‘Women Talking’ On Amazon Prime For Free, But Not For Long

Still haven’t seen Women Talking, the Best Picture nominee directed by Sarah Polley, with the Oscars ceremony just a few days away? AmazonAMZN
Prime Video just added free access for its subscribers to the severe parable about women struggling against sexual assault and repression in a remote religious community.

But here’s the catch: the film will only be available for free on Prime Video until 9 pm PDT on Sunday, about the time when the Oscar ceremony, theoretically, finally ends.

The film was produced by Orion, a once-storied indie studio whose library became part of MGM, then Amazon when the e-commerce giant acquired MGM for $8.5 billion about a year ago.

Polley, a veteran multi-hyphenate, is also nominated for writing the film’s screenplay, which was adapted from a true story about the women in a cloistered and remote religious community who debate whether to stay there after a series of assaults and betrayals by the men of their community.

Actor/writer Miriam Toews adapted the true story into a novel. She and Polley shared a USC Scripter Award for the screenplay adaptation of her book, though only Polley is nominated the screenwriting Oscar.

The film features a remarkable cast, led by four-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand, two-time Emmy winner Claire Foy (The Crown), two-time Oscar nominee Rooney Mara (Carol, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter), and Emmy winner Ben Whishaw (A Very English Scandal).

The film faces sturdy competition for the Best Picture Oscar, including exuberant awards-season favorite Everything Everywhere All At Once (which is also available free to Prime Video subscribers) and box-office beasts Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water.

Two other Oscar contenders are also available for free on Prime Video, the biopic Elvis, which also is up for Best Picture and features Best Actor favorite Austin Butler among eight Oscar nominations; and Santiago Mitre’s Argentina, 1985, which was nominated for Best International Feature Film.

And if you hadn’t had a chance to see Women Talking prior to now, don’t feel bad. It’s grossed a modest $7.3 million worldwide since its U.S. debut in late December. It’s still screening in about 227 U.S. theaters, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, should you want to see the movie the old-fashioned way, on a big screen.

If you don’t have Amazon Prime, you can still rent or buy the film at varying prices across just about all of the major online video stores.