8:30 pm which gives families time to teach tweens and teens about the Oscars by streaming And the Oscar Goes To via Netflix before the red carpet glamor begins. This 94 minute documentary goes beyond the red carpet and features vintage clips and interviews with everyone from Steven Spielberg to Liza Minnelli as it traces the history of the Oscars.
Lessons About Winning and Losing
Kids may be rooting for favorites like Hidden Figures, Moana, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Zootopia, Suicide Squad, and The Jungle Book who are among the nominees. As the camera focuses on the faces of the multiple nominees in each category as the winner is announced, only one will walk to the stage to claim the golden statue.
While lessons on winning and losing typically apply to sports, there are teachable moments that occur during the Oscars broadcast. Parents can highlight:
- The honor of being nominated
- The grace with which fellow nominees congratulate the winner despite not winning
- How humble some winners can be during their acceptance speeches as they talk about what an incredible honor it is to be among such talented individuals in their category
- The importance of good stories that stir our souls. Plenty of fantastic movies have been nominated without being winners and others are overlooked by the Academy. It doesn’t mean that we love them any less.
- Over time we tend to forget which movies won which award in which year but it’s always fun to rewatch movies that we fell in love with the first time we saw them.
8 Past & Present Oscar Nominated Movies to Stream on Netflix
Thanks to Netflix, many Academy Award winning and nominated movies are available to stream so you can binge on favorites from this year and years past. Here’s an age appropriate guide to some of the Oscar-worthy movies currently available through Netflix Streaming.
Kids
- Zootopia —A nominee for this year’s Best Animated Feature Film
- Hugo— Won 5 Academy Awards and 6 more in 2012
Tweens
- The Jungle Book— A nominee for this year’s Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Teens
- To Kill a Mockingbird— Won 3 Academy Awards and nominated for 5 more in 1963
- Good Will Hunting— Won 2 Academy Awards and nominated for 7 more in 1998
Favorites for Parents
- Good Will Hunting— Won 2 Academy Awards in 1996
- Pulp Fiction— Won an Academy Award and nominated for 6 more in 1995
- Shakespeare in Love— Won 7 Academy Awards and nominated for 6 more in 1999
I am a Netflix Stream Team Member and while I am not compensated, my family does enjoy a complimentary Netflix subscription and other items for my involvement. Affiliate links included in this post.
