Since 2010, Amazon MGM Studios (formerly Amazon Studios) has crafted a wide range of original movies for the Prime Video streaming platform. From the artsy, poetic Paterson to Amy Poehler’s award-winning documentary Lucy and Desi, the streamer has a vast selection of original movies that will suit everyone’s tastes. Among them are multiple Oscar-nominated films produced by Amazon, such as Manchester by the Sea, One Night in Miami, and Sound of Metal.
Looking for the next addition to your watch list? Here are Entertainment Weekly’s picks for the 20 best Amazon original movies to watch on Prime Video today.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)
Amazon Studios
Released in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic — on top of a turbulent presidential election — this sequel to 2006’s breakout hit Borat offered comic relief during hard times. Sacha Baron Cohen reprises his role as Borat Sagdiyev, a journalist from Kazakhstan tasked with delivering a monkey as a peace offering to Vice President Mike Pence. His plans are soon thwarted when he discovers his 15-year-old daughter (whom he just found out about), Tutar (Maria Bakalova), has stowed away with him on his journey, resolving to offer her up in the monkey’s place. Using the same mockumentary format as the first film, Borat puts himself in increasingly precarious real-life situations, though Tutar proves no slouch, particularly in a revealing interview with Rudy Giuliani. Borat remains an acquired taste for some, but this sequel recaptures some of its predecessor’s magic, with Bakalova’s daring performance even earning her an Oscar nomination. —K.J.
Where to watch Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: A– (read the review)
Director: Jason Woliner
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova
Related content: Rudy Giuliani called the cops on Borat crew, claiming extortion, producer says
Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019)
Jillian Bell leads this charming comedy about a woman who is motivated to run in the New York City marathon after her doctor deems her overweight and unhealthy. Faced with way-too-high gym rates and struggling to pay rent, Brittany presses onward in her training and hopes to get by with a little help from friends. What may sound like a generic inspirational tale is, in execution, an honest journey to self-acceptance with Bell delivering a refreshingly honest performance as a character worth rooting for. As EW’s critic writes, “She brings a real, messy humanity to Brittany that comedies hardly ever allow a lead character — let alone a non-impossibly-bodied female — to have.” —K.J.
Where to watch Brittany Runs a Marathon: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: A– (read the review)
Director: Paul Downs Colaizzo
Cast: Jillian Bell, Michaela Watkins, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Lil Rel Howery, Micah Stock
Related content: With Brittany Runs a Marathon, Jillian Bell is racing into her first major role
Catherine Called Birdy (2022)
Between their high-profile stints on HBO series like Game of Thrones and The Last of Us, Bella Ramsey starred in this bright historical comedy, adapted from the beloved 1994 YA novel Catherine, Called Birdy. Ramsey plays Lady Catherine, or, as she prefers “Birdy,” a scrappy 14-year-old who must deal with unwanted suitors while striving to maintain her independence. Rejecting the traditional path of a noble young woman, Birdy is ahead of her time, plucky, rambunctious, and bursting with ideas. EW’s critic calls Catherine Called Birdy “a sly fairytale about a medieval tween that manages to be both cheeky and modern without losing its heart.” —K.J.
Where to watch Catherine Called Birdy: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: B+ (read the review)
Director: Lena Dunham
Cast: Bella Ramsey, Billie Piper, Andrew Scott
Related content: Lena Dunham reveals how Clueless, Slums of Beverly Hills inspired Catherine Called Birdy
Late Night (2019)
Emily Aragones / Amazon Studios / Courtesy Everett
In Late Night, Mindy Kaling plays a young writer who joins the ranks of legendary late-night host Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) as a token diversity hire who’s out to prove she belongs there by merit rather than to fill a quota. Sharp, witty, and women-led, this comedy has a refreshingly non-romantic take on the rom-com. Of course, you can expect a little bit of love, but, for Kaling, bending the genre to focus on the two central women was always the goal. “The romance of the movie…is not the major part of the movie,” she told EW in 2019. “It’s not like I’ve done before in my other things because I obviously love romance so much, but it is an element of it.” —M.W.
