Awards are certainly not the most important aspect for judging a movie's quality. Other elements, including box office and cultural impact, can help influence how an audience reacts to a movie. However, awards can influence your decision when choosing a movie, especially on Netflix, a streaming service with thousands of movies to watch.

For me, being a fan of physical media never went out of style. I've never much cared for streaming, and when I douse it, I'm selective or self-host whenever possible. With some companies ditching physical media altogether, there's never been a better time to start collecting again. Of course, prior to now, streaming services have always been missing episodes of our favorite show despite its convenience. So I grabbed three of my favorite shows on DVD so I could have a complete collection.

As we round the corner into the final straight of July, Netflix still has a lot of life left in it when it comes to options that make for good weekday movie nights. Netflix U.S. viewers seem to still be flocking to the disaster doc, Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea, that we covered in our weekly roundup of documentaries, as it still sits in the streamer's Top 3, but if a doc isn't what you're looking for, read on.

It's 2026, and audiences still love Will Ferrell. The comedian's newest show on Netflix, The Hawk, is currently sitting at No. 1 on the service. On the movie side, a Spanish-language thriller, Desire, is No. 1 on the charts. If you're still searching for more thrillers after these picks, give Desire a shot.

Netflix has its fair share of exclusive titles in the form of Netflix Originals, but of all the titles in the niche library, only a few can truly be recognized for being groundbreaking. Some pioneered new film-making techniques, others raised the bar for animation, and a few have reshaped television today.

We're at the halfway point of 2026, making it a great time to look back at what Netflix has released so far while also looking ahead to the rest of the year. Personally, my two favorite Netflix movies from earlier this year are The Rip and War Machine. As for what's in store for the rest of the year, it's a mix of horror, animation, crime, and drama.

With the World Cup wrapping up this weekend, we're about to have a lot of sports fans staring into their pints looking for the next thrill. Netflix might just have a few things that can help, for U.S. subscribers, including a new season of the docuseries Quarterback (read about it in this weekend's documentary roundup), and my top pick this weekend, a hilarious new golf series starring Will Ferrell (more below).

Awards don't always mean a great movie or a streaming session worth sitting through, but they do make narrowing down Netflix's extensive catalog a little easier, especially when you are getting overwhelmed by new releases that flood your home page recommendations.

Somehow it's 2026, and Little House on the Prairie is the most-watched show in America, adding a whole lotta wholesome to Netflix’s summer. But its documentary side just got a shot of adrenaline.