As the Academy Awards ceremony approaches, Power At Work is excited to announce our second Labor Oscars!
#2025LaborOscars is dedicated to spotlighting films that feature worker power, unions, labor leaders, front-line union members, and workers’ collective action. This year we have added 13 more labor films to our original list published last year, including the acclaimed documentary Union about the organizing of the Amazon Labor Union.
In total, the list consists of curated films that we believe advance Power At Work’s mission of promoting a discourse about worker power, unions, and worker collective action that puts workers at its very center. To make the list a little easier to understand, we have divided it into the four categories in which you — the Power At Work community — will ultimately vote for your favorites: Best Feature Film, Best Documentary Film, Best International Labor Film, and Best Worker Power Profile. We did not make a separate category for Worst Labor Film, our fifth category. We’re not going to make that choice for you. You will be able to choose any film from any of the other lists.
Power At Work invites you to watch as many films on this list as you can before #2025LaborOscars voting begins in February. To start a conversation about your favorite and least favorite labor films, to recommend these films to your friends or union siblings, or to add films to our list, post on Twitter/X, Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or LinkedIn (or all of them) and don't forget to include #2025LaborOscars and tag us using @PowerAtWorkBlog or @PowerAtWork depending on the platform (just search “Power At Work”).
Our comprehensive movie list is available on Letterboxd. Count how many films on this list you have watched and use this opportunity to explore more Labor Oscars films.
Another new feature of this year's #2025LaborOscars is our distinguished Nominating Committee. Power At Work has recruited an impressive group of film scholars, filmmakers, labor film festival directors, and alumni of Power At Work who are already in the process of choosing five films to nominate in each category. We will list our Nominating Committee members along with the nominated films in an upcoming post.
This is where you — Power At Work’s subscribers — will get the chance to exercise your voice and your vote. On February 9th, we will open voting to our subscribers with our #2025LaborOscars list of nominated films in our five categories. Then, it’s all up to you. You will vote for your favorites, and least favorite, Labor Oscars films.
Without further ado, here is Power At Work’s #2025LaborOscars movie list by category:
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Strike (1925), dir. Sergei Eisenstein
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Metropolis (1927), dir. Fritz Lang
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Black Fury (1935), dir. Michael Curtiz
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The Devil and Miss Jones (1941), dir. Sam Wood
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How Green Was My Valley (1941), dir. John Ford
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On the Waterfront (1954), dir. Elia Kazan
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Salt of the Earth (1954), dir. Herbert J. Biberman
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Inside Detroit (1956), dir. Fred F. Sears
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The Pajama Game (1957), dir. George Abbott & Stanley Donen
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The Organizer (1963), dir. Mario Monicelli
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The Molly Maguires (1970), dir. Martin Ritt
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The Land (1970), dir. Youssef Chahine
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Joe Hill (1971), dir. Bo Widerberg
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Boxcar Bertha (1972), dir. Martin Scorsese
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The Union (Il Sindicalista) (1972), dir. Luciano Salce
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F.I.S.T. (1978), dir. Norman Jewison
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Northern Lights (1978), dir. John Hanson & Robert Nilsson
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Blue Collar (1978), dir. Paul Schrader
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Norma Rae (1979), dir. Martin Ritt
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Silkwood (1983), dir. Mike Nichols
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The Killing Floor (1984), dir. Bill Duke
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Matewan (1987), dir. John Sayles
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Hoffa (1992), dir. Danny Devito
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Newsies (1992), dir. Kenny Ortega
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Germinal (1993), dir. Claude Berri
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Bread & Roses (2000), dir. Ken Loach
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10,000 Black Men Named George (2002), dir. Robert Townsend
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North Country (2005), dir. Niki Caro
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Made in Dagenham (2010), dir. Nigel Coles
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Pride (2014), dir. Matthew Warchus
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Caesar Chavez (2014), dir. Diego Luna
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Sorry to Bother You (2018), dir. Boots Riley
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The Irishman (2019), dir. Martin Scorsese
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Rustin (2023), dir. George C. Wolfe
