Is There an Oscar Bump? ‘The Perfect Neighbor’ Saw Views Triple on Netflix After Its Nomination

Is there such a thing as an Oscars bump? On Netflix, there might be.

“The Perfect Neighbor,” Netflix’s Oscar-nominated documentary, has now surpassed 50 million views on the streamer since launching in October of 2025, IndieWire can reveal exclusively. Those may not be “Tiger King” numbers, but it’s safely among some of Netflix’s most-watched Oscar-nominated documentaries.

Perhaps more impressively, in the two weeks since the film received its Oscar nomination, viewing for “The Perfect Neighbor” more than tripled compared to the prior week. The film was also bolstered by a win for Best Documentary at the Independent Spirit Awards and the Critics Choice Awards (it doesn’t hurt that this week’s episode of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” was all about police body cameras).

Director Geeta Gandbhir‘s film was a surprise documentary hit on Netflix months after it first got buzz out of Sundance. It spent three weeks on Netflix’s Top 10 list globally, including two weeks at No. 1 in the U.S. as well as No. 1 in six other countries. Fun fact: the movie that it knocked off the top spot? “KPop Demon Hunters.”

But the fact that it got into the Oscar race at all is a good sign for its chances. Netflix has had some trouble being recognized by the Academy’s documentary branch ever since “My Octopus Teacher” won back in 2020. Some buzzy and acclaimed acquisitions like “Daughters” and “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” were snubbed, among others. The nomination for “The Perfect Neighbor” speaks to its broad appeal, and the fact that this socially conscious film also manages to scratch the true crime itch for a lot of Netflix viewers speaks to its popularity.

“The Perfect Neighbor” is a carefully constructed timeline of the murder of Ajike “AJ” Shantrell Owens on June 2, 2023 in Ocala, Florida, who was killed when her white neighbor Susan Lorincz shot her and later invoked Florida’s Stand Your Ground laws in her defense. The film is edited together almost entirely through police body camera footage, giving an unfiltered sequence of events of how this happened and how police failed to react to warning signs sooner.