In the streaming video wars, content is king. In the competition for viewers between the big three services, Netflix may have the most buzz and largest audience, Disney+ may have the marquee franchises, but Prime Video has the biggest film catalog. Prime's video streaming service currently offers over 9,000 films, while Netflix offers just over 3,800 — less than half of Prime Video's catalog (depending on the country). Not content on relying on other studios for films, however, Prime Video is now adding original titles to its library.
After it launched in 2006, Prime Video built its offerings through streaming deals with studios like Lionsgate and Universal. In 2021, Amazon acquired MGM, adding some classic films to their library, including the James Bond movie franchise. In 2015, however, Prime Video premiered its very first original film from the newly-formed Amazon Studios: director Spike Lee's comedic drama Chi-Raq. Amazon Original Films now add more quality to Prime Video's quantity, with unique movies from a variety of filmmakers.
Amazon Studios has also matched Netflix in making big-budget films and partnering with A-list talent, with varying degrees of success. Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel (2017) was a critical flop, and sequels to Borat and Eddie Murphy's Coming to America were massive disappointments to many. However, documentaries like Good Night Oppy, action adventures like The Lost City of Z (with Charlie Hunnam), and sci-fi films like The Tomorrow War (with Chris Pratt) were well received. Other films, however, were true standouts, with some earning Academy Awards and multiple nominations. Here are the best Prime Video Original Movies available only on the streaming service, ranked for your approval.
20 Beautiful Boy (2018)
Based on the real-life memoirs of author David Sheriff and his son Nic, Beautiful Boy is a heartbreaking story of love, loss, addiction, and the tender bond between a father and a son. Nicolas Sheriff is an all-rounder at school. Being an actor, artist, athlete, and editor comes quite easily to him. But when he falls into the treacherous depths of meth addiction, his father does everything to stop him from destroying himself.
Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet give genuinely raw, emotionally resonant performances as the loving pair desperately seek the other’s approval. Carell is subtle as a father helping his child and Chalamet infuses his drugged-out character with a piercing eye. Beautiful Boy is director Felix Van Groeningen’s English-language feature debut and it celebrates a bond between father and son that can never be broken.
19 I Want You Back (2022)
Charlie Day and Jenny Slate enter a world of messy breakups and second chances in the hilarious and beautiful I Want You Back. Peter and Emma are two dumpees who broke up with their former significant others on the same weekend. Together, they decided to team up and ruin their exes’ new relationships and hopefully win them back. Although their meddling antics and shameless schemes lead to plenty of laughs, they soon realize just how better off they are without their former partners.
I Want You Back documents the intimate journey of breaking up and moving on. Both Day and Slate drip with a relatable factor and the chemistry they share as strange but solid rocks to one another who have each other's backs through thick and thin only helps to turn up the charm.
18 You Were Never Really Here (2017)
Written and directed by Lynne Ramsay, You Were Never Really Here is a neo-noir thriller that is equal parts disturbing and thought-provoking. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Joe, a troubled veteran mercenary on a desperate rescue mission after a politician hires him to save his teenage girl from a human trafficking network.
After he begins the hunt, Joe is drawn into an ugly and brutal underworld of corruption and exploitation. His traumatized past threatens to make him slip but he will do anything in his power to save the girl. The movie features a lot of graphic violence paired with haunting visuals injected deliberately into the scenes to make the audience look inside the mind of a broken man trying to find meaning by helping others.
17 I Am Not Your Negro (2017)
I Am Not Your Negro allows the audience to gain a whole new perspective on the concept of race and how it is implemented in America. Director Raoul Peck tries to breathe life into James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript written back in 1979 through this important documentary. In it, we hear about the personal account of three of Baldwin’s close friends and slain Civil Rights leaders – Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Through their eyes, the movie explores the history of racism in the United States of America.
A piercing wit, intellect, and unfiltered truth are presented with a series of old footage and readings of a work that was supposed to be revolutionary. The Black community has endured violence for centuries and the documentary tries to reflect upon the demons of the past in order to understand the progress made by the nation.
16 The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021)
A heartwarming and offbeat teenage romance, The Map of Tiny Perfect Things follows two teens trapped in a time loop. Mark and Margaret are stuck living the same day repeatedly. But instead of being bothered by the bleakness of it all, they decide to spend their time with joy and grace. They set out to put every tiny insignificant perfect thing in their world on the map. For instance, the perfect French fry or the perfect moment.
And in the process, they find the purpose of living in the moment and appreciating life as it comes. Kyle Allen and Kathryn Newton are adorable as the protagonists and their wide-eyed wonder only allows the audience to experience the endless possibilities of life with them.
15 The Report (2019)
The Report is a pulsating and tense political drama written and directed by Scott Z. Burns. It sheds light on the astonishing government abuses that occurred after 9/11. With Adam Driver as the lead, the movie uncovers details of the CIA's torture program under the administration of George Bush and the resulting changes to policy.
FBI agent Daniel Jones performs a thorough investigation into the violent and aggressive tactics used by the CIA. He discovers the truth about some secret black site prisons as well as the cover-up efforts that spread out to the highest levels of administration. Driver completely immerses himself in the character, sacrificing everything in his quest for truth and justice. Ultimately, the movie acts as a wake-up call toward every action that is taken in the name of national security.
14 Radioactive (2020)
Starring Rosamund Pike as the groundbreaking chemist Marie Curie, this biographical drama churns out important details of scientific history and delivers a moving story about choices and consequences. Radioactive chronicles Curie's discoveries, her understanding of radioactivity, and the absolute tragedy that follows every time the world faces a new discovery.
After the death of her husband, Curie devotes herself to science, and as her studies progress, she realizes that her discoveries could either be practiced in medicine and save lives or be applied to warfare and kill billions. Pike carries the role with an intensity of a determined, self-aware scientist who fought against the biases of her time. Radioactive also features great performances from Sam Riley and Anya Taylor-Joy.
13 Blow the Man Down (2019)
Set in the tiny fishing village of Easter Cove, Blow the Man Down is a twisted murder mystery that starts off quite innocently. Two grieving sisters named Mary Beth and Priscilla Connolly struggled to get back on their feet after losing their mother. They have bills to pay and people to answer to, and in the process, they encounter a man and end up committing a gruesome murder.
What follows is a series of lies, secrets, and suspicions as the sisters desperately cry to cover up the truth about what happened. Blow the Man Down creates an intriguing atmosphere using vivid imagery of the close-knit coastal community and a sense of dread hidden underneath merry faces. Morgan Saylor and Sophie Lowe play their characters impeccably and the whodunit plays out in the most unexpected ways.
12 Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022)
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is the fourth installment in the popular animated franchise. After a "monsterfication" experiment went horribly wrong, Drac and his friends wake up to find themselves transformed into humans while the lone human in their family becomes a monster. Drac and the company try to find a way to reverse their condition before it becomes permanent, which leads to a number of silly situations and gags.
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania won fans over with its hidden messages about tolerance and accepting yourself as you are. The all-star voice cast includes Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, and Kathryn Hahn, who are wonderful as the characters. Moreover, the animation also reaches incredible heights in terms of colors and monster designs.
11 Lucy and Desi (2022)
Amy Poehler (Parks and Rec) directed Lucy and Desi, a fantastic documentary that provides a fresh, insightful perspective on the personal and professional lives of TV legends Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Newly-released audio recordings and lots of vintage footage, superbly edited together, make this two-time Emmy winner a much-watch film. Even if you only liked Lucy, you'll love this emotional, entertaining tribute.
There are at least a half-dozen more Prime Video documentaries we could add to this list, but Lucy and Desi stand above the rest. The documentary is far superior to 2021's Being the Ricardos, Amazon Studios' underwhelming dramatization of Lucy and Desi's career from director Aaron Sorkin, and also streaming on Prime Video.
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10 The Vast of Night (2019)
This out-of-left-field sci-fi thriller is more than just a fantastic homage to The Twilight Zone; it mimics it in all the right ways. Presented as an episode of "Paradox Theater," with a Rod Serling sound-a-like narrating, The Vast of Night is set in a small New Mexico town in the late 1950s.
An inquisitive teenager (Sierra McCormick) and a radio disc jockey (Jake Horowitz) begin investigating strange occurrences, leading them to believe a UFO may be hovering over the town, hidden in the night sky. Accentuated with long takes and snappy dialogue, this is cerebral sci-fi, something severely lacking in the genre these days.
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9 Argentina, 1985 (2022)
Based on a true story, Argentina, 1985 is directed by Argentinian director Santiago Mitre and follows the prosecutors who risked everything to convict the military leaders of the country's former dictatorship.
It's a haunting tale of the human rights violations committed by Argentina's former leaders, including torture and murder. Ricardo Darín is fantastic as the lead prosecutor, who endured death threats to bring the country's former leaders to justice. It's a riveting film of a story few Americans are aware of.
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8 Nanny (2022)
Nanny is a disturbing psychological thriller that won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Anna Diop is outstanding in the lead role, playing an immigrant working as a nanny to a wealthy New York City couple. Diop's Aisha is haunted by vivid visions, seemingly warning her of an impending tragedy.
The film marks the impressive feature film directorial debut of Nikyatu Jusu, who blends themes of class warfare and supernatural hauntings. This isn't a traditional horror film, but a slow-burn mind-trip laden with disturbing imagery.
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7 Honey Boy (2019)
Shia LaBeouf wrote Honey Boy based on his real-life experiences as a child actor, and your opinion of him personally will likely change after watching this moving drama. It's an intimate portrait of the relationship between a father with personal issues and his young son, who struggles to find himself.
Shia plays an overbearing father exploiting his aspiring actor son (A Quiet Place's Noah Jupe), and he's outstanding in the role. LaBeouf did admit some depictions of parental abuse didn't happen to him personally, but since the film isn't a straight autobiographical story, it doesn't affect the emotional impact of this touching drama from director Alma Har'el.
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6 One Night in Miami (2021)
Regina King's acting has won an Oscar (If Beale Street Could Talk) and several Emmy awards (Watchmen, Seven Seconds), but she made her feature film directorial debut with the fantastic One Night in Miami, a fictionalized account of a real-life meeting between four African American legends.
Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom, Jr.) sit down and discuss the civil rights movement and their place in it, on the night Ali won the World Heavyweight title from Sonny Liston. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Odom for Best Supporting Actor and Kemp Powers for Best Adapted Screenplay (based on his stage play).
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5 Thirteen Lives (2022)
It was a bit of a coup for Prime Video to score the film Thirteen Lives, directed by Academy Award winner Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind) and based on the real-life rescue of a boys' soccer team from a flooded cave in Thailand in the summer of 2018.
Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgerton play the divers who led the rescue efforts, and though the film is slow to get going, the second half is excellent. Even if you followed the story when it happened, there's so much more covered here that makes this film watchable. Howard seems to be a master of building suspense for stories in which you already know the outcome.
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4 The Big Sick (2017)
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Spouses Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for 2017's The Big Sick, which was inspired by their real-life experiences. Nanjiani plays a stand-up comic who falls in love with a girl, but her Midwestern background clashes with his Pakistani Muslim upbringing.
When she becomes seriously ill, their relationship is tested to its limits. Despite the dark turn the story takes, the film is constantly hilarious, and it's one of the most surprisingly entertaining comedies in recent years.
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Director Darius Marder's Sound of Metal earned a well-deserved Best Picture Oscar nomination and features Riz Ahmed as Ruben, a drummer in a metal band who suddenly begins losing his hearing at an alarming rate and has to realign his life. There are fantastic performances all around the film, which used real members of the deaf community, including actress Lauren Ridloff (The Walking Dead).
Ahmed earned a Best Actor nod, and co-star Paul Raci was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and the film would win Best Sound and Best Film Editing Academy Awards. Marder's direction is first-rate, and the opening scene grabs you and doesn't let go. There isn't an insincere moment in the entire film, and it's an incredible viewing experience.
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2 Air (2023)
The true story of Nike's efforts to sign Michael Jordan as a spokesperson in 1984 forms the basis of Air, a film produced by Amazon Studios that can be exclusively seen on Prime Video after its brief theatrical run. The duo of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon make for yet another winning film here.
Affleck directs Air, and also plays Nike CEO Phil Knight, while Damon plays Sonny Vaccaro, the Nike basketball scout who is convinced Jordan will be a game changer in the NBA and needs to be a Nike spokesperson. This movie is far more entertaining than any corporate drama has the right to be.
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1 Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Best Picture nominee Manchester by the Sea is not an easy film to watch. Just about every character in the film is a flawed individual with personal issues, and an unspeakable tragedy underlies the narrative. Casey Affleck won a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar for his performance as a broken man who is facing having to raise his nephew after his brother dies. The win was overshadowed by Affleck's personal issues, but the film stands apart as a moving exploration of grief.
Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and the film earned six nominations in all. Manchester by the Sea holds the distinction of being the first film made by a streaming service to be nominated for Best Picture.
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