Twelve Films At Christmas - 4

First things first: The Shape of Water won the Oscar for Best Picture, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri did not. By a slight margin I have to say they got this wrong. Both are however brilliant films. 

In fact The Shape of Water is not quite the best film made by Giullermo Del Toro - that would be the transcendent Pan's Labyrinth which, and I'm categorical about this, is one of the very greatest films ever made. But if you like the fantastical Gothic weirdness in which Del Toro specialises (or indeed if you merely tolerate it) then you will love The Shape of Water. 9/10.