Where to watch Late Night: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: B (read the review)
Director: Nisha Ganatra
Cast: Emma Thompson, Mindy Kaling, Max Casella, Hugh Dancy, John Lithgow, Denis O’Hare, Reid Scott, Amy Ryan
Related content: How Mindy Kaling mined being a diversity hire on The Office to write Late Night
One Night in Miami (2020)
Patti Perret/Amazon Studios
This Oscar-nominated drama, directed by Regina King, recreates a motel-room meeting that took place in Miami on Feb. 25, 1964, between four of the most influential Black public figures of the midcentury: Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.). While the conversations in the film are fictionalized, screenwriter Kemp Powers (who adapted the script from his play of the same name) imagines the topics they would have discussed, particularly their respective roles as Black men navigating racial conflicts in 1960s America. What may sound like a verbose exercise is made vibrant by King’s deft direction. As EW’s critic writes, “In extrapolating the mysteries of a night we’ll never fully know, she finds something that may not be strictly true to lived history, but possibly even richer: a quintessentially American tale; profane, profound, and beautiful.” —K.J.
Where to watch One Night in Miami: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: A– (read the review)
Director: Regina King
Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr.
Related content: Hear Leslie Odom Jr. invoke the spirit of Sam Cooke in ‘Speak Now’ from One Night in Miami
Paterson (2016)
This quietly poetic slice-of-life film follows a week in the life of Paterson (Adam Driver), a bus driver who happens to work in the New Jersey city of the same name. After hearing the buzz of passengers and their daily observations, Paterson writes poems in a notebook, which his wife, Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), wants him to share with the world. Driver delivers one of his most underrated performances as the curious, mild-mannered poet, proving to be a strong match for writer-director Jim Jarmusch’s minimalist style. As EW’s critic writes, “There’s a hushed beauty to Paterson and Paterson that celebrates the way in which even the most ordinary, prosaic lives can be full of poetry.” —K.J.
Where to watch Paterson: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: A– (read the review)
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani, Barry Shabaka Henley, Cliff Smith, Chasten Harmon, William Jackson Harper, Masatoshi Nagase
Related content: NYFF 2016: Adam Driver says that parallel parking a bus is easier than writing poetry
Saltburn (2023)
Emerald Fennell followed up her provocative feature directorial debut, 2020’s Promising Young Woman (for which she won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay), with this divisive psychological thriller. Barry Keoghan stars as Oliver, a misfit student studying at Oxford University who develops a fast obsession with his preppy classmate Felix (Jacob Elordi). The two become friends and Felix invites Oliver to his family’s mega-estate, Saltburn, for the summer. We won’t spoil just how Oliver’s relationship with Felix and his family devolves from there — and we also can’t guarantee you’ll love it — but, as EW’s critic writes, “Its endless visual and literary layers will bring its ardent admirers back to it again and again, because it is a triumph of the cinema of excess, in all its orgiastic, unapologetic glory.” —K.J.
Where to watch Saltburn: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: A (read the review)
Director: Emerald Fennell
Cast: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe
Related content: Breaking down Saltburn‘s most shocking moments from tub slurping to vampiric lovemaking
Small Axe (2020)
Steve McQueen’s remarkable Small Axe isn’t just one film, it’s five. The anthology series looks at the history of life in Britain for the Black and West Indian communities, from protests to parties. Across the collection, you’ll see actors like Letitia Wright, John Boyega, Micheal Ward, Kenyah Sandy, and Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn enliven “stories have shaped the environment that we live in now,” McQueen told EW. Beautifully shot and uniquely moving, these heartfelt films are as ambitious as they are rousing. —M.W.
Where to watch Small Axe: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Steve McQueen
Cast: John Boyega, Letitia Wright, Shaun Parkes, Micheal Ward, Kenyah Sandy, Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn
Related content: Steve McQueen on making five ‘necessary, important, and urgent’ films
Sound of Metal (2020)
Sound of Metal tells the heart-wrenching story of Ruben, a drummer who suddenly loses his hearing. “As Ruben’s fear and rage begins to open itself to the unknown,” writes EW’s critic, “the movie reaches toward something profound — finding real, furious power in the spaces between the sound.” Thanks to the powerful Oscar-nominated performance of Riz Ahmed, this intimate journey to self-acceptance is both hard to watch and impossible to look away from. —M.W.
