7 Oscar-Nominated Movies To Cue Up For Your Next Date Night
We’ve lined up some of our favourite romantic movies that have received the Oscar nod for your next movie night…
ICYMI, Laapataa Ladies has been officially selected as India’s entry for the 2025 Academy Awards. Kiran Rao’s lighthearted take on patriarchy is on its way to joining names like Lagaan and RRR, if it gets picked up for a nomination at the Oscars.
While we celebrate the news (the feminist romantic drama won over several big hitters), we figured we’d update our watchlists with some of the best romantic movies that have received the Oscar nod. These movies are not only critically acclaimed but also heartwarming and swoon-worthy in equal parts. Not to forget, these romantic films have become an intrinsic part of pop culture, thanks to some of the most iconic dialogues and chemistry between the leading pair.
So if you’re looking for a movie that you can cuddle up and watch with your boo on your next movie night, take a look…
Oscar-Nominated Romantic Movies To Watch
Roman Holiday(1953)
If you’re a romantic movie buff, then there’s a good chance you’ve already seen this multiple times before. This Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn starrer never fails to make us swoon and fall in love with them all over again. In the movie, a bored princess escapes from her guardians during a holiday in Rome and meets an American news reporter who helps her experience freedom for the first time in a long while. The romantic comedy earned Audrey Hepburn an Academy Award for her performance.
Watch it here
La La Land (2016)
While this Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone starrer became instantly iconic after the on-stage slip-up (remember when they announced it as the winner of Best Picture instead of the actual winner Moonlight?), La La Land deserves the whopping 14 nominations it got at the awards. The story follows Sebastian and Mia as they try to make their relationship work while finding themselves torn between love and ambition.
Watch it here
When Harry Met Sally…(1989)
This Nora Ephron classic posed the question that (we assume) led Karan Johar to birth Kuch Kuch Hota Hai: Can men and women ever just be friends? This Oscar-nominated film follows two wildly different people as they keep getting thrown in each other’s path, thanks to fate, over 12 years.
Watch it here
Jerry Maguire (1996)
How can we forget the movie that gave us the simple yet heartwarming quote “You had me at ‘hello’”! Tom Cruise and Renée Zellweger’s romantic drama is an underrated classic. The movie swept up five Oscar nominations at the time of its release. It follows a sports agent who quits his high-paying job to start his agency with single mother Dorothy, the only former employee who follows him to the new venture. We see how they fall in love while struggling to make the new business work.
Watch it here
Moonstruck (1987)
Cher and Nicholas Cage’s unexpected chemistry in this 1987 romantic movie went a long way in turning this one into a cult classic. The movie is about a widowed Italian-American woman who falls in love with her fiancé’s estranged younger brother. Cher won her first Oscar for the movie and received the award in a now-iconic Bob Mackie jewel-encrusted naked dress.
Watch it here
Pretty Woman (1990)
Gary Marshall’s Pretty Woman is a no-brainer when it comes to picking rom-com for a date night. The story of rich entrepreneur Edward falling for a hooker with a heart of gold, after he hires her to accompany him for a few social events, is a classic.
Watch it here
It Happened One Night (1934)
If you’re a fan of old (old, old) movies, then you cannot miss this one. The movie was filmed mere months before the infamous Hays Code came into effect (for the uninitiated, the Hays Code was a set of guidelines that governed American movie production from 1930-68 in the face of Hollywood’s perceived moral decline). It is about a young heiress who runs away from her home to meet her beau. On her way, she meets a struggling reporter and strikes an unusual deal with him. It’s one of the three movies in history to have swept the Big Five at the Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay.
Watch it here