Every year, the Oscars have a few unlikely entries or include some picks in their roster of nominees that remain relatively unnoticed until their nominations are announced. The 2026 Oscars predictions thus also contain some nominations and predicted wins for movies that many will not have heard of before, but have a strong chance of being favored by the Academy.
Of the many trends that have been set during the past few years at the Oscars, is the consistent presence of Netflix movies among the Best Picture Oscar contenders. Every year, the OTT platform backs many of the biggest winners and strongest nominees at the Academy Awards, and its status as a prestige platform has also grown as a result.
While the Academy’s new rules may impact the chances of Netflix movies, it is clear that the platform is willing to play ball if it means that the awards show domination can continue. Among the movies that Netflix is giving wide releases to for Oscar contention is an underrated Western movie that will hopefully get the attention it deserves soon.
Train Dreams Is A Deliberately Paced Western Drama
Joel Edgerton stars as Robert Grainier in Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams, which follows the titular protagonist during his lifetime, and recounts, accompanied by Will Patton’s voiceover narration, the events that make up the life of this fictional lumberjack. It is a meditation on the life of a working-class person in the country and the nature of life in the countryside.
Train Dreams moves at the pace of a train you’re traveling on. It takes its sweet time to get to its ultimate destination, and gives you a thought-provoking and breathtaking view of life at various stages during its sojourn. The film is filled with gorgeous visuals of vast fields, snowy mountains, and the largest and tallest trees you can imagine.
Despite its leisurely pace, the film is anything but. It depicts the hardships of life as a lumberjack and the fickleness of mortality when living in the lap of nature. A big part of what makes Netflix’s Train Dreams a must-watch movie is its take on tragedy and its treatment of grief with the utmost care and patience that such a heartbreaking storyline deserves.
The deliberate pacing of the film is complemented by the introspective writing of the voiceover narration that is nostalgic, observant, and whimsical. The way it weaves a narrative out of disjointed memories and fragments to tell the story of a man’s life from birth to death is not only commendable, but also engrossing.
Nomadland Explores Similar Themes As Train Dreams
Among the five Best Picture Oscar winners of the 2020s is this equally meditative movie that shares similar traits with the Western genre as Train Dreams. Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland is equally deliberately paced and is set in similarly sprawling expanses, although its setting is notably more arid. Both movies also follow working-class protagonists experiencing the highs and lows of life.
Train Dreams and Nomadland explore the impact of changing circumstances, evolving technology, and the ever-growing capitalist structure of the economy on the working class. Frances McDormand’s Fern from Nomadland has a very different disposition from Robert Grainier, but their lives don’t differ much. They could share stories of loneliness and feeling connections while looking for deeper meaning in the mundane.
Nomadland is also a Western in the same sense as Train Dreams, because the visual abundance of open spaces, the thematic foregrounding of human tragedy and the helplessness of humans against the forces of nature, as well as the auditory experience of being flocked by silence in world, are all elements associated with the best films in the Western genre.
Train Dreams Is Likely To Win Big At The Oscars In 2026
There is still time for Train Dreams grow bigger before the Academy Awards next year, and it already sits at an impressive 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It is possible that the movie won’t stay as underrated as Nomadland was when the Oscar nominations were announced, but it’s expected to be a major contender at the Oscars either way.
The Netflix movie adaptation of the Train Dreams novella has Oscar glory written all over it, due to its nature as a deliberately paced meditation on the working class, its lesser-known status amongst the biggest predicted movies, and the visual and aesthetic choices to use long takes, natural lighting, and wide-angle shots. The Netflix banner also helps its Academy Award chances.
The Directors Of Both Movies Were Relatively Unknown Until Oscars Buzz
While Chloé Zhao is almost a household name today, especially because she went from directing the surprise Best Picture Oscar winner of 2021 to directing an MCU movie featuring entirely new characters. However, before the Oscars buzz, despite having an impressive filmography, she hadn’t found much fame or recognition on a global scale. Nomadland changed the trajectory of her career.
Similarly, Clint Bentley was a lesser-known person in the industry until his nomination as part of the writers team behind the 2025 Best Adapted Screenplay nominee, Sing Sing. He might get nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director in 2026, and it’s entirely possible his career will blow up the same way Zhao’s did after her Oscar win for Nomadland.
Nomadland
9/10
- Release Date
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February 19, 2021