Where to watch Sound of Metal: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: A– (read the review)
Director: Darius Marder
Cast: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff, Mathieu Amalric
Related content: Riz Ahmed on his ASL-learning, punk-drumming performance in Sound of Metal
Suspiria (2018)
For a delightfully whacky and wild pick, try Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria, a loose remake of Dario Argento’s 1977 Italian horror film of the same name. Dakota Johnson plays a young dancer who finds herself in a German company run by witches, including Tilda Swinton as the austere Madame Blanc. This movie isn’t for the faint of heart, especially during the h artistic and trippy dance sequences that verge on body horror. There’s even one scene in which a young dancer is “violently whipped around like a rag doll, her joints contorting like a possessed Swiss Army knife,” EW’s critic says. “In moments like that one, the film jolts to life, rivaling Argento’s baroque Grand Guignol style.” If you’re up for a challenging, beautifully grotesque movie, look no further. —M.W.
Where to watch Suspiria: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth, Angela Winkler, Ingrid Caven, Elena Fokina, Sylvie Testud, Renée Soutendijk, Christine LeBoutte, Fabrizia Sacchi, Małgosia Bela, Jessica Harper, Chloë Grace Moretz
Related content: Dakota Johnson was ‘terrified’ to shoot Suspiria dance sequence
Uncle Frank (2020)
Brownie Harris / Amazon / Courtesy Everett
Award-winning writer Alan Ball (American Beauty, Six Feet Under) helmed this character-driven road trip period piece about a gay man coming to terms with his bigoted father’s death. Set in the 1970s, the film follows Frank Bledsoe (Paul Bettany) as he drives back to his hometown for the funeral with his beloved niece (Sophia Lillis). Meanwhile, his secret boyfriend (Peter Macdissi) wants to tag along, too, despite Frank’s reservations. The film ruminates on guilt, familial strife, and trauma with Ball’s signature bittersweet touch, earning a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Television Movie. —K.J.
Where to watch Uncle Frank: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Alan Ball
Cast: Paul Bettany, Sophia Lillis, Peter Macdissi, Judy Greer, Steve Zahn, Lois Smith, Margo Martindale, Stephen Root, Colton Ryan
Related content: Meet your maker: Uncle Frank director Alan Ball on his biggest influences
The Vast of Night (2020)
This underrated lo-fi mystery film transports us to 1950s New Mexico. In a sleepy town, a switchboard operator and a radio DJ investigate a strange audio signal that intercepts the latter’s broadcast. Their findings lead them to uncover a conspiracy, and, most intriguingly, reports of an unidentified flying object. “Just the setting and veneer of the film — it’s framed as an episode of a Twilight Zone-esque anthology TV series — should be enough for you to guess more or less where it’s headed,” EW’s critic writes, but that doesn’t make it any less of an enjoyable ride. —K.J.
Where to watch The Vast of Night: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Andrew Patterson
Cast: Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz
Related content: How The Vast of Night pulled off its stunning tracking shot
You Were Never Really Here (2018)
The dark, hair-raising You Were Never Really Here is an art-house hitman thriller that hits home. Directed by Lynne Ramsay, the movie follows Joe (Joaquin Phoenix), an introverted loner who rescues women who find themselves in precarious positions. It’s a grisly, edge-of-your-seat film that is pulse-quickening, strangely quiet, and understated. “Phoenix only seems to have a few spoken lines in the film,” notes EW’s critic. “But he manages to express an entire inner world through his mannerisms and thousand-yard war-vet’s stare.” —M.W.
Where to watch You Were Never Really Here: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Judith Roberts, Ekaterina Samsonov, John Doman, Alex Manette, Dante Pereira-Olson, Alessandro Nivola
Related content: Lynne Ramsay, Joaquin Phoenix thriller raved as ‘art house’ version of Taken
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