A Nostalgic Masterpiece Comes to Paramount+ Next Month

Nostalgia is a tough concept to comprehend. The memory of often happy moments can lead to a piercing sense of melancholy that is difficult to summarize in words. It is because of this that movies have become such a perfect source of enhancing one’s nostalgia, using this shared and confusing human emotion to craft beautiful cinema. Few have ever understood and captured nostalgia quite like Cinema Paradiso, one of the most emotional movies of all time and a film that should be right at the top of your watchlist.

Luckily for you, Giuseppe Tornatore‘s masterpiece Cinema Paradiso is heading to Paramount+ this February, joining a stacked line-up of modern gems and beloved classics. Boasting a “certified fresh” 90% score from critics and 96% from audiences on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Cinema Paradiso is regularly cited as one of the greatest movies of all time. The critics’ consensus on the site reads, “Cinema Paradiso is a life-affirming ode to the power of youth, nostalgia, and the movies themselves.” Not only is the film a certified classic, but it is also cited as the catalyst for a revitalization in Italian cinema. A synopsis of the movie reads:

“Young Salvatore Di Vita (Salvatore Cascio) discovers the perfect escape from life in his war-torn Sicilian village: the Cinema Paradiso movie house, where projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) instills in the boy a deep love of films. When Salvatore grows up, falls in love with a beautiful local girl (Agnese Nano) and takes over as the Paradiso’s projectionist, Alfredo must convince Salvatore to leave his small town and pursue his passion for filmmaking.”

‘Cinema Paradiso’ Won an Academy Award

Thanks to better representation of non-English language cinema at the Oscars, as well as a broader spectrum of countries and cultures represented among Academy members, there is a very good chance that, released today, Cinema Paradiso would follow in the footsteps of Parasite and take home the Best Picture prize. Alas, in 1989, this was nigh-on impossible, with that year’s Best Picture prize controversially awarded to Driving Miss Daisy. Instead, Cinema Paradiso picked up the Best Foreign Language Film prize, as well as winning the Grand Prix du Jury prize at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Cinema Paradiso is streaming on Paramount+ from February 1, 2026. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for the latest streaming stories.