Margot Robbie’s I, Tonya could lose out on Oscar to critically acclaimed film starring Aussie Samara Weaving

AUSSIE superstar Margot Robbie’s barnstorming I, Tonya run at Hollywood’s awards season could be put on ice by an ensemble production featuring another former Australian soap actor.

AUSSIE superstar Margot Robbie’s barnstorming I, Tonya run at Hollywood’s awards season could be put on ice by an ensemble production featuring another former Australian soap actor.

In a scene-stealing twist worthy of Tonya Harding herself, former Home And Away actor Samara Weaving could be about to take the place of Neighbours alumni Robbie as the Aussie It-girl of Tinsel Town thanks to a star turn in the critically acclaimed Oscar favourite Three Billboards Outside Epping, Missouri.

Weaving, niece of fellow Aussie expat Hugo Weaving, hit the Screen Actors Guild Award in Los Angeles alongside cast members Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell and fellow Aussie Abbie Cornish.

Margot Robbie has had a strong run this awards season but could it be put on ice by another Aussie star? Picture: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Former Home and Away actress Samara Weaving is making a name for herself in Hollywood after starring in a critically acclaimed film. Picture: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

While Robbie missed out on the Best Actress gong for her performance as the titular ice-skating antihero in I, Tonya, Weaving was rewarded when her film won the night’s biggest award, Best Acting Ensemble.

Wearing a hot pink Miu Miu gown, Weaving was even confused for Robbie by snappers on the red carpet earlier in the evening.

The 25-year-old is now expected to ride the winning wave all the way to March’s Academy Awards where her film is tipped to take home the Oscar for Best Picture. Betting agencies have listed Three Billboards as the 11-8 favourite, ahead of other Golden Globe winner Lady Bird at 7/4.

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Frances McDormand who won the SAG for Outstanding Peformance by a Female Actor is the favourite to win Best Actress at the Oscars. Picture: Vince Bucci/Invision/AP

Meanwhile McDormand is also the favourite to win Best Actress, ahead of 27-year-old Robbie, who is still on the campaign trail for I, Tonya and will make a whirlwind appearance at the Australian premiere of the biopic in Sydney tonight.

But Weaving, who was born in Adelaide, is continuing to carve out a niche in the US either through idiosyncratic roles such as the problematic girlfriend in single mother comedy series SMILF as well as Three Billboards or in horror projects, such as a three-episode stint in cult television series Ash vs. Evil Dead and slash-satire vehicle Mayhem.

TRAILER: THREE BILLBOARD OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Weaving in the critically acclaimed film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Picture: Supplied

“People seem to like having me covered in blood all the time,” she told W Magazine.

“I am actually terrified of horror films.”

In Three Billboards she appears as Penