30 films you should be watching — we reveal the 2018 Oscar picks for Best Director

Bar the disturbing revelations about Harvey Weinstein, 2017 has been an excellent, albeit game-changing year for Hollywood. Industry stakeholders (Netflix, Amazon Studios etc.) are creating more and more content for the sake of their respective streaming platforms. These new players trying to get a piece of the silver screen pie have undoubtedly benefitted us, the viewer. Alongside the various blockbusters — Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, Patty Jenkins’ record-breaking Wonder Woman — IMDb has pegged the following films as the ones to feature heavily during next year’s awards season. (Some are yet to be released.) Click titles for trailers.

Frontrunners
Sean Baker, The Florida Project
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
Luca Guadagnino, Call Me By Your Name
Richard Linklater, Last Flag Flying
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Jordan Peele, Get Out
Steven Spielberg, The Post
Joe Wright, The Darkest Hour
Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049

Almost there
Paul Thomas Anderson, Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson (trailer unavailable)
Kathryn Bigelow, Detroit
Sofia Coppola, The Beguiled
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Battle of the Sexes
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Patty Jenkins, Wonder Woman
Angelina Jolie, First They Killed My Father
Yorgis Lanthimos, The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Dee Rees, Mudbound
Ridley Scott, All The Money In The World
Michael Showalter, The Big Sick