Oscars 2017: 20 Predicted Best Film Nominees Ranked Worst To Best

It's rather unfortunate that Moonlight - an astonishing film that delivers not only on politicised agenda but also on entertainment factor and quality - is coming out the same year as the delightful La La Land. Any other year, it might well have been the easy front-runner for every award it is up for.

Unfortunately, it might have to make do with a Best Supporting acting gong, which obviously is nothing to be sniffed at.

The film is pertinent and devastating, an LGBT and racial minority picture that is punctuated by despair but which is so artfully crafted that it never sinks under the weight of its emotion. It is neither cloying nor preaching, propped up by a brilliant script that deftly avoids cliche and stereotype and introduces difficult characters who utterly defy expectations.

Mahershala Ali in particular is brilliant as the drug-dealer father figure who defies conventions and props up his son's search for himself and for acceptance, while being forced to disguise himself. And of course, it is that journey that is the most poignant: Chiron's story is profound and profoundly moving, a universally affecting look at something that far too many people have been forced to live through. And it should be as cherished as a rare delight as it is lamented as an all too rare example of what it means to be homosexual and black (and both) in America.