At this time of year, many of the new movies premiering have Oscar aspirations. That’s true for Netflix too, including the latest Netflix original that premiered on the streaming service today, December 11, Maria starring Angelina Jolie. The biopic appears to be a very good chance for Jolie to earn the third Oscar nomination of her career (and was one of my most anticipated new movies in December).
Maria is based on the life of famed 20th century opera singer Maria Callas, portrayed in the movie by Jolie. The movie takes place in Paris following Callas' glamorous and tumultuous life in the public eye, where it “reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days as the diva reckons with her identity and life.” The movie is directed by Pablo Larrain, who has recently done movies about two other iconic 20th century women (Jackie Onasis in Jackie and Princess Diana in Spencer), while it is written by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders).
Anyone with a Netflix subscription can watch Maria right now.
The response to Maria has been solid since its debut at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. It is “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes and has been pegged as an Oscar contender by many. Most of that is for Jolie’s performance, which has been described as a “career-best performance” by Tomris Laffly of RogerEbert.com.
In fact, Jolie has already received some awards attention for her performance, as she received a Golden Globe 2025 nomination for Best Actress Drama. Jolie has also fete by the Gotham Awards with a Tribute Award that specifically hails her performance as Callas.
As mentioned, should an Oscar nomination come to pass for Jolie’s performance in Maria it would mark the third nomination of her career. She was previously nominated for and won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 1999's Girl, Interrupted, and then was nominated for Best Actress for 2008’s Changeling. She also was a recipient of the Oscars’ Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2014.
This is the first time we’ve seen Jolie on screen in three years, when she had a pair of 2021 movies in Marvel’s Eternals and the Taylor Sheridan survival movie Those Who Wish Me Dead. She has a handful of projects in the work, but it’s unclear at this time when the next movie starring Angelina Jolie may come out. She also has a movie she directed, Without Blood, that we are waiting to hear release plans for.
So if you’re an Angelina Jolie fan, Maria is likely going to be high on your watchlist right now. Check out Netflix to give it a watch. But you can check out the trailer directly below.
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