Matt Damon and Christian Bale’s Ford v Ferrari Roars Onto Netflix
Start your engines: Netflix has set a streaming debut for Ford v Ferrari, the 2019 hit starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale, the critics‑praised racing drama that sped from a Telluride premiere to a roaring box office.
Ford v Ferrari is finally headed to Netflix, just not anytime soon. If you want it there, you have to wait. If you want it now, there’s a workaround.
The short version
- Ford v Ferrari starts streaming on Netflix in the United States on January 1, 2026 (per What's on Netflix).
- Until then, it's currently available on Hulu.
- Release history: premiered at Telluride in August 2019, hit U.S. theaters on November 15, 2019.
- Reception: 92% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 98% audience score; Metacritic has it at 81 (metascore) and 8.3 (user score) — basically universal acclaim.
- Awards: Named one of the National Board of Review's Top 10 Films of 2019. Scored four Oscar nominations (Best Picture, Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing) and won two — Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing.
What it is (and why people still like it)
This is the 2019 biographical racing drama where director James Mangold turns a corporate grudge match into a full-on crowd-pleaser. The movie zeroes in on the 1960s rivalry between Ford Motor Company and Scuderia Ferrari, following a scrappy team of American and British engineers led by automotive designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles. Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca bring them in to build a Le Mans dominator to finally beat Ferrari. It plays like a hangout movie until the engines kick in — then it becomes a full-body experience. Critics singled out the racing sequences, Mangold's clean, unfussy direction, and the two leads doing exactly what you want from them.
Who's under the hood
James Mangold directs from a screenplay by John-Henry Butterworth, Jez Butterworth, and Jason Keller. The headliners are Matt Damon (Shelby) and Christian Bale (Miles), with Jon Bernthal, Caitriona Balfe, Josh Lucas, Noah Jupe, Tracy Letts, Remo Girone, and Ray McKinnon rounding out the cast.
Bottom line: If you somehow missed it in theaters and have been waiting for Netflix, you've got a date — a very 2026 date. Otherwise, Hulu has the keys right now. The long wait is just the usual licensing shuffle doing its thing.