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Prime Video has managed to assemble a fairly impressive run of films that have broken through not merely in terms of viewership, but in the broader world of awards—including a handful of Best Picture Oscar nominees.
You're probably already paying for an Amazon Prime subscription, so you might as well take advantage of Prime Video's library of exclusive offerings. Here are some of the best of the bunch.
Heads of State (2025)
John Cena might feel like an unlikely choice to play the President of the United States but, given the year we're having, it's probably the most plausible thing in this rather fun action comedy. Cena plays Will Derringer, a movie star who won election almost entirely on the success of his Water Cobra franchise; when he goes to meet with more experienced UK Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba), himself a British Army veteran, the two have a very public falling out—so public that the two are strongly encouraged to travel together to a NATO summit to make nice. (This is nearly the same premise as Prime's Red, White, and Royal Blue, but disappointingly, these two never kiss.) On the way to the summit, Air Force One is shot down over Belarus by terrorists linked to a Russian arms dealer, and the two have to high-tail it through Easter Europe, fighting trained killers and uncovering the identity of the traitor who put all of this in motion. It's the kind of big-star buddy action comedy that streamers seem pretty good at, and one of the better ones, at that—even if it needed more kissing. Stream Heads of State.
G20 (2025)
What do you do when you're an EGOT laureate whose awards shelves are overflowing? Anything you want, apparently—as Viola Davis' recent turn to action roles in the last couple of years bears out. Here she plays U.S. President Danielle Sutton, with a rebellious daughter and a plan to boost the fortunes of sub-Saharan African farmers. She's also an Army veteran, which isn't just a resume detail—those skills come in handy when an Australian mercenary and company ambush the G20 summit with an eye toward making a fortune in crypto. Big mistake! Viola Davis: Action President goes all Die Hard on the mercenaries, and, yes, it's as silly as it sounds, but still a lot of fun. Stream G20.
Stolen (2025)
This Hindi-language thriller earned rave reviews when it did the festival circuit, getting picked up by Prime Video just this summer. At a remote railway station, two brothers, Gautam (Abhishek Banerjee) and Raman (Shubham Vardhan) witness the kidnapping of a baby from an indigenous woman. Though just traveling through on the way to a wedding, the two decide to see what they can do to help—a decision that puts them on a harrowing path as they run afoul of police and even the locals who come to believe that the two are actually responsible. It's a brisk 90-minute descent into horror for the two brothers, but the movie has more on its mind, with themes of class, mob violence, and police corruption as the two outsiders pay a price for getting involved. Banerjee, best known for comedic roles, gives a career-best performance here. Stream Stolen.
Another Simple Favor (2025)
Pretty much the whole gang's back from the 2018 comedy/mystery, including director Paul Feig and writer Jessica Sharzer as well as our leads Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) and Emily Nelson (Blake Lively). Emily, last seen in prison for a double murder, is out of prison on appeal while Stephanie needs a boost in her book sales. She's wrangled into becoming Emily's maid of honor and the two are off to a destination wedding in Capri—even if Stephanie's still a little worried that her "friend" is going to try to murder her again. This one's got a bigger body count than the original, paying homage to bloody gialli filmmaking while the plot turns on Emily's marrying into the mob, but the real pleasure here remain the sexy, funny, surreal chemistry between Kendrick and Lively. Stream Another Simple Favor.
War of the Worlds (2025)
OK, so, the reception for this latest take on the 1898 H.G. Wells novel has been—chilly, to say the least (as in: 3% on Rotten Tomatoes). So it's definitely kinda bullshit to put this on a list of best movies. HOWEVER. It is rather wonderfully ridiculous, if that's the mood you're in, and somehow manages to outdo even Madame Web in terms of wildly inappropriate product placement. The hook here is, actually, not bad: Ice Cube plays Homeland Security officer Will Radford, whose job is, apparently, monitoring everything and everyone on the planet all the time. When the aliens start landing on Earth, Radford finds himself on the front lines of Earth's defense (meaning, behind his computer screen); he soon notices that the aliens are heading for data centers, slurping up data as part of their plan of conquest. Given the number of disasters we've all been witness to through only our screens, it's a fairly clever (not to mention budget-conscious) way to envision the apocalypse. Highlights include a heroic self-driving Tesla that neither crashes nor bursts into flames, Amazon drones deployed to deliver world-saving code, and Amazon gift cards freely distributed as payment for services rendered (hooray?). Ice Cube's yelling "Move, bitch, get out the way!" at an alien tendril thing has already become iconic, and no dumber than literally anything else going on in 2025. Stream War of the Worlds.
Saltburn (2023)
Writer/director Emerald Fennell followed up her buzzy Oscar-winner Promising Young Woman with the thoroughly scandalous Saltburn, a somehow even darker spin on The Talented Mr. Ripley that sees Barry Keoghan's Oliver Quick doing whatever it takes to ingratiate himself into the endlessly posh world of his Oxford classmate Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi). Making the most of all his skills in manipulation and bathtub cleaning, the scholarship student weasels his way onto the titular estate, and finds that the family is desperately gullible, but rich enough that they still hold all the cards. No matter: Oliver has a plan. Opinions are mixed on whether this is all smart satire or lurid trash, but it's pretty entertaining either way. Stream Saltburn.
One Night in Miami... (2020)
Actress Regina King had a fair bit of experience direct
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