The 86th entry to the history of the Oscars came to a head on the weekend, but we’re willing to bet that there’s a fair few of the 2014 Academy Award-winning movies that you haven’t had the time to watch yet. With this in mind and considering the fact that a lot of the films have already been released on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download, and those that haven’t won’t be too far behind, we’ve put together a top fifteen must-see list from all of the winning and nominated films.
Top twenty 2014 Academy Award winning movies to catch up on:
1. Twelve Years a Slave – telling the true story of a man’s struggle through the reality of slavery and picking up Best Picture (Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, and Anthony Katagas), Best Writing for an Adapted Screenplay for John Ridley and Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong’o, Twelve Years a Slave is clearly one of the must-see 2014 Academy Award winning films. It also had a total of nine nominations, including Best Director for Steve McQueen, Best Actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Best Supporting Actor for Michael Fassbender.
It was only released in cinemas on the 27th December 2013, you you can still catch it if you’re quick, but it’ll be out in DVD, Blu-ray and digital download on the 12th May 2014, if you wanted to wait it out for the comfort of your sofa.
2. American Hustle – despite not winning anything on the night, the fact that American Hustle was nominated for ten awards, the highest alongside Gravity, has got to put it into the higher places in our top fifteen. It was in the running for everything from Best Picture and Best Director to nomination in all of the acting categories and shout puts for the Original Screenplay, Production Design, Costumes and Editing.
The 70s con artist caper is also still on at the cinema at the time of writing, but it’ll be making its way to DVD, Blu-ray and digital download on the 18th March 2014.
3. Gravity – also clocking in a massive ten nominations and coming away with a whopping 7 Academy Awards, Gravity was the biggest overall winner in 2014. Oscars awarded to the include Best Director for Alfonso Cuarón, Best Original Score for Steven Price, Best Sound Editing for Glenn Freemantle, Best Sound Mixing for Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, and Chris Munro, Best Cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki, Best Film Editing for Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger, and Best Visual Effects for Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, and Neil Corbould.
The Sandra Bullock and George Clooney orbital odyssey has just come to and end at most cinemas, with the odd one or two stragglers, but the DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Download was released on the 3rd March 2014, just a matter of hours after Ellen Degeneres closed the 86th Academy Awards ceremony.
4. Her – Spike Jonze to the Oscar for Best Writing of an Original Screenplay with the left-field love story, Her. With five nominations in total, it was one of the surprise underdogs, but clearly a movie that impressed the judging panel.
The good news is that at the time of writing it can still be seen at the big screen, but for anyone that misses it the home entertainment release will be coming along shortly with DVD, Blu-ray and digital downloads expected to go on sale from April 2014.
5. Frozen – every Academy Award needs a stand out animated feature to talk about and Frozen managed to pip the likes of The Croods and Despicable Me 2 to the Best Animated Feature Film spot for Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, and Peter Del Vecho. It also won the Best Original Song for “Let It Go” by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.
The winter-time release is also at the tail end of its time at the movies and the DVD, Blu-ray and download versions will be officially hitting stores from the 31st March 2014 if you’re looking for a little spring-time Christmas cheer.
6. Dallas Buyers Club – three awards and six nomination in total puts Dallas Buyers Club in contention for must- see status, with Matthew McConaughey running away with the Best Actor award and Jared Leto clinching the Supporting equivalent. It also managed to take the Best Make-Up and Hairstyling Oscar.
It’s already available for home entertainment, with its release on DVD, Blu-ray and digital on the 4th February 2014.
7. Blue Jasmin – Woody Allen’s latest entry to cinema history managed to attract three nominations. Cate Blanchett was the only winner though as Best Actress for her role as Jeanette ‘Jasmine’ Francis.
It was released on the 17th February 2014 on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download, so you can catch up with this one straight away and in all fairness it’s probably a good one to enjoy from home.
8. The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellazza) – winner of the Best Foreign Language Film, Paulo Sorrentino’s Roman high-life, party-people deconstruction has also picked up both a Golden Globe and a BAFTA in the exact same category, establishing itself as the must-see foreign language film of the year.
As is always the case with foreign language releases, The Great Beauty didn’t get a whole lot of cinema space, but it is available on home entertainment, having been released on DVD and digital download on the 13th January 2014.
9. The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese’s full frontal review of eighties big city trading and New York high-life didn’t do as well as some might have expected, despite its five nominations. Despite not picking up any awards, it was in the mix for Best Picture (Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joey McFarland, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff), Best Director (Martin Scorsese), Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, Best Supporting Actor for Jonah Hill, and Best Writer for an Adapted Screenplay for Terence Winter.
The film is still playing at cinemas at the time of writing, so the DVD, Blu-ray and digital download won’t be out until the 19th May 2014.
10. Philomena – the genius of combining Dame Judy Dench with Steve Coogan on screen has proved to be a bit of a hit with the judging panel for the Academy Awards too. Dramatic and comic to create a lot of pathos earned the movie nominations for Best Picture (Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan, and Tracey Seaward), Best Actress for Judy Dench, Best Writing of an Adapted Screenplay (Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope) and Best Original Score by the legendary Alexandre Desplat.
You’ll be hard pressed to find a cinema still showing it, but it’s out on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download on the 24th March 2014.
