As the Academy Awards draw closer, Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic has increasingly looked like the run-away favorite.
“Oppenheimer” continued to streamroll through Hollywood’s awards season on Saturday, winning the top prize, for outstanding cast, along with awards for Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr., at the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
As the Academy Awards draw closer, Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic — already a winner and the BAFTAs — has increasingly looked like the run-away favorite. The SAG Awards, one of the most-telling Oscar predictors, will only add to the momentum for “Oppenheimer,” the lead Academy Awards nominee with 13 nods.
The SAG Awards don’t always signify Oscar success. Two of the last five winners from the guild (“The Trial of the Chicago 7” and “Black Panther”) lost at the Academy Awards. But in the past two years, all five of the top SAG prizes – best ensemble and the four acting winners – have corresponded with the eventual Oscar winners, including the ensembles for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “CODA.”
That could mean the SAGs offered an Oscar preview in two of the closest contests: best actor and best actress.
The night’s most thrilling win went to Lily Gladstone for female actor in a leading role in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” No category has been more hotly contested, with analysts evenly split between Gladstone and Emma Stone for “Poor Things.”
But Gladstone won Saturday and the crowd erupted. Stone, too, stood and vigorously applauded. More is riding on Gladstone than perhaps any other Oscar contender this year. Her win would be a first for Native Americans.
Murphy and Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”) have also been seen as in a neck-and-neck contest. But Murphy has now won at the SAGs, the BAFTAs and Globes, suggesting he has the clear edge heading into the Academy Awards.
Robert Downey Jr. and Da’Vine Joy Randolph each won for their supporting performances, likewise solidifying their status as Oscar favorites.
