On Saturday, the Producers Guild awarded its best picture honour to The Shape Of Water. The PGAs are reliable predictors for Oscar, although they chose La La Land last year and Moonlight went on to win. Last night, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri won for Best Ensemble, the SAG equivalent of Best Picture. So, right now, it’s a two film race for Oscar. 

There is controversy surrounding Three Billboards though, just like there is controversy surrounding several of this year’s potential nominees, like there may have been every year among the nominees. By this point last year, the backlash against La La Land was beginning to pick up momentum. It remains to be seen whether or not the Three Billboards backlash will follow the same path, now that it’s considered an Oscar frontrunner. 

And this is where we find Frances McDormand who won the SAG Best Actress award last night for her work in the film and is considered the slamdunk favourite in the category. Frances is standing behind the film and supporting it with all her influence. A vote for Frances, then, may be a vote for the film too. During her speech, however, she seemed to tell the Academy that… 

She doesn’t want their votes? At least not individually. 

 

Frances has her share of doorstops. She has several SAG awards, she has a Golden Globe, she has an Emmy, and she has an Oscar. And she’s pretty much saying she doesn’t need any more so… when it comes time for Oscar, maybe don’t check off her name? Do you think she means it? I don’t think Frances McDormand ever says anything she doesn’t mean. But I’m also not sure they’ll listen. Because in doing that, it probably made Oscar voters want to vote for her even more. 

If it goes the way she wants it to though, Frances would not be getting up on stage to collect the Best Actress Oscar but Three Billboards would be the one called out at the end of the show, for Best Picture. The woman who described herself as someone who only comes out of the woods every few years or so, who isn’t known to be an active award season campaigner, is the one who is, ostensibly inadvertently, campaigning the most effectively for the film.