Oscars 2017: 15 Movies Most Likely To Get Nominated For Best Picture

What Is It? Denzel's Broadway passion project. Based August Wilson's play, Denzel Washington's latest actor-director gig sees him take his incredibly successful stage run to the big screen, playing an ex-baseball player in 1950s Pittsburgh now working as a waste collector and struggling to support his family. Not a comedy.

Why Could It Be A Contender? The racial struggles of sixty years ago has some strong societal links to the modern day, and with the other movie about racial representation facing problems (although I still think it'll battle through, something I'll get to in a few points) Fences could be the movie to really fight that fight. Denzel is also a proven Oscar presence, at least on an acting side, so this is shaping up to be Paramount's big entrant in this year's race.

What Might Stop It? If The Birth Of A Nation does make it through the controversy it could end up being the flag-waving film the populace pins its hopes on, although you have to hope Academy wouldn't go in for such basic tokenism. The big barrier is that Denzel The Director's never got much recognition outside of black awards groups, but with this cast and the current climate, that could be overcome.