And, The Oscar Goes To…

It’s Oscars month on SBS World Movies, with Academy Award-winning films airing each weeknight from 6 to 30 March. Also find some of the biggest Oscar winners at SBS On Demand’s The Oscar Goes To collection.

(L–R) ‘The Father’, ‘Parasite’, ‘Monster’, ‘Drive My Car’. Source: SBS On Demand

It is time to dust down your red carpet gown. With Hollywood’s night of nights held this month, SBS World Movies and SBS On Demand are putting the spotlight on Oscar-winning films.

Each weeknight at 8.30pm from Monday 6 to Friday 30 March, tune into SBS World Movies to catch some of the Oscar-winning greats. 

And dive into SBS On Demand’s vast collection of former winners with The Oscar Goes To collection. It is so jam-packed with statuesque gold that some are in contention at this year’s glittering awards ceremony, including gripping docu-thriller Navalny, and sublime Irish Best International Feature award hopeful The Quiet Girl.

While we wait to see how that pair fares, here are a few more of our statuette-securing faves:

Sophie’s Choice, 1982

The bajillion-times nominated Meryl Streep took home her first Best Actress statue (after a supporting role win for Kramer vs. Kramer) as a Polish holocaust survivor in this post-WWII drama wrapped around a traumatic secret sprung from an impossible ethical dilemma. Helmed by All the President’s Men director Alan J Pakula (a three-times Oscar nominee), he adapted the screenplay from the best-selling William Styron novel from 1979.

Sophie’s Choice is available for a limited time at SBS On Demand.

The Hours, 2002

Make sure your Oscars catch-up takes in our Nicole Kidman’s Best Actress win for Virginia Woolf biopic The Hours. She famously donned a prosthetic schnoz to play the pioneering author in Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of the Michael Cunningham novel. Depicting Woolf penning her celebrated book Mrs Dalloway, the film borrows the original, abandoned title. It’s a triptych, pairing her story with that of two other women, more contemporary strands featuring fellow Oscar-winners Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep.

The Hours airs at 8.30pm, Wednesday 8 March on SBS World Movies. It will then be available for 30 days’ catch-up at SBS On Demand.

Monster, 2003

Much like Kidman, the statuesque Charlize Theron was willing to don the prosthetics to bury her beauty in a compelling turn as true-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a Florida lesbian driven to the edge in this gripping biopic from Wonder Woman helmer Patty Jenkins. Eventually brought down by her younger lover (Christina Ricci), this is no straightforward monstrous story, as it investigates male violence perpetrated against Wuornos. Theron rises above the makeup to bring great depth to the role, securing the Best Actress Oscar.

Monster airs at 8.30pm, Thursday 9 March on SBS World Movies. It is now streaming at SBS On Demand.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000

Malaysian star Michelle Yeoh has nimbly leapt her way through awards season, grabbing gongs left, right and centre for multiverse-hopping hijinks Everything Everywhere All At Once. While Yeoh’s tipped to lose out to Cate Blanchett in Tár at this year’s ceremony, it’s worth dusting off the time-honoured “snubbed” outcry for her missing out on a nom for Ang Lee’s martial arts epic with its mind and bamboo-bending special effects. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did at least take home four other Oscars: Best Foreign Language Film (now the International Feature Film category), Original Score, Cinematography and Set Decoration.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon airs at 8.30pm, Tuesday 14 March on SBS World Movies. It will then be available for 30 days’ catch-up at SBS On Demand.

My Left Foot, 1989

Revered English actor Daniel Day-Lewis became the first (and so far only) man to take home a third Best Actor Oscar for his performance as the former president in Lincoln. But his incredible run began with his turn as Irish author and painter with cerebral palsy Christy Brown in the Jim Sheridan film based on Brown’s 1954 autobiography of the same name. The brilliant Brenda Fricker, playing Christy’s mum, also took home Best Supporting Actress.

My Left Foot airs at 8.30pm, Friday 17 March on SBS World Movies. It will then be available for 30 days’ catch-up at SBS On Demand. 

Parasite, 2019

One of the best Best Motion Picture wins in recent memory, Bong Joon-ho’s bonkers social stratification satire Parasite was the first non-English language film to take out the top award. It’s also the first South Korean film to nab an Oscar and swept up Best International Feature, Best Director and Original Screenplay, too; a remarkable haul. Song Kang-ho, Chang Hyae-jin, Choi Woo-shik and Park So-dam are uniformly excellent as a grifting family prepared to go to great lengths to infiltrate the luxurious life of a wealthy family.

Parasite airs at 8.30pm, Monday 20 March on SBS World Movies. It is now streaming at SBS On Demand.

Interview: Bong Joon-ho 

Drive My Car, 2021

Japanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi brought Haruki Murakami’s short story to ravishing cinematic life, adapted with co-writer Takamasa Ôe, in this beautiful Best International Film winner that stars Hidetoshi Nishijima as a discombobulated theatre director who finds solace in his grudgingly accepted chauffeur (Tôko Miura). It is a quietly rewarding film that teases out how their daily drive to rehearsals helps them open up in subtle ways that were previously out of emotional reach.

Drive My Car airs at 8.30pm, Monday 27 March on SBS World Movies. It is now streaming at SBS On Demand.

12 Years A Slave, 2013

‘12 Years a Slave’. Source: SBS World Movies

British director Steve McQueen was nominated for Best Director at the 2014 Academy Awards for this gut-wrenching slavery epic starring Chiwetel Ejiofor. While McQueen lost out to Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity (and Ejiofor to Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club) McQueen can take solace in the fact that the film did scoop up Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for a luminous Lupita Nyong’o’s breakout role in a nine-nomination run that validates the film’s searing power.

12 Years A Slave airs at 8.30pm, Thursday 30 March on SBS World Movies. It will then be available for 30 days’ catch-up at SBS On Demand.

 

The Father, 2020

You can usually count on at least one major plot twist in every Oscars award ceremony. In 2021, pretty much everyone had their money on a posthumous Best Actor win for the late, great Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, so much so it appeared as if the standard category order had been upended to finish on a high for the Black Panther star. It was not to be. Instead, Welsh star Anthony Hopkins took home his second statuette for his turn as a man losing his way to dementia opposite Olivia Coleman (who won Best Actress for The Favourite in 2019) as his daughter in Florian Zeller’s time-skipping film.

The Father airs at 8.30pm, Friday 31 March on SBS World Movies. It is now streaming at SBS On Demand.

Check your local guide for other Oscar-winning films on SBS World Movies on weeknights in March. And browse the many other films at SBS On Demand’s The Oscar Goes To collection.