'Oppenheimer' steamrolls toward Oscars with Screen Actors Guild Award wins

Historical epic "Oppenheimer" picked up more prizes on Saturday at Hollywood's Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, bolstering the movie's chances to score the best picture trophy at next month's Oscars.

The film about the race to build the first atomic bomb took the top honor - best movie cast - handed out by members of the SAG-AFTRA actors union at a red-carpet ceremony in Los Angeles.

Cillian Murphy, who played scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, won best movie actor, and co-star Robert Downey Jr. best supporting actor.

Irish actor Murphy said he took up the profession after trying to make a career as a musician and often felt like an "interloper."

"This is extremely special to me because it comes from you guys," Murphy told his fellow actors as he accepted his award.

SAG-AFTRA's choices are closely watched because actors form the largest group of voters for the Academy Awards, the film industry's top prizes.

At the moment "Oppenheimer" appears unstoppable. Director Christopher Nolan's drama already has claimed trophies at the Golden Globes, the British Academy Film Awards and other ceremonies. Honors from Producers Guild of America, another key predictor of Oscars success, will be announced on Sunday. 

In other SAG accolades, the best actress trophy went to Lily Gladstone, star of "Killers of the Flower Moon." Gladstone played a member of the Osage Native American community that suffered a string of murders in 1920s Oklahoma over their oil-rich land.

"My friends, fellow actors, I feel the good in what you have done," Gladstone said. "We bring empathy into a world that so much needs it."

Da'Vine Joy Randolph won supporting actress for playing a grieving mother in "The Holdovers." "How lucky are we to get to do what we do. I