The race for an Oscar is heating up for two leading Irish actors, who have just been given a seriously promising nod.
Both Saoirse Ronan and Michael Fassbender have been nominated for the prestigious Screen Actors Guild Awards, which is seen as a pre- cursor to the Academy Awards.
Usually, the ceremony is an indication of the nominations yet to come for the Oscars, which is a great boost for the stars.
Saoirse has been generating Oscar buzz for quite some time now, ever since her latest movie Brooklyn debuted at the Sundance Film Festival last year.
The actress plays a young girl leaving her hometown of Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford to travel to big, bad Brooklyn, where she suffers homesickness and experiences her first love.
Despite her stellar performance however, scooping a SAG Award for best actress in a motion picture won’t be easy, as she faces tough competition: Helen Mirren for her role in Woman In Gold, Cate Blanchett for Carol, Brie Larson for Room, and Sarah Silverman for I Smile Back.
Meanwhile Michael has been nominated for best actor in a motion picture for his leading role in Steve Jobs. But again, he will be going up against a seriously strong category, including Eddie Redmayne for The Danish Girl, Bryan Cranston, for Trumbo, Johnny Depp, for Black Mass and Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant.
Fingers crossed for the pair!
The 22nd SAG awards will take place in Los Angeles on January 30.