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Sorry to Bother You (2018) dir. Boots Riley
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They Don’t Wear Black Tie (1981) Eles Não Usam Black-Tie dir. Leon Hirszman
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In Dubious Battle (2016) dir. James Franco
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Working Man (2019) dir. Robert Jury
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Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976), dir. Barbara Kopple
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Union Maids (1976), dir. Julia Reichert & Jim Klein
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The Wobblies (1979), dir. Stewart Bird & Deborah Shaffer
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Final Offer (1985), dir. Sturla Gunnarsson & Robert Collison
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American Dream (1990), dir. Barbara Kopple
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At the River I Stand (1993), dir. David Appleby, Allison Graham, & Steven Ross
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Out at Work (1997), dir. Kelly Anderson & Tami Gold
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American Standoff (2002), dir. Kristi Jacobson
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The Take (2004), dir. Naomi Klein & Avi Lewis
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Where Do You Stand? Stories from an American Mill (2004), dir. Alexandra Lescaze
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Maquilapolis (2006), dir. Vicky Funari
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Brothers on the Line (2012), dir. Sasha Reuther
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The Hand That Feeds (2014), dir. Robin Blotnick & Rachel Lears
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Still the Enemy Within (2014), dir. Owen Gower
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Pencils Down! The 100 Days of the Writers Guild Strike (2014), dir. Brian S. Kalata
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The Factory (2015), dir. Rahul Roy
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Blood on the Mountain (2016), dir. Jordan Freeman & Mari-Lynn C. Evans
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We The Workers (2017), dir. Wenhai Huang
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Divided We Fall (2017), dir. Victoria Acosta
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Union Time (2018), dir. Matthew Barr
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9 to 5: The Story of a Movement (2021), dir. Julia Reichert & Steven Bognar
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Tony Benn: Will and Testament (2014) dir. Skip Kite
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A Union Man: The Life and Work of Julius Margolin (2005) dir. George Mann
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Death in Sarajevo (2016) dir. Danis Tanovic
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No Somos Máquinas (We Are Not Machines) dir. by Mark Nistico
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Union (2024) dir. Stephen Maing and Brett Story
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Native Land (1942) dir. Leo Hurwitz & Paul Strand
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Haymarket: The Bomb, The Anarchists, The Labor Struggle (2021)
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The Organizer (1963), dir. Mario Monicelli
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The Land (1970), dir. Youssef Chahine
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Germinal (1993), dir. Claude Berri
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The Take (2004), dir. Naomi Klein & Avi Lewis
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Maquilapolis (2006), dir. Vicky Funari
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Made in Dagenham (2010), dir. Nigel Coles
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Still the Enemy Within (2014), dir. Owen Gower
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The Factory (2015), dir. Rahul Roy
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At War (En guerre) (2018) dir. Stéphane Brizé
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Blood Fruit (2014)
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Death in Sarajevo (2016) dir. Danis Tanovic
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They Don’t Wear Black Tie (1981) Eles Não Usam Black-Tie dir. Leon Hirszman
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Union Maids (1976), dir. Julia Reichert & Jim Klein
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Hoffa (1992), dir. Danny Devito
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10,000 Black Men Named George (2002), dir. Robert Townsend
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Made in Dagenham (2010), dir. Nigel Coles
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Brothers on the Line (2012), dir. Sasha Reuther
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The Hand That Feeds (2014), dir. Robin Blotnick & Rachel Lears
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Caesar Chavez: An American Hero (2014), dir. Diego Luna
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Rustin (2023), dir. George C. Wolfe
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Final Offer (1985), dir. Sturla Gunnarsson & Robert Collison
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Tony Benn: Will and Testament (2014) dir. Skip Kite
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No Job For A Woman: The Women Who Fought To Report WWII (2011) dir. Michèle Midori Fillion
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A Union Man: The Life and Work of Julius Margolin (2005) dir. George Mann
