What are the best movies on Amazon Prime Video? The 31 films below star the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Brie Larson, Russell Crowe, Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Vicky Kaushal, Keanu Reeves, Hugh Jackman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Jeremy Renner, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Jim Carrey, and Kate Winslet. And they come from directors such as Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Satyajit Ray, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino, Joel and Ethan Coen, Paul Greengrass, George Miller, Ron Howard, Sean Baker, Vishal Bhardwaj, Shoojit Sircar, Kathryn Bigelow, Barry Jenkins, Fernando Meirelles, Sebastián Lelio, Céline Sciamma, and Asghar Farhadi.
Of course, this list cannot possibly cover everything. And that’s why we have separate recommendations for some select genres that you should also check out. We also have similar articles for best movies on Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar.
In this second part of Satyajit Ray’s acclaimed The Apu Trilogy, the film picks up where the original ended with the family moving to Varanasi, and then charts Apu’s life from childhood to teenage years, right up to the death of his mother.
The life of John Nash (Russell Crowe), a brilliant but asocial mathematician, from his spiral into paranoid schizophrenia and working on a secret project he made up, to regaining control over his life and becoming a Nobel Laureate. Ron Howard directs.
Technically not a trilogy, but the first three chapters — Identity, Supremacy, and Ultimatum — starring Matt Damon in the lead as the titular CIA assassin suffering from amnesia were so good that they changed the longest-running spy franchise of all-time: James Bond.
In the award-winning, highest-grossing Arabic film of all time, a 12-year-old from the slums of Beirut recounts his life leading up to a five-year sentence he’s handed for stabbing someone, and in turn, his decision to sue his parents for child neglect. Nadine Labaki directs.
The rise of organised crime in the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Cidade de Deus — that’s Portuguese for the film’s title — between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, depicted with the help of non-professional actors hailing from the favelas itself.
In the second part of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, regarded as the greatest comic book movie ever, Batman (Christian Bale) faces a villain, the Joker (Heath Ledger), he doesn’t understand, and must go through hell to save Gotham and its people.
Christopher Nolan’s first historical war movie chronicles the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the French beaches of Dunkirk in World War II, using his love for non-linear storytelling by depicting three fronts — land, sea, and air — in time-shifted ways.
An estranged couple (Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet) begin a new relationship unaware they dated previously, having erased each other from their memories, in what stands as writer Charlie Kaufman’s defining work.
Chile’s first openly transgender actor Daniela Vega stars as a trans waitress and singer in this socially aware and compelling character study film, who feels the full wrath of society after the unexpected and sudden death of her older male lover. She must fight for the right to be herself: a woman. Won the Oscar for best international film.
Set in the shadow of Disney World, a precocious six-year-old girl (Brooklynn Prince) makes the most of her summer with her ragtag playmates, while her rebellious mother tries to make ends meet with the spectre of homelessness always hanging over them. Willem Dafoe stars alongside.
Best picture winner at the Oscars, a new leader (Jeremy Renner) of a bomb disposal squad surprises his subordinates with his views and reckless approach to the job in the Iraqi capital. Kathryn Bigelow became first woman to win best director.
From the mind of Christopher Nolan, Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a thief who has the power to enter other’s dreams and steal their ideas, and is then given the mission of his life if he wants to be reunited with his family. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Tom Hardy co-star.
In Nazi-occupied WWII France, a young cinema owner (Mélanie Laurent) and a group of soldiers (Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender among them) inadvertently cook up a parallel plot to assassinate the Nazi Germany leadership. The 17-minute opening scene is a highlight of this Quentin Tarantino flick.
In what is technically a sequel to the 1969 anti-war musical Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne — unavailable on streaming — two musicians imbued with magical powers are invited to the kingdom of a Diamond King who brainwashes his subjects with rhymes.
Peter Jackson brought J.R.R. Tolkien’s expansive Middle-Earth to life in these three three-hour epics — Fellowship, Two Towers, and Return of the King which charts the journey of a meek hobbit (Elijah Wood) and his various companions, as they try to stop the Dark Lord Sauron by destroying the source of his power, the One Ring.
Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron star in director George Miller’s reboot of his own franchise, which finds a woman (Theron) rebelling against a tyrannical ruler of postapocalyptic desert, and giving us some of the best action sequences in the process.
Vishal Bhardwaj kicked off what would become his Shakespeare trilogy with this adaptation of Macbeth set in the Mumbai underworld, starring Irrfan Khan in the conflicted titular role, Tabu in the role of the ambitious Lady Macbeth, Pankaj Kapur as the king, and Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah in the gender-flipped roles of the Weird Sisters.
A computer hacker (Keanu Reeves) starts to question the nature of his reality in the Wachowskis’ seminal work, and with help from a group of rebels (Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss), he begins the fight against the machines that now rule the world.
Oscar winner for best picture, the story of a young black man through three defining chapters of his life, all while he grapples with his sexuality, and the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love. Heralded for its moving portrait of the African-American experience. Mahershala Ali, who co-stars, won the Oscar for best supporting actor.
Winner of the National Award for best Hindi film, in which Rajkummar Rao stars as a government clerk who tries to run a free and fair election in the Naxal-controlled conflict-ridden jungles of India.
In what is considered the best film made by the Coen brothers, a welder and Vietnam War veteran (Josh Brolin) is hunted by a hitman (Javier Bardem) after he runs away with drug deal money that he stumbled upon. Told by an aging sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) investigating the hitman’s exploits.
Satyajit Ray made his directorial debut in fine fashion with what is now considered one of the finest films ever made. Inspired by Italian neorealism, Ray focused on the life of kids Apu and Durga, born into a poor family in 1910s rural Bengal. The first part of Ray’s acclaimed The Apu Trilogy.
Set in 18th-century in the northwesternmost region of France, a painter (Noémie Merlant) falls in love with the aristocratic reluctant bride-to-be (Adèle Haenel) she’s been secretly commissioned to paint. Powered by the captivating direction of Céline Sciamma, who won two Cannes awards for her work.
Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are rival magicians in late 19th-century London who are obsessed with creating the best stage illusion, in what some consider Christopher Nolan’s best movie, and a metaphor for the art of filmmaking itself.
Having been born in captivity, a five-year-old boy (Jacob Tremblay) gets to experience the outside world after a miraculous escape thanks to his mother (Brie Larson), who must deal with her own monsters after getting out. Larson won the Oscar and BAFTA for best actress. Based on writer Emma Donoghue’s novel of the same name.
Vicky Kaushal plays the titular freedom fighter in director Shoojit Sircar’s understated character study that burns with anger in its veins and speaks to the horrors of clamping down on peaceful protestors through its depiction of the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Its runtime can be punishing.
In Steven Spielberg’s World War II drama, while war rages on in Normandy, an army captain (Tom Hanks) is given the task of searching for a particular private (Matt Damon), whose three brothers have already been killed.
Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning drama follows an Iranian middle-class couple, whose 14-year-old marriage begins to dissolve after they reach a crossroads over the wife’s wishes to leave the country and the husband’s concerns for his elderly Alzheimer’s father.
Considered one of the greatest films of its decade, a banker (Tim Robbins) sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his wife and her lover bonds with contraband smuggler (Morgan Freeman), helping him in his business and others at the prison.
Based on Satyajit Ray’s own 1971 novel, a story of a young boy who claims to remember his past life that involved a golden fortress and lots of gems, which subsequently attracts the attention of criminals looking to dig up the hidden treasure. Won two National Awards.
Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as the android, now reprogrammed and sent back in time (again) to protect a younger version of a resistance leader, in James Cameron’s sequel to the original that is considered one of the greatest films of all time.
