Forgive your Carpetbagger if he feels a bit dizzy: Over the last few weeks, a significant number of Oscar bellwethers has begun to ring, culminating in a special form of tinnitus with symptoms that include the persistent thought, “But do the Golden Globes really matter?”

Sure, there’s still a month to go until the Oscar nominations are announced, but after a flurry of recent headlines generated by the Gotham Awards, New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association — not to mention high-profile nominations doled out this week for the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards — it’s become clear which films have momentum and which have plenty of ground to make up.

Of those organizations, only SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ guild, compares favorably to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences when it comes to size and membership overlap, but it never hurts to be seen winning, especially when Oscar voters weigh which screeners to watch. With that in mind, here are some of the contenders who’ve come out of this corridor ahead, as well as a few that are still scrambling to stay in the conversation.

Who’s on Top?

“Parasite”: Bong Joon Ho’s South Korean sensation will probably be the first Cannes Film Festival winner since “Amour” to pick up Oscar nominations for best picture and director, but can it take the top Academy Award? Certainly, the passion is there: I talked to several overjoyed voters in the wake of “Parasite’s” top honor from the Los Angeles critics. The film’s best-ensemble nomination from SAG is also a major coup, since the path to best picture is awfully perilous without support from the academy’s large voting body of actors.