Awards season watch: early acting front-runners emerging

With nomination windows opening across multiple academies and guilds, a group of performances in both film and television is starting to show up consistently on critics’ lists and early regional awards ballots.

Hollywood Awards Watch tracks these trends by combining critics’ mentions, festival reactions and official longlists where available. Our goal is to give you a clear, honest snapshot of how the season is evolving — without hype, paywalls or clickbait headlines.