Oscars 2017 predictions for Best Picture winner: Will it be a clean sweep for La La Land?

Who will win the biggest prize of them all — Best Picture — at the Oscars 2017 (or, if we're using its proper name, the 89th Academy Awards)? That's a tricky question: we don't know if the Academy is still humming 'City Of Stars' or it wants lay claim to furthering the cause of racial diversity. Here are a few things that will happen for sure on Sunday night, 26 February 2016, (Monday morning, 27 February for us in India) at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, where the Oscars are being held:Celebrities will mention Donald Trump.There will be tearful acceptance speeches.Trump will be mentioned in them.There will be a lot of people in this year's 'in memoriam' montage (we are betting on the Carrie Fisher tribute being the biggest)  because, after this past year, how could there not?Now let's get back to the Oscar predictions. Out of the nine nominated films, who do you think will win? The Oscars 2017 nominations have tried to factor in diversity, but it seems sadly that the diversity is almost forced, with films like Loving being completely ignored by the Academy. While all the films were masterpieces in their own right, the films are sometimes too complex for the normal filmgoer to digest. Does anyone actually watch the films?The host for last year, Chris Rock, tried to ask a couple of regular moviegoers if they had actually seen the films nominated for the academy award in 2016."Did you see Spotlight?" Chris Rock asks. Then there is a montage of different people saying no:For this year's Oscar pool you can either decide that enough voters are enamoured with Damien Chazelle’s musical romance and ode to the City of Angels that they just check it off in every category. Or, perhaps they feel it has already gotten too much and want to spread the wealth.But there are reliable indicators that La La Land might sweep the awards. Since the Oscars almost always mirror the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild awards, La La Land might sweep the Oscars too.La La Land's potential win might have two outcomes.  People will grumble about lack of diversity in the nominee and winner category, but on the bright side we haven't had a Titanic-esque award sweep in a while (the film won 11 awards) .Last year's Best Picture winner Spotlight pulled off winning the Oscar's biggest prize while taking just one other award (Original Screenplay). It was Mad Max: Fury Road that pulled off the mini-sweep (though only in technical categories) before coming to a screeching halt when the big awards were announced. Before that, both Argo and 12 Years A Slave took the Best Picture prize with only two other category wins. If La La Land wins big, like it did at the Golden Globes, it will be a record breaking sweep at the Oscars.Here's the trailer for La La Land:The Oscar nominations 2017 best picture are:Arrival This sci-fi drama takes the well worn alien genre and turns it into a fascinating story dealing with life, death, loss, communication and a woman (Amy Adams) who goes deep in trying discover the mysteries of her own life as she encounters beings from another planet.FencesDenzel Washington’s faithful adaptation of the August Wilson play is the kind of Broadway transfer from stage to screen studios used to do all the time, but rarely try anymore. Hacksaw RidgeMel Gibson is back in the director's chair with the true story Medal of Honour winner Desmond Doss who saved 75 men in Okinawa, during the bloodiest battle of WWII, without firing a single shot.Hell or High WaterA story of two brothers who resort to a desperate scheme in order to save their ranch in Texas was a suprise nomination on the Best Film list. A very accurate picture of the post-industrialised, post-2008 crash America, Hell or High Water is a fast paced neo noir which tugs at the heartstrings. For a reviewer in Guardian, "It's arguably the most contemporary and relevant of the best picture nominees, the one that most allows you to understand the socio-political predicament in which the US currently finds itself."The Academy Awards have known to throw curveballs and make the least visible nominee on the list win the award (like Spotlight last year).Hidden FiguresThe film about the first three women, African-American at that, who help launch a shuttle into space is one of the forerunners in the Oscar race. But here is the catch: the film's director is a white male. LionWill the story of a man of Indian origin trying to find where he comes from win the Oscar? The Academy did love Slumdog Millionaire. Dev Patel won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for this film.MoonlightWhile its equivalent Boyhood didn't win big at the Oscars (it lost out to Birdman) this film winning will mean that the Hollywood is finally opening up to films about people of colour.Manchester By The SeaThis masterful film has been universally praised now for over a year since its Sundance debut. The fact that a dark and often depressing drama is nearing the $50 million box office mark is an encouraging sign, and it has been in all the majors awards contests right up to its six nominations for Oscars, including three in acting, which is important since actors comprise the Academy’s largest branch. Still it largely came up short at the Globes, where only Casey Affleck won, and particularly SAG, where it couldn’t cash in any of its leading four nominations.Catch our live blog: Oscars 2017 LIVE updates: Hollywood's ready for its big night with 89th Academy Awards