If the early slate of 2025 new movies isn’t overly appealing to you, then two of this year’s biggest Oscar 2025 (recognizing 2024’s best movies) hopefuls are returning to movie theaters this weekend, January 17, to entice you to your local theater — Demi Moore’s The Substance and Colman Domingo’s Sing Sing.
The Substance is being released in 350 movie theaters across the US, per IndieWire, while Sing Sing is set to be shown in 500 movie theaters, according to The Hollywood Reporter; in addition, A24 is also going to screen the movie inside correctional facilities in 46 states To find out if and where the movies are going to be playing near you, a great option to check out is Fandango.
Both of these movies are seen as strong contenders to receive a Best Picture nomination when Oscar nominations are officially announced on Thursday, January 23. Their stars are highly likely to be recognized as well, with Domingo a regular fixture among the Best Actor nominations of other award bodies and Moore, following her win at the Golden Globes, building momentum as a potential Oscar winner. If you’ve been wanting to see these movies as they’ve built their awards profile, these re-releases give you a perfect chance to do just that.
If you still need some background through, Sing Sing is a drama about a real-life program that ran at New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility where incarcerated men work on their rehabilitation through performing stage productions. Domingo stars as a veteran of the program, who takes another prisoner new to it all under his wing, the latter played by Clarence Maclin, himself a real-life participate of the program. Sing Sing is “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes with a score of 97%.
Though Sing Sing was originally released back in July 2024, it has not been made available for at-home viewing, so this re-release is the only way that people can catch up with the movie at this time.
As for The Substance, this sci-fi, body-horror drama sees Moore star as an actress who is being forced out of the spotlight because of her age. To combat this, she takes the mysterious “Substance,” which promises a “more perfect you.” However, you must strictly adhere to the rules or face significant consequences. You can read WTW’s The Substance review to find out why we loved the movie, but other critics did as well, with The Substance earning a “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, coming in at 89%.
If you can’t make it to movie theaters to watch The Substance, the movie is available via digital on-demand platforms and is streaming on specialty platform Mubi.
Other movies up for Oscars are still playing in movie theaters, including Babygirl, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Nickel Boys, September 5 and Wicked. A number of the biggest contenders are also now available to watch at home, including A Real Pain, Anora, Conclave and Wicked (as the musical gets the best of both worlds).
Again, expect to hear many of these movies again earn Oscar nominations when they are officially announced on January 23.
