Originally Posted by The Batlord

So go watch Dunkirk. I say this because I think you might be surprised by how much it isn't a propaganda film compared to other war films. I think it's a pretty great showing of just how it is to be scared ****less of being in a war, though it clearly does have its corny war movie issues. War movies that don't have issues with corniness are rare if not nonexistent obviously.

Originally Posted by MicShazam

Definitely far from all Cannes films will be good, but I've had amazingly good luck with buying movies with those Cannes palms on the cover. I don't even care if it's a winner or just a nominee. Even the movies I hated were still well made and somewhat interesting. The Oscars feature a lot more movies any given year that are just tepid, sentimental schlock.
But I guess following the Oscars will give you some sense of the current zeitgeist and there's bound to be a few good films somewhere among the nominees. I might watch The Shape of Water soon if my brother really wants to go and see it, but there's not a great amount of Oscar movies that I feel curious about. I guess that I tend to discover them a year or two later if they still get talked about by film geeks.