Best Prime Video original movies: 19 picks

Amazon Prime Video has one of the biggest streaming libraries around. The service functions much like Netflix, HBO Max, and other streamers. It offers a mix of library titles licensed from third parties and original programming exclusive to Prime Video. So, what are the best Prime Video original movies?

See also: The best Prime Video original shows

Read on for our picks of the best Prime Video originals. And if you’re not already signed up, you can join by clicking the link below.

Arguably the very best Prime Video original movie, Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here is a stunning thriller starring Joaquin Phoenix. A quiet, ruthlessly efficient mercenary is hired to retrieve a politician’s daughter from human traffickers. As he works to save the girl, he uncovers a conspiracy that could kill him.

Academy Award-winning actress Regina King made her feature directorial debut with this 2020 film, proving she’s as skilled behind the camera as in front of it. Based on the play of the same name by Kemp Powers, who also wrote the film’s screenplay, One Night In Miami… offers a fictionalized account of a night in 1964 when Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke met to celebrate a major win for Ali. Over the course of the evening, the four icons discuss their differing thoughts on the Civil Rights movement and Black liberation.

Directors Leo Scott, Ting Poo use new interviews and video footage shot over multiple decades by acclaimed actor Val Kilmer to craft a portrait of the global star. Having undergone cancer treatment, Kilmer has largely lost the ability to speak, but his thousands of hours of footage chronicle an incredible life and career. One of the best documentaries of 2021, Val is also among the best Amazon Prime Video original movies.

In the 1950s in a small New Mexico town, a radio DJ and a young switchboard operator discover a strange radio frequency while virtually everyone in town is distracted by a big basketball game at the local high school. As the two investigate, they become convinced that they’re hearing signals from alien life forms and investigate as best they can.

Luca Guadagnino’s reimagining of the classic 1977 Dario Argento horror film is a stunning work of filmmaking and one of the best Prime Video original movies. Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, and Mia Goth star in this story of a promising young dancer who joins a prestigious dance company. But things don’t seem quite right. A shadow hangs over the dance company and its members, who face danger at the hands of mysterious forces.

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is a fantasy teen love story in the tradition of Groundhog Day, The Edge of Tomorrow, and Palm Springs. A young man carelessly relives the same day again and again, until one day, he meets a girl  stuck in the same time loop. Together, they work to figure out what’s going on and go back to their old lives.

In the tradition of Fargo, Blow the Man Down is a dark comedy thriller set in a small town. The indie feature sees two sisters in a small fishing town grieving the loss of their mother and unsure how to go on. After a fateful encounter with a stranger, the sisters get deeper and deeper into the town’s criminal underworld trying to cover up their crimes.

An early Prime Video original movie, The Big Sick is a dramatization of star Kumail Nanjiani’s relationship with his wife, Emily V. Gordon. Written by Nanjiani and Gordon, the film sees the Pakistani-American funnyman looking for love. Following culture clashes with the grad student he’s dating, he finds himself growing very suddenly closer to her family when she’s diagnosed with a mysterious illness.

A sequel to the outrageous 2006 mockumentary Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was a pleasant surprise in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The film sees Borat, recently released from prison, returning to America, now with his 15-year-old daughter, to continue his study of the great western nation.

Tessa Thompson stars in this era-spanning love story. In New York, in the 1950s, a TV producer and a jazz saxophonist rekindle a past romance. While much has changed in their lives, their passion for one another remains the same. Set against changing times, Sylvie’s Love is a beautiful mediation on love, ambition, and history.

In a career-defining performance, Riz Ahmed stars as a heavy-metal drummer who loses his hearing in Sound of Metal. One of the best Prime Video original movies, Sound of Metal offers a sensitive and moving portrait of disability within a specific context, with Ahmed’s protagonist suddenly losing his livelihood as he contemplates a new life without his hearing.

An aspiring model in Los Angeles rises though the ranks of the industry thanks to her striking beauty and youth, leading to murderous jealousy from her peers in this gorgeous, shocking horror film from Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn.

From director Julia Hart, I’m Your Woman is a tense and clever noir thriller starring The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan. In the 1970s, the wife of a criminal has to go on the run with her baby when her husband betrays his dangerous partners. Now, she has to rely on help from people she doesn’t trust, while learning new information about the man she loved.

A pitch-black British comedy, Get Duked! is Ninian Doff’s feature directorial debut and one of the best Prime Video original movies. In in, a group of troubled youths are brought to the Scottish Highlands by their teacher in an attempt to help them build character and take pride in themselves. Alone in the wilderness, they soon find themselves hunted by an unhinged couple, and they have to fight back. 

Starring Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson, Late Night is an original comedy on Prime Video from director Nisha Ganatra. When a late night TV host suspects she’s going to be replaced after 30 years on air, she realizes she needs to shake things up. Recognizing that her writing staff is made up of only white men, she hires on a young Indian-American woman to great effect, but that doesn’t mean smooth sailing, as past controversies resurface.

Black Box was the second installment in the anthological “Welcome to the Blumhouse” horror film series on Prime Video. It was directed by Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. and stars Mamoudou Athie. The science-fiction horror feature sees a single father lose his wife and memory in a car crash. An experimental procedure could save his memories but leads him to question who he really is.

A modest spy thriller, All the Old Knives boasts an all-star cast including Chris Pine, Thandiwe Newton, Laurence Fishburne, and Jonathan Pryce. An aging group of spies are brought back together when one is believed to have been disloyal during an old case. One agent must root out the mole, which brings him face to face with an old lover as trust is tested and old scars are reopened.

An erotic thriller that didn’t get anywhere near as much attention as it deserved when it came out in 2021, The Voyeurs is one of the best Prime Video original movies. Starring Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney, the film follows a couple in Montreal who become fascinated by neighbours who they can see from their window. Their obsession soon gets out of hand, and as they witness shocking events, they may be in too deep to turn back.

Amazon’s first major hit, Manchester by the Sea, directed by Kenneth Lonergan, follows a janitor who lives a solitary life, which is rocked when he becomes the legal guardian of his 16-year-old nephew. Now, he’s learning how to look out for someone else and learning about himself in the process. Manchester by the Sea stars Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, and Kyle Chandler, and it’s one of the best Prime Video original movies.

Those are 19 of the best Prime Video original movies that you can stream now.

What are your favorites? Let us know in the comments or on social media.