LOS ANGELES • Can crime movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri make a giant "killing" at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards (this morning, Singapore time)?
It is gunning for honours with four nods in three categories - Best Ensemble Cast, Best Lead Actress (Frances McDormand) and Best Supporting Actor (Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell).
While far less flashy than the recent Golden Globes, the awards are seen as a clearer indicator of Oscars glory. Members represent about 1,200 of the roughly 6,000 voters linked to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Three Billboards, starring McDormand as a mother seeking to avenge the rape and murder of her daughter, has been a top Oscars contender since taking the influential audience prize at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Joining the movie in the running for Best Cast - the top SAG award - are romantic comedy The Big Sick, racial satire Get Out, offbeat dramedy Lady Bird and civil rights drama Mudbound.
For television, three series are tied at the top with four nominations each: HBO drama Big Little Lies and - including the stunt team nominations - Netflix science-fiction thriller Stranger Things and wrestling comedy Glow.
In the Best Actor category for film, Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name) faces competition from James Franco (The Disaster Artist), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) and Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq.).
For Best Actress, McDormand faces off against Judi Dench (Victoria & Abdul), Sally Hawkins (The Shape Of Water), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya) and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird).
Meanwhile, honours were doled out last Saturday at the Producers Guild Awards, with Guillermo del Toro's fantasy romance The Shape Of Water taking home the best movie prize.
It had more buoyancy than other Academy Awards contenders, including Call Me By Your Name, Dunkirk, Get Out, I, Tonya and Lady Bird.
The 1960s-set fairy tale about a mute government laboratory janitor falling in love with a merman-like creature won Best Director for del Toro at the Golden Globes.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
