Last year, awards experts had their work cut out for them. In the aftermath of the autumn festivals, just two films (La La Land and Moonlight) emerged victorious, culminating in both teams mounting the steps of Hollywood’s Dolby stage on Oscar night. The landscape today is a lot less certain. Who deserves a trophy? A scrappy first-time film-maker? An overlooked 89-year-old screenwriter? One thing we know for sure is that the following films represent the best of this award season’s extraordinary output.

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6. The Shape of Water

Guillermo del Toro, the acclaimed Mexican director of Pan’s Labyrinth fame, has weaved another dreamy universe, this time stitching a twisted fairy-tale love story between a mute government-lab janitor (Sally Hawkins) and an amphibious tank-dwelling man (Doug Jones). Without making a sound, Hawkins delivers a moving, entirely gestural performance that has charmed critics – much like Jean Dujardin’s equally silent Oscar-winning turn in The Artist – and won her accolades from the LA and Boston film-critics circles, among others. Although the Academy has only ever named one fantasy film Best Picture in its 89-year history (Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003), The Shape of Water has raced to the forefront of the Golden Globes conversation, beating its competitors to become the most-nominated film of the year. We’ll just have to wait until the ceremony on 7 January to see if the monster movie will swim ahead of 2017’s other hopefuls.

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6. The Shape of Water

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