No one will remember anything from this year’s film awards season. The winning movies will fade from memory, like so many before them. The winning actors will, within the next half-decade, become the subject of pub quiz questions. No one will remember anything, with one exception: the photo of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston reuniting at last.

The photo was taken at the Screen Actors Guild awards on Sunday, and it is nothing but a joy to look at. The pair of them, formerly the first couple of the US, look genuinely thrilled to see each other. They are in a walkway brimming with officious strangers, but it is as though they are the only people in the room.

Look at it in the context of other photos taken that evening – one shows Pitt, alone and rapt, watching Aniston’s acceptance speech on a backstage monitor; another captures him holding on to Aniston’s hand as she walks away – and it becomes almost unbearably lovely. It is like a glimpse into a parallel universe where they never split up. They even have the same haircut. It is wonderful.

Who knows what life would be like now if Pitt and Aniston had never split up. We would have been spared a billion “poor Jen” magazine covers for certain, but maybe the ripple effect of their happiness would have spread outwards. Maybe the American mood would have been so buoyant that Trump would never have reached office. Maybe Brexit would not have happened. Maybe in this universe David Bowie is still alive. We will never know.

‘It is like a glimpse into a parallel universe where they never split up.’ Photograph: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Turner

What makes this even more charming is that both Pitt and Aniston won SAG awards: Pitt for his study of detached cool in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Aniston for her career-best work on the Apple TV+ programme The Morning Show. At the time this photograph was taken, they were equals in every way. They are at the top of their game, and they reached that point at exactly the same time.

The question remains whether or not Pitt and Aniston will capitalise on this photograph and remarry. Because, from a public relations perspective, they absolutely should. If Pitt wins at the Oscars next month, his acceptance speech should consist of him getting down on bended knee in front of the world and saying: “Jen, I’ve been a fool. Please take me back.” Then Aniston would rush down the aisle, mascara streaked down her face, to accept. Then they would kiss and Aniston would become pregnant immediately and have a baby right there on stage – and then we will finally be happy.

Alternatively, it is just a picture of two winners celebrating briefly at an awards show.