Judging by what we have seen in the past, there is a strong likelihood that Zoe Saldaña could walk away from Sunday’s Academy Awards with her first Oscar under her arm.

The 46-year-old New Jersey-born actress wowed critics with her electrifying performance in Emilia Pérez. She plays Rita Mora Castro, a talented but underappreciated lawyer who, tired of being undermined by her boss, undertakes a job to work for the head of a drugs cartel.

Zoe Saldaña sizzles in Jacques Audiard’s ground-breaking musical

As Zoe herself admits, Emilia Pérez is an unusual, highly original film, which is why partly explains why received 13 nominations at this year’s Oscars. “It’s difficult to explain it in one sentence or two,” she told Stephen Colbert. “All I’m going to say is that, it’s provocative, audacious, very bold, and it’s important. I feel that it’s a film that, as we were shooting, we realized that it was going to be something really impactful for us for how important it is”.

Jacques Audiard’s 25th feature film has been so well received that it has already won a host of accolades, including a clean sweep of awards at last month’s Capri Hollywood festival, Cannes, Palm Springs, the European Film awards, the Critics' Choice Movie Awards and, more recently, the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

And curiously, the fact that Zoe Saldaña picked up the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role award at the SAG gala, could bode well for her chances of adding an Oscar to her collection.

SAG award winners go on to win the Oscar

The historic data shows that the recipient of the SAG Award for Female Actor in a Supporting Role usually goes on to win an Oscar. In fact that’s been the case every year since 2018.

Laura Dern, Jamie Lee Curtis and Da’Vine Joy Randolph all followed up their SAG award wins by taking home an Oscar as well. We will see if Zoe Saldaña continues the tradition on Sunday night.

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