Amazon Prime just quietly added one of this year’s best picture Oscar nominees

It has a huge Rotten Tomatoes score.

Amazon Prime just quietly added one of this year’s best picture Oscar nominees

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Ahead of the Oscars 2025, taking place this weekend, Amazon Prime has just quietly added one of the most acclaimed of this year’s best picture nominees.

Nickel Boys, released in August, 2024, has raked in two nominations at this year’s Academy Awards – and has been tipped to win big on Sunday night.

RaMell Ross’ movie is set in Florida in the 1960s, and follows two African-American boys, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), as they are sent to a brutal reform school.

The pair strike up a friendship as they try to survive the abusive facility, while also attempting to draw attention to the treatment they are subjected to.

The film, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel of the same name, also starred Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jimmie Fails, Daveed Diggs, Luke Tennie and Hamish Linklater.

For film fans who haven’t been able to catch Nickel Boys yet – or just want to watch it again – thankfully it has been added to the Amazon Prime Video slate just in time for the ceremony.

Nickel Boys is up for two Oscars at this weekend’s ceremony (Picture: MGM)

It currently commands a huge 91% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to a 75% audience ranking.

Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian praised: ‘There are outstanding performances here from Ellis-Taylor, Herisse and Wilson, and Jomo Fray’s cinematography and Nora Mendis’s production design are exceptional too.

‘This is a survivor’s coming of age: tough, disillusioned, brilliant.’

‘Nickel Boys is a fragmented film, so much so that it can be difficult to grasp it,’ Maureen Lee Lennker from Entertainment Weekly shared.

Ethan Herisse led the way in the stunning movie (Picture: MGM)

‘But at a certain point, it turns around and grabs you instead, refusing to let go until you’re left sitting in a startling and stunned silence.’

‘The film sidles up to the narrative’s wrenching twists rather than heavily foreshadowing them, and is all the more gutting for it,’ The Daily Telegraph’s Tim Robey penned.

As Ross Bonaime of Collider added: ‘Ross creates a work of art that brilliantly adapts Whitehead’s book, while also finding his own ingenious way to film this story, and in doing so, creates easily one of the best films of 2024.’

Full list of Oscars 2025 nominations Best Picture

Anora

The Brutalist

A Complete Unknown

Conclave

Dune: Part Two

Emilia Pérez

I’m Still Here

Nickel Boys

The Substance

Wicked

Best Director

Sean Baker, Anora

Brady Corbet, The Brutalist

James Mangold, A Complete Unknown

Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez

Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

Best Actor

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown

Colman Domingo, Sing Sing

Ralph Fiennes, Conclave

Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice

Best Actress

Cynthia Erivo, Wicked

Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez

Mikey Madison, Anora

Demi Moore, The Substance

Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

Best Supporting Actor

Yura Borisov, Anora

Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown

Guy Pearce, The Brutalist

Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice

Best Supporting Actress

Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown

Ariana Grande, Wicked

Felicity Jones, The Brutalist

Isabella Rossellini, Conclave

Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez

Best Original Screenplay

Anora

The Brutalist

A Real Pain

September 5

The Substance

Best Adapted Screenplay

A Complete Unknown

Conclave

Emilia Pérez

Nickel Boys

Sing Sing

Best Animated Feature

Flow

Inside Out 2

Memoir Of A Snail

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

The Wild Robot

Best International Feature Film

I’m Still Here (Brazil)

The Girl With The Needle (Denmark)

Emilia Pérez (France)

The Seed Of The Sacred Fig (Germany)

Flow (Latvia)

Best Documentary Feature Film

Black Box Diaries

No Other Land

Porcelain War

Soundtrack To A Coup D’Etat

Sugarcane

Best Original Score

The Brutalist

Conclave

Emilia Pérez

Wicked

The Wild Robot

Best Original Song

‘El Mal’, Emilia Pérez

‘The Journey’, The Six Triple Eight

‘Like A Bird’, Sing Sing

‘Mi Camino’, Emilia Pérez

‘Never Too Late’, Elton John: Never Too Late

Best Cinematography

The Brutalist

Dune: Part Two

Emilia Pérez

Maria

Nosferatu

Best Editing

Anora

The Brutalist

Conclave

Emilia Pérez

Wicked

Best Sound

A Complete Unknown

Dune: Part Two

Emilia Pérez

Wicked

The Wild Robot

Best Production Design

The Brutalist

Conclave

Dune: Part Two

Nosferatu

Wicked

Best Makeup And Hairstyling

A Different Man

Emilia Pérez

Nosferatu

The Substance

Wicked

Best Costume Design

A Complete Unknown

Conclave

Gladiator II

Nosferatu

Wicked

Best Visual Effects

Alien: Romulus

Better Man

Dune: Part Two

Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes

Wicked 

Best Documentary Short Film

Death By Numbers

I Am Ready, Warden

Incident

Instruments Of A Beating Heart

The Only Girl In The Orchestra

Best Live-Action Short Film

A Lien

Anuja

I’m Not A Robot

The Last Ranger

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

Best Animated Short Film

Beautiful Men

In The Shadow Of The Cypress

Magic Candies

Wander To Wonder

Yuck!

Nickel Boys is up for two trophies at the Oscars on Sunday, including the coveted best picture gong, alongside I’m Still Here, Conclave, The Brutalist, Anora, Emilia Perez, Dune: Part Two, Wicked, A Complete Unknown and the Substance.

It has also earned a nod for best adapted screenplay, battling it out with A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Emilia Perez and Sing Sing.

Nickel Boys is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video now.

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