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

It used to be that searching Google Earth was only good for finding the people accidentally caught committing crimes, or for exploring supposedly classified areas of the world to propagate further conspiracy theories. But for Saroo Brierley it was an unlikely means to rediscover his lost family.

That is the story of Lion, The Weinstein Company's latest attempt to reclaim their Oscar Darlings title, from commercial director Garth Davis and starring Dev Patel opposite Nicole Kidman, David Wenham and Rooney Mara (though in truth, she's not really tasked with a great deal).

Most memorable in the film is the haunting and devastating first act, which sees Saroo torn from his family and forced to the streets in tense scenes that feel at times like plucking at an exposed nerve. When it skips forward to him as a grown man, transplanted in Australia, the film inevitably takes a more gentle approach, but Patel's image of a man searching to find himself and trapped between worlds is affecting and impressive and is one of the less spectacular, but still captivating performances of the last year.

It may struggle to make the final cut, but it definitely deserves to be mentioned on the long list.