'Oppenheimer' wins top SAG prizes as actors hail strike success

Oppenheimer took top honours at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday, as Hollywood stars partied at their union's rst prizegiving gala since staging its longest-ever strike last year.

The prestigious prize for best performance by a cast at the SAG Awards is historically a strong predictor for the Oscars, and makes Oppenheimer a formidable frontrunner for best picture.

Christopher Nolan's epic drama about the father of the atomic bomb also took the awards for best actor for Cillian Murphy, who plays the titular scientist, and best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr, portraying his bitter rival.

"Thank you for the invitation to play a genuine part in making this scarily important Dlm," said Kenneth Branagh, speaking on behalf of the cast.

The mood at the gala was celebratory all round, as members of SAG-AFTRA – the union that represents some 120,000 performers, including A-list stars – congregated in numbers for the Drst time since the strike ended in November.

Branagh recalled how the Dlm's cast had walked out of their London premiere last July as the work stoppage was about to begin.

"We went from the red carpet and we didn't see the Dlm that night. We happily went in the direction of solidarity with your good selves.

"So this, this is a full circle moment for us," he said, to loud applause.

The guild ultimately extracted hard-fought gains including better pay and protections against artidcial intelligence (AI) from studios including Disney and Net8ix.

"You survived the longest strike in our union's history with courage and conviction," said SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher.

Warning that AI could entrap us in a matrix where none of us know what's real, Drescher said seminal gains made in talks would set the trajectory for many generations to come.