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There have been hundreds of World War 2 movies over the years but only the very best get the Academy Awards attention.
On BBC iPlayer’s Film section, there are currently three Oscar-winning British films about the fight against the Nazis that are streaming for a limited time.
In fact, watching them together makes for a fantastic marathon with a fourth film by the Americans added on the end too.
First up is 2010’s The King’s Speech starring Colin Firth as King George VI coping with his stammer ahead of his wartime radio broadcast upon the 1939 declaration of war.
Tom Hooper’s film co-starring Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush won four Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Firth and Best Original Screenplay. The movie is streaming on BBC iPlayer for the next eight days only.
Next is Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, which depicted the 1940 Allied evacuation of France, as Hitler continued to conquer much of Europe. The 2017 film starred an ensemble cast including Harry Styles, Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance and Michael Caine. Dunkirk, which leaves BBC iPlayer on Monday, was nominated for eight Academy Awards and went home with three Oscars for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing.
We recommend following this film up with Darkest Hour, which was released the same year and was also set in 1940. The movie, which is available for the next 12 days on the streaming service, focuses on Winston Churchill in his early days as Prime Minister during Dunkirk. Darkest Hour won two Oscars including Best Actor for Gary Oldman in the lead role.
If that isn’t enough for you, there’s another Oscar-winning World War 2 movie on BBC iPlayer made by the Americans. In fact, it depicts D-Day in 1944, which was the Allied return to France after Dunkirk four years earlier. Less than a year later and Hitler would be defeated. The film in question is 1962’s The Longest Day and featured an ensemble cast including John Wayne, Richard Burton, Sean Connery and Henry Fonda.
Actual Allied and Axis D-Day participants were consultants on the film, with many having their roles re-enacted on the big screen. Nominated for five Oscars, The Longest Day won two awards for Best Cinematography (Black and White) and Best Special Effects.
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