An Oscar certainty? One Battle After Another secures key PGA award win

The first half of awards season is composed of awards given out by film critics, journalists and other industry professionals, notably the Gotham awards, the New York and Los Angeles Film Critics awards, the National Board of Review awards and the Critics Choice and Golden Globe awards. Often they get it right, but their thinking can also be shaped by sentiment and personal taste.

Australia’s Rose Byrne, for example, has dominated the best actress category off the back of a stunning performance in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. That is, until last weeks BAFTAs, which seemed to confirm Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) was a legitimate threat to her run. Whether Byrne or Buckley wins at this weekend’s SAG awards – Monday, Australian time – will be the key step in whose Oscar campaign is edging ahead.

Similarly, Paul Thomas Anderson has dominated the director category so far in awards season, winning six awards so far, including the Critics Choice, Golden Globes and BAFTAs. But it was the sixth of those wins, from the Director’s Guild, which effectively bolts Anderson into position as the likely winner of Oscar’s best director statue.

In her opening remarks ahead of the awards ceremony, the PGA’s CEO Susan Sprung acknowledged the escalating war in the Middle East, saying: “The events of the past 24 hours have us all concerned. Even as we go about our lives, even as we celebrate, forever, we pray for peace.”