Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men has moved ahead as the firm favourite to take the Oscar for best picture.

(It's nominated for seven other Oscars, including best director, screenplay, and supporting actor.) At the Screen Actors Guild awards this week, No Country received the prize for best ensemble cast, the guild's equivalent of a best picture award, and Javier Bardem was voted best supporting actor for the movie.

A night earlier, the Coens collected the Directors Guild of America (DGA) award. Only six times since the guild inaugurated its annual awards in 1948 has the winner not gone to take the Oscar for best director. However, on the same night, the American Society of Cinematographers gave their award to Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood, the strongest challenger to the Coens' film in the Oscar race.

If the Coens win the best picture Oscar, it will compensate for their snubbing at Cannes last year, when the jury chaired by Stephen Frears gave the movie no acknowledgement in their awards. However, such are the anomalies of awards ceremonies that 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, failed to even make the shortlist for the best foreign-language film Oscar.