The Oscars are still an important event for film & filmmaking . . . particularly for smaller films, largely unseen by mainstream audiences. Here are our suggestions for the winners to be announced on Monday 13th March . . .

Evelyn (played by Michelle Yeoh) is trying to complete her tax audit, throw a Chinese New Year party to impress her father (James Hong), navigate a possible divorce and avoid alienating her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). But . . . she’s the last hope of the multiverse! Tasked with fighting an evil monster threatening to everything. And that is the plot . . .

Conductor Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) has everything: awards, an incredible apartment, a supportive partner, a beautiful daughter but now she faces the challenge of life with a live recording Gustav Mahler’s monumental Fifth symphony. As her focus shifts from infatuations old and new, her life begins starts to crumble . . .

A year before the Great War reaches its conclusion, German teenager Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) joins into the army. Several months later, this world is shattered when the reality of trench warfare sinks in, and all you do is just survive.

It’s the late 1990s, 30-year-old single father Calum (Paul Mescal) takes his 11-year-old daughter Sophie to a Turkish holiday resort for a rare trip together. Calum is on the brink of his 31st birthday and is committed to giving his daughter Sophie the best time he can . . .

We’re back to the early 1980s with Hilary (played by Olivia Colman) who works at the fading Empire cinema in Margate. When new employee Stephen (Michael Ward) arrives to join the team, the pair forge a friendship which turns into a romance, but with her mental-health issues, and issues from the times . . . both these elements threaten to divide them.

The story follows a young Sammy Fabelman, in a post-World War II America era, as he discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth . . .

We’re in London and it’s 1953 . . . Mr Williams (played by Bill Nighy) is a stiff-upper-lipped accountant who works to a meticulous routine. When faced with a devastating terminal medical diagnosis, the normally reserved man learns to live life anew – and find meaning before it’s too late . . .

On the small Irish island of Inisherin in 1923 . . . Pádraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson) have been friends forever. But one day, as the civil war rages on the background, Colm suddenly announces that their friendship is over . . .

When Colonel Tom Parker (played by Tom Hanks) spots a handsome young singer by the name of Elvis Presley (Austin Butler), he knows he’s found something special . . . Parker turns Presley into a superstar . . . but fame doesn’t bring him happiness.

Julie is on the verge of 30 and struggling to find her place in the world. Joachim Trier’s Oslo romantic drama – The Worst Person in the World isn’t just a love story, it follows one relationship after another. This is an intricate, deeply emotional, intelligent view of how relationships affect a woman going through them as she grows more into herself . . .

This isn't strictly a film . . . but it does star Hollywood A-listers . . . Colin Firth & Toni Collette. If you have Netflix, you may have already be familiar with the documentary also entitled – The Staircase . . .

It’s the late 1980s . . . following on from the death of her boyfriend, film-school student Julie Harte (played by Honor Swinton Byrne) decides to change her final project into a dramatised version of her tragic relationship. But, as she works through the facts to find the fiction, her journey into art proves to be far from easy . . .

After losing her job in Empire, Nevada, widowed Fern (played by Frances McDormand) heads off in a small van and decides to travel around the American West, working odd jobs and sharing experiences with fellow travellers on the fringes of society . . .

Ok, this isn’t strictly a film . . . but I thought I’d bend the rules slightly for this stunning documentary. “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” is a six-parter based on Warhol’s own journal from 1976 till his death in 1987. This startling biopic is told with the artist’s own words through a re-created A.I. voice, which sounds strange and alien – and sometimes human but not. It’s aesthetically jarring, but so brilliantly done . . .

The Oscars may not be as popular as they once were . . . as the lines have blurred from cinema to home viewing. But the Oscars are still relevant particularly for showcasing smaller films to larger mainstream audiences. Here are our suggestions for the winners to be announced on Sunday . . .

A son returns from war and doesn't want to get mixed up in the family business . . . organised crime. When his father is gunned down, he commits murder and is bound by blood, heritage, and ‘honour’ through a course of vengeance and power maintained through fear. Eventually he takes on his father's mantle as the big shot and family head . . .

The lives of Icelandic farmers Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) are altered by a discovery in their sheep shed. But a shadow is cast over their happiness when Ingvar’s ex-pop star brother Pétur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson) rocks up unexpectedly . . .

Following the death of her grandmother, eight-year-old Nelly, along with her mother & father empty the former home. Outside in the woods, Nelly befriends Marion . . . her mother’s younger self . . .

After a small town in the south witnesses their worst murder yet . . . the sheriff begins to investigate but is joined by a black policeman from the big city. The two don’t get on for obvious reasons . . . the sheriff is a racist and a bigot. But somehow, they both manage to overcome their differences to find the murderer.