Just writing this article feels wrong. As I might be about to jinx what could be a record breaking awards season.
As any bona-fide baseball fan will tell you, the one thing that you must not do when there’s the potential for a no-hitter is mention that no-hitter. And make no mistake about it, after the Screen Actors Guild awards on Sunday, Frances McDormand, Gary Oldman, Sam Rockwell, and Allison Janney are now well and truly on for the awards season equivalent of a no-hitter.
The foursome have now won the Best Actor (Gary Oldman – “Darkest Hour”), Best Actress (Frances McDormand – “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), Best Supporting Actress (Allison Janney – “I, Tonya”), and Best Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell – “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”) gongs at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, and SAG ceremonies.
If they can pick up the same prizes at the 71st British Academy Film Awards on February 18 and the 90th Academy Awards on March 4 then they will have achieved an unprecedented clean sweep in the acting categories across the five main awards ceremonies.
As the good folks over at Gold Derby pointed out, the closest we have come to seeing such an achievement was back in 2015, when Michael Keaton’s Best Actor victory at the Critics’ Choice Awards for “Birdman” stopped Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory Of Everything”), Julianne Moore (“Still Alice”), J.K Simmons (“Whiplash”), and Patricia Arquette (“Boyhood”).
What’s most astonishing is that each of the races seemed to be relatively tight up until a few weeks ago.
While McDormand and Oldman were the frontrunners, it was thought that Margot Robbie (“I, Tonya”), Saoirse Ronan (“Lady Bird”), and Sally Hawkins (“The Shape Of Water”) and Timothee Chalamet (“Call Me By Your Name”), James Franco (“The Disaster Artist”), and Daniel Day Lewis (“Phantom Thread”), respectively, would run them close. The Supporting categories were supposed to be even tighter, with Laurie Metcalf (“Lady Bird”) and Willem Dafoe (“The Florida Project”) supposed to go toe-to-toe with Janney and Rockwell.
Instead it has turned into a procession. But while the quartet can fully expect to leave the Academy Awards with each of their gongs, the BAFTAs offer up several hurdles that might scupper this record.
There’s every chance that the Brits will side with their national counterparts in the Best Supporting Actor and Actress fields, as Hugh Grant (“Paddington 2”) could pip Rockwell and either Lesley Manville (“Phantom Thread”) or Kristen Scott Thomas (“Darkest Hour”) might do the same to Janney.
Even the Best Actor and Best Actress fields aren’t quite as secure. Sally Hawkins’ mesmeric portrayal in “The Shape Of Water” is also likely to have more admirers in the UK, and while Oldman is still favorite to pick up his first ever Golden Globe for acting, there’s an outside chance that the retiring Daniel Day-Lewis and the titanic efforts of the trailblazing Daniel Kaluuya in “Get Out” will be rewarded instead.
Even if that’s the case, considering how much love McDormand, Oldman, Rockwell, and Janney have already received during the awards season, they will be more than willing to share the wealth.
