5 overlooked Oscar-winning films you should watch immediately.

      NBC

      We often exaggerate the importance of winning an Academy Award. The more hopeful members of Hollywood believe it will grant their film a sort of immortality, but how many people today have actually viewed John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley, which won Best Picture in 1941 over Citizen Kane, or the 1967 multi-Oscar-winning Doctor Dolittle, known for its love song to a seal?

      In reality, numerous excellent films have secured Oscars only to be largely forgotten later. While the films listed below may not be entirely unknown, they showcase a selection of cinematic pleasures available to stream that most viewers are not obliged to watch, despite their Academy wins.

      The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)

      Wes Anderson achieved his first and currently only Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film with this 39-minute short film based on a 1977 Roald Dahl story. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as a gambler who learns to "see without using his eyes" through the teachings of an Indian guru to enhance his winnings. It’s a clear and straightforward film; the absence of extra embellishments in the narrative perfectly aligns with Anderson’s more-is-more style. Overall, Henry Sugar serves as a beautiful tribute to theater and staging techniques while appreciating a literary great.

      The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is available for streaming on Netflix.

      A Room with a View (1985)

      Merchant Ivory Productions

      In 1985, the Merchant Ivory Productions team—consisting of producer Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala—had been creating low-budget literary adaptations for two decades, many set in Merchant's homeland of India. They then found success in adapting the works of British author E.M. Forster, leading to three films that earned them significant praise. The first was A Room with a View, a romance set in Florence based on Forster’s early 1908 novel. It's a stunning, richly colored film featuring a remarkably young Helena Bonham Carter in her debut performance. It rightfully won three Oscars for Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, and Costume Design.

      A Room with a View is available for streaming on Max.

      Stalag 17 (1953)

      William Holden received the Best Actor Oscar for this Billy Wilder film about American airmen held captive in a German POW camp during World War II. Like all of Wilder's works, Stalag 17 is cleverly written and often comedic, depicting the camaraderie among the airmen as they plan an escape (this film predates the more renowned The Great Escape, covering similar events, by ten years). A particular highlight is Austrian Jewish director Otto Preminger’s rare acting role as the absurdly villainous Nazi warden, Colonel von Scherbach. As a former refugee from Nazi persecution, Preminger likely enjoyed the irony.

      Stalag 17 is available for streaming on Tubi.

      Gigi (1958)

      Gigi, the Best Picture winner in 1958 (out of nine total wins from nine nominations), is a musical based on a 1944 novella that has a mixed reputation, justifiably so. The title character (Leslie Caron) is a young woman (the film avoids specifying her age) being groomed as a courtesan in Belle Époque Paris. Ultimately, she finds herself with a much older man (Louis Jourdan) – but as his fiancée, not as a mistress. Is it dated? Absolutely. However, Gigi is undeniably a celebration of the senses, featuring some of the most exquisite colors in any musical and one of the greatest scores ever by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, following their Broadway success with My Fair Lady. The titular song, which won Best Original Song, is enchanting – as another Lerner and Loewe tune suggests, it's akin to falling in love.

      Gigi is available for streaming on Tubi.

      Blithe Spirit (1945)

      Two Cities Films

      Before directing The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Doctor Zhivago, David Lean co-wrote and directed this adaptation of Noël Coward’s hugely successful 1941 stage comedy. The legendary Rex Harrison plays a novelist who discovers his household shared by both his living wife (Constance Cummings) and his deceased first wife (Kay Hammond) following a botched séance. Effects artist Tom Howard, who later contributed to the special effects of 2001: A Space Odyssey, won the Best Visual Effects Oscar for his work on the film’s various ghosts, which emit an enchanting but otherworldly green glow.

      Blithe Spirit is available for streaming on Max.