MGMNickel Boys was one of the most acclaimed movies of 2024, and is in the running for Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 2025, so here’s details of how you can watch it at home, including where the film will stream first.
Nickel Boys is an American drama from 2024 that’s based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about life inside a Reform School in 1960s Florida.
RaMell Ross directs from a script he co-wrote with Joslyn Barnes, while the film stars Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson as two teenage boys who are sent to the school and become friends while navigating the horrors of the reformatory.
Nickel Boys currently carries a Rotten Tomatoes score of 90%, while it has been nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2025 Oscars.
How to watch Nickel Boys
Nickel Boys premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in August 2024, then opened the New York Film Festival in September, before receiving a wide release in the US in December, and the UK in January. Meaning that the movie is still playing in some arthouse cinemas.
Nickel Boys is also now available to rent and buy. The movie can currently be rented from Prime Video, Apple, Microsoft, and Plex for $5.99, while it can be purchased from Prime Video, Apple, Microsoft, and Fandango at Home for $19.99.
Where to stream Nickel Boys
With the Oscars being handed out on March 2, 2025, Nickel Boys is making the most of the additional publicity surrounding the awards by dropping on streaming this week.
MGMThe film will be available on the MGM Plus Roku Premium Channel from February 27, 2025, before dropping on MGM Plus on February 28, 2025.
What’s the movie about?
Here’s the official synopsis: “Nickel Boys follows two Black teens who are wards of a juvenile reformatory. Their profound friendship offers transformation and awakens hope.”
Ross’s movie takes the bold step of telling that tale from a first-person point-of-view, with the camera seeing what the boys see. The story is rooted in reality, with the fictitious Nickel Academy based on Florida’s Dozier School for Boys, which became known for its abusive treatment of students, and closed down in 2011.
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Head here for new movies, or here for our picks for the best movies of 2025 so far. While to see where other Best Picture nominees are streaming, we’ve got guides to The Brutalist, Dune Part Two, I’m Still Here, and Wicked.