After Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony, Hollywood has formally entered the “playoff” stage of Oscar season. With over two dozen movies vying for nominations throughout all Academy Award classes, the following week is make-or-break for awards campaigns.

AMPAS members will start voting on the nominations on Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 9 a.m. PT. Studios are pulling out all of the stops, ramping up efforts to safe their movies’ locations on the coveted nomination lists. Including to the frenzy, the main Hollywood guilds — Display Actors Guild (SAG), Administrators Guild of America (DGA), Writers Guild of America (WGA), Producers Guild of America (PGA), and American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) — will launch their nominations over the following three days, whereas voting. These guild nods can catapult movies to frontrunner standing or derail their campaigns fully.

Compounding the excessive stakes, the Critics Alternative Awards on Sunday, Jan. 14, start only one hour earlier than Oscar nomination voting closes at 5 p.m. PT. Each accolade and headline this week counts as studios and publicists scramble to maintain their movies within the dialog.

On Wednesday, Jan. 10, we’ll obtain a double dose of pleasure with SAG and DGA asserting. In line with Selection’s last SAG predictions, Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical “Emilia Pérez” is predicted to dominate. Distributed by Netflix, the genre-bending movie has been constructing momentum, and following its haul on the Golden Globes, its compelling narrative and distinctive fusion of music and drama, might have a robust week forward.

There’s a five-way race for finest image, and that’s not hyperbolic.

Baker’s “Anora” presently leads with the precursors’ tally with 16 wins, making it the season’s most embellished movie to date. The understated drama has been a important darling, premiered to rapturous acclaim at Cannes, and took house the Palme d’Or. Nevertheless, its absence from the Golden Globes stage stays a sore spot. Can it rebound? Simply ask anybody who labored on “Highlight” (2014).

Scorching on its heels is Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” with 9 wins, together with a major victory on the Globes, Corbet’s 215-minute epic has confirmed to be a formidable contender. In the meantime, Coralie Fargeat’s body-horror thriller “The Substance” has emerged as one thing we’d want to start contemplating as a darkish horse in main classes. Sporting six finest image critics’ trophies, it’s captivated audiences with its visceral storytelling and feminist undertones.

On the DGA, the Greatest Director race is predicted to align carefully with the highest contenders for finest image. The likeliest nominees embody Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Pérez”), Sean Baker (“Anora”), Edward Berger (“Conclave”), Jon M. Chu (“Depraved”), and Brady Corbet (“The Brutalist”). Corbet presently leads in director wins with 10, two greater than Denis Villeneuve (“Dune: Half Two”), who will want a robust exhibiting to remain alive.

The DGA’s First-Time Characteristic class shall be one to observe carefully. The class awarding first-time narrative filmmakers places former documentary filmmakers Payal Kapadia (“All We Think about as Gentle”) and RaMell Ross (“Nickel Boys”) eligible for nominations and sure frontrunners to win the prize. This yr’s subject will even embody a number of distinguished ladies administrators, as proven by the final three years the place ladies dominated. Be careful for our two cinematographers who stepped behind the digicam reminiscent of Rachel Morrison (“The Fireplace Inside”) and Ellen Kuras (“Lee”), to sneak in, alongside attainable actors-turned-directors Anna Kendrick (“Lady of the Hour”) and Zoë Kravitz (“Blink Twice”).

On the PGA nominations, which drop on Friday, the guild is coming off famously matching the Oscar finest image lineup 10-for-10 final yr (a primary in historical past). We don’t count on that to repeat, not with this yr deemed “Yr And not using a Frontrunner,” and big-budget crowd-pleasers like “Challengers” and “Inside Out 2” inside arm’s attain of disrupting the race. This will even be important for indie darlings like “A Actual Ache” and “Sing Sing” if they will get into the fold.

The WGA’s nominations typically differ from the Oscars because of eligibility restrictions. The checklist of this yr’s ineligibilities are:

Ineligible authentic screenplay: “All We Think about as Gentle” (Janus Movies/Sideshow); “The Brutalist” (A24); “Didi” (Focus Options); “A Completely different Man” (A24); “Onerous Truths” (Bleecker Avenue); “His Three Daughters” (Netflix); “I Noticed the TV Glow” (A24); “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” (Neon); “September 5” (Paramount Footage); “The Substance” (Mubi)

Ineligible tailored screenplays: “Conclave” (Focus Options); “Emilia Pérez” (Netflix); “I’m Nonetheless Right here” (Sony Footage Classics); “Inside Out 2” (Pixar); “The Outrun” (Sony Footage Classics); “The Room Subsequent Door” (Sony Footage Classics); “Sing Sing” (A24); “The Wild Robotic” (DreamWorks Animation)

The unique checklist will nonetheless embody frontrunner “Anora” alongside the doubtless contender “A Actual Ache.” Extra notably, this will turn out to be a definitive assertion for a movie like Amazon MGM’s “Challengers” to make if it desires to vie for debut screenwriter Justin Kurtzes (who additionally has “Queer” eligible in tailored). On the similar time, this turns into a (type of) final stand for Sony Footage’ “Saturday Night time” to indicate up wherever on nomination morning.

With fewer tailored works out of the operating than authentic, the removing of “Conclave,” “Emilia Pérez” and “Sing Sing,” all extensively anticipated to land Oscar noms, leaves a subject open for films like Searchlight Footage’ “A Full Unknown,” Amazon MGM Studios’ “Nickel Boys” and Common Footage’ “Depraved.” It additionally turns into one other shot for a “Dune: Half Two” to choose up steam, with a last spot that may be taken by streaming hit “Hit Man,” shock field workplace hit “Nosferatu” and indie “Nightbitch.”

Lastly, the American Society of Cinematographers is predicted to honor veterans like Ed Lachman (“Maria”) and Greig Fraser (“Dune: Half Two”), whereas Lol Crawley (“The Brutalist”), who acquired a highlight award nod for Corbet’s debut movie “The Childhood of a Chief,” might pop up along with his gorgeous digicam work and atmospheric visuals.

As we march towards the Oscars, the following 5 days shall be pivotal in shaping the narrative of this awards season. By subsequent week, the panorama shall be clearer — or, maybe, much more thrillingly chaotic. Take a look at Selection’s last picks within the 4 guilds beneath.

See all Academy Award predictions

Selection Awards Circuit: Oscars