My fearless 2017 Oscar Nomination Predictions

Expect "The Shape of Water" to claim the most Oscar nominations.

Nomination will be announced on Jan. 23; These are just guesses.

Best Picture
Call Me By Your Name
Dunkirk
Get Out
I, Tonya
Lady Bird
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Director
Guillermo del Toro, "The Shape of Water"
Luca Guadagnino, "Call Me By Your Name"
Martin McDonagh, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
Christopher Nolan, "Dunkirk"
Jordan Peele, "Get Out"

Best Actor
Timothee Chalamet "Call Me By Your Name"
Daniel Day-Lewis, "Phantom Thread"
James Franco, "The Disaster Artist"
Daniel Kaluuya, "Get Out"
Gary Oldman, "Darkest Hour"

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, "Molly's Game"
Sally Hawkins, "The Shape of Water"
Frances McDormand, "Three Billboards Ouside Ebbing, Missouri"
Margot Robbie, "I, Tonya"
Saoirse Ronan, "Lady Bird"

'The Florida Project', 'Three Billboards' among 2017's best films

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri/Fox Searchlight

And another year comes to a close. Inner turmoil about the state of the country and the values and norms we have long held have been thrown into chaos by a never stopping whirling dervish we call America. It was a strong year that had us more engaged - maybe too much? - as a society and more stubbornly steadfast. A more defined understanding of what we want our world to be was never made more clear until 2017 and it appeared on silver screens, and computer screens, all over the world.

The first movie to hold up a mirror to make us reflect on who we are was February's "Get Out", that awesome horror comedy film from first-time director Jordan Peele who created a crazy original story about racism in America. It opened the floodgates for a lot of films to tackle pertinent issues, and it wasn't confined to documentaries- just look at Steven Spielberg's star-studded "The Post" as a big F-you to the Trump Administration and Fatih Akin's overbearingly trite hate crime film "In The Fade".

Movie Review: 'Dunkirk' is an intense, beautiful film

Dunkirk (2017, directed by Christopher Nolan. U.S.A./U.K., English, Color, 106 minutes) In the realm of war movies, the most memorable one of recent years is 1998's "Saving Private Ryan" - even though "The Hurt Locker" is better. It's violent, it's bloody, there's a human interest aspect to it, and it has pretty boys acting out a young man's fantasy of shooting guns and fighting off the Nazis.

Almost 20 years later and Christopher Nolan releases "Dunkirk", a film with a keen eye for suspense and storytelling that it easily eclipses Spielberg's one-trick pony of a film.