The Oscars are just around the corner, and while you’ll have to pay to watch all of the 2025 Best Picture nominees ahead of their respective streaming release dates, you’ll find plenty of Oscar-winning movies from years gone by streaming on the best free streaming services.
Below, I’ve highlighted five of the best free movies to stream on Tubi, Pluto TV, Plex, and more this week – from Dune to Boiling Point.
Dune (Tubi)
Release date: September 2021
RT Score: 83%
Length: 155 minutes
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Main cast: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin
These days, Timothée Chalamet is no stranger to a freeway billboard, but it wasn’t until 2021’s Dune — which is now streaming for free on Tubi — that the young actor earned his stripes as a bona fide leading man.
Part one of Denis Villeneuve’s two-part (and soon to be three-part) sci-fi epic stars Chalamet as Paul Atreides, a gifted prince whose life is upended when a) he and his family are sent to ward over an unforgiving desert planet, and b) his father (Oscar Isaac) is unceremoniously murdered by the head of a rival house (Stellan Skarsgard).
Once you’re done battling Dune’s sandstorms and sandworms, check out our interviews with Villeneuve and the film’s Oscar-winning production team to see how they brought the world of Arrakis to life.
Lady Bird (Pluto TV)
Release date: September 2017
RT Score: 99%
Length: 94 minutes
Director: Greta Gerwig
Main cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges
Just as Dune marked a gear change for Timothée Chalamet’s then-fledgling career, so too did Lady Bird bring first-time director Greta Gerwig into the mainstream spotlight (at the time, she already had seven screenplays to her name).
Now streaming on Pluto TV, this coming-of-age drama stars Saoirse Ronan as a precocious teen who longs to escape her Sacramento hometown and move to "a city with culture", against the wishes of her strong-minded mother (Laurie Metcalf). Gerwig, Ronan, and Metcalf all earned Oscar nominations for their involvement in Lady Bird, and the film remains a moving and hilarious portrait of early noughties adolescence.
Tangerine (Plex)
Release date: January 2015
RT Score: 96%
Length: 88 minutes
Director: Sean Baker
Main cast: Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, Karren Karagulian, Mickey O'Hagan
Layer Cake (Pluto TV)
Release date: October 2004
RT Score: 81%
Length: 105 minutes
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Main cast: Daniel Craig, Colm Meaney, Kenneth Cranham, George Harris
Some criticized Daniel Craig’s now-iconic casting as James Bond in 2005, but those naysayers clearly hadn’t seen his performance in Layer Cake a year earlier.
Now streaming on Pluto TV, Matthew Vaughn’s slick crime thriller follows an unnamed London drug dealer (Craig) whose retirement plans are scuppered when a ruthless mob boss (Kenneth Cranham) tasks him with one final job. Tom Hardy, Michael Gambon, and Sienna Miller also star in Layer Cake, which proved that Vaughn could make a successful Guy Ritchie movie without Guy Ritchie.
Boiling Point (Pluto TV)
Release date: August 2021
RT Score: 99%
Length: 92 minutes
Director: Philip Barantini
Main cast: Stephen Graham, Vinette Robinson, Alice Feetham, Hannah Walters
Stephen Graham is currently punching his way through Victorian London in Steven Knight’s A Thousand Blows series on Disney Plus, but for a real showcase of the English actor’s talent, look no further than Boiling Point, which is now streaming for free on Pluto TV.
Filmed in real-time, in a single take, at a real East London restaurant, Boiling Point centers on a respected chef (Graham) whose personal and professional problems threaten to derail service on the busiest night of the year. Praised for accurately portraying life in a high-pressure kitchen, this isn’t a film to relax to, but it sure is a thrilling watch.
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