Madman Staff Picks – Oscars® Edition

The 2023 Oscars^® is almost upon us, and here at Madman we’re looking back at more than 25 years of Academy Award^® excellence, in shorts, features and documentaries from all corners of the globe.

A few of our staffers have delved into the Madman archives and each picked out three films – Oscar^® nominees or winners – that most speak to them. Click through for more, and to watch for yourself!

Parasite

“A brilliant social satire that threatens to rip the rug out from under you at any given moment.”

Winner of a historic four Academy Awards® including Best Picture and Best Director, and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival – this family tragicomedy is the latest masterpiece from Bong Joon-Ho. PARASITE confirms his position as one of the world’s most inventive and captivating filmmakers.

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Minari

“A tender take on the ‘American Dream’ seen through the eyes of 7-year-old David. Resilience and love in the Ozarks.”

A sweeping story about what roots us, MINARI follows a Korean-American family that moves to a tiny Arkansas farm in search of their own American Dream. The family home changes completely with the arrival of their sly, foul-mouthed, but incredibly loving grandmother.

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Capharnaum

“An odyssey of Dickensian proportions, tender and brutal yet powerful.”

Zain’s 11 year old sister is sold into marriage, he flees the family home in search of a better life. He is taken in by an illegal Ethiopian worker, Rahil, but when she disappears, Zain is suddenly left to fend for himself and her baby, resorting to increasingly desperate measures to survive.

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Whale Rider

“A profoundly beautiful and at the time, rare, experience to have not only the representation of te ao Māori (the Māori world) but also the recognition from the Academy. Mana wāhine!”

Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand tribe, believes she is destined to be the new chief of her tribe. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai loves Koro more than anyone in the world, but she must fight him and a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.

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I Am Not Your Negro

“Cinematic and evocative, James Baldwin eloquently enlightens viewers to the brutalities and injustices experienced by many, along with narration by Samuel L Jackson – a must-see.”

In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his revolutionary new project. In his incendiary documentary, master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America.

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Searching For Sugar Man

“There’s nothing quite as appealing as music doco shrouded in mystery and intrigue, particularly one that celebrates such hauntingly beautiful work.”

Rodriguez was the greatest ‘70s US rock icon who never was. Momentarily hailed as the finest recording artist of his generation, he disappeared into oblivion – rising again from the ashes in a completely different context a continent away. SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN is a film about hope, inspiration, and the resonating power of music.

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Nightcrawler

“Is this the version of Jake Gyllenhaal Taylor Swift was referencing in ‘All Too Well’? But really you can’t say no to Riz Ahmed.”

Nightcrawler is a pulse-pounding thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism, and blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.

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Flee

“A gorgeously delivered, brutally emotional film. Every single human should watch it.”

Nominated for a historic three Academy Awards – for best Documentary Feature, Best International Feature and Best Animated Feature – FLEE uncovers a remarkable true story of Amin Nawabi, an Afghan refugee who grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years.

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The Worst Person in the World

“This film is catnip for millennials. Just like a Sally Rooney novel but the characters have redeeming qualities.”

Julie is turning thirty and her life is an existential mess. She is struggling to find her career path and her older boyfriend is pushing for them to settle down. One night she crashes a party and meets the young and charming Eivind… but she will come to realise that some life choices are already behind her.

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