Hollywood loves a sequel, and this awards season is shaping up to be one.

Just as Argo emerged as the unlikely victor over Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln last year, another 1970s-set crowd-pleaser is turning into the Academy Awards favorite over a solemn historical epic about slavery.

David O. Russell’s American Hustle took the Screen Actors Guild Awards’ top honor for outstanding cast, beating out Steve McQueen’s acclaimed 12 Years a Slave. Because actors make up the largest branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the SAG Awards (which last year picked Argo) are considered one of the best indicators of the Oscars.

Just days ago, the Academy Awards nominations set up a trio of front-runners, bestowing 10 nods on American Hustle and Gravity, and nine on 12 Years a Slave. But though no actor was individually honored by the guild for American Hustle, the tale of the 1970s Abscam political corruption scandal now appears to have an edge over its Oscar rivals.

Speaking for a cast that includes Amy Adams, Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper credited Russell as the epitome of the actor’s director.

“He makes you feel like you’re part of the family, whether you’re Robert De Niro or you’re Patty Mack,” Cooper said at the Shrine Auditorium ceremony in Los Angeles. You are part of the family.

In addition to last year’s Argo, SAG cast awards have lined up with such past Oscar best-picture winners as The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire and No Country for Old Men. But the guild has also diverged with picks like The Help, Inglourious Basterds and Little Miss Sunshine.

The awards were a somewhat low-key affair with a few memorable speeches but no earthquakes in a rapidly solidifying award season. The night’s acting winners — Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club), Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) and Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) — are each probably the favorites of their categories.

“It really shines a great light on this bull ride we call acting,” said McConaughey, honored for lead actor in the Texas HIV drama. I’ve been able to recently find some characters that I can humble myself to their humanities and get feverishly drunk on their obsessions.

One of the night’s biggest winners was Nyong’o, who won supporting actress over Lawrence. Though 12 Years a Slave is only her feature film debut, the Kenyan actress has been hailed for her red-carpet style and grace this awards season. Her speech was both composed and emotional — the kind of display that can turn Oscar voters’ heads.

She thanked McQueen for taking a flashlight and shining it underneath the floorboards of this nation and reminding us what it is we stand on. And she recalled the celebratory phone call to her father when she got the part.

“Daddy, do you know who Brad Pitt is? I’m going to be in a movie with him!” recalled Nyong’o. And he said, “I don’t know him personally, but I’m glad you got a job.”

The Breaking Bad victory lap continued as the show took honors for outstanding dramatic cast in a TV series and for lead actor Bryan Cranston. For his indelible performance as teacher-turned-meth dealer, Cranston added his second lead actor SAG Award, to go with his recent Golden Globe win and his numerous Emmys.

“We have the nicest bunch of white supremacist Nazis I have ever worked with,” said Cranston, looking over his former cast mates. “I swear to you I would kill you all over again.”

Two big-screen veterans won awards for TV films: Michael Douglas for HBO’s Liberace drama Behind the Candelabra, and Helen Mirren for the biopic Phil Spector, also on HBO.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been a mainstay at award shows recently, both for her acclaimed HBO series Veep (for which she won an Emmy) and the romantic comedy Enough Said (for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe). She won a SAG trophy for female actor in a comedy series for Veep, and slyly mocked the award season crush by first thanking the Hollywood Foreign Press and then the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

“It’s hard you know because it’s awards season and things get confusing, much like elections,” said Louis-Dreyfus.

The ABC sitcom Modern Family enjoyed another round of awards, winning for ensemble in a comedy series and taking the male actor in a comedy series honor for Ty Burrell.

Emma Thompson, a surprise snub in the Oscar nominations for the Mary Poppins making-of tale Saving Mr. Banks, was just as much the witty, winning award-show attendee she’s been all season. As a presenter, the lead actress nominee noted the show’s cheesy elevator music soundtrack: Is this music available on CD?

SAG’s lifetime achievement award was given to Rita Moreno, the 81-year-old West Side Story actress whose career has spanned Broadway, television and music. Introduced by Morgan Freeman, the much-honored Latina legend danced to the podium before a standing ovation and let out a gleeful expletive.

I hope the man with the button was there, she said. (He was.) Moreno serenaded the SAG audience with a few bars from This Is All I Ask:

And let the music play/ As long as there’s a song to sing/ And I will stay younger than spring.

___
(By Jake Coyle, AP Film Writer. AP writers Beth Harris and Anthony McCartney in Los Angeles contributed to this report)