The tallies are almost all in, and with the 2015 Oscars less than one month away, this year’s awards season has become rather predictable. Sunday night’s Screen Actors Guild Awards came with few surprises and set concrete indicators as to who will take home an Academy Award this year.
Whipping the rest of his competition is Whiplash star J.K. Simmons, who has now won a Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice Award, and the SAG for his Best Supporting Actor performance as the violent music teacher and tormenter Terence Fletcher.
It took her 12 years, but Patricia Arquette is finally having her moment. The Boyhood star is up against women half her age (Emma Stone) and powerhouse forces like Meryl Streep for the Best Supporting Actress category, but she will undoubtedly come out victorious thanks to her moving role as a single mother struggling through a series of destructive relationships, which has already earned her a Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice Award, and a SAG Award.
Could this finally be Julianne Moore‘s year? With five Oscar nominations under her belt, the revolutionary redhead is likely to snag her first golden trophy for her role as a young titular Alzheimer’s patient in Still Alice. The devastating performance has scored her a Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice Award, and a SAG.
The Best Actor category features this year’s closest race. Will it be cinema veteran Michael Keaton or up-and-comer Eddie Redmayne? Both men scored the Golden Globe in different genres, Keaton winning for his role as Riggan Thomson in Birdman at the Critics’ Choice Awards while Redmayne went home victorious at the SAGs for his physically and emotionally demanding role as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. While it might seem like the young Brit is this year’s Cinderella story, it’s actually the underappreciated Keaton — on a definite comeback trail after close to two quiet decades — who deserves this win. It will be the Batman actor’s first Oscar if he pulls it off next month.
The Best Director and Best Picture category tend to go hand in hand, placing the true competition between Richard Linklater‘s Boyhood and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu‘s Birdman. At the SAG Awards, there is no Best Picture category, but rather a Best Ensemble Cast. This award went to Birdman, which required a talented group of pros to navigate the intricacies of the script and the film’s set in the lengthy single-camera shots. But the breadth of Boyhood‘s cinematic accomplishments both in storytelling and acting cannot be denied. Shot over 12 years, the most literal coming-of-age story to date has bagged the Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Awards for both Best Director and Best Picture.
Tell Us: Who do you think will win an Academy Award this year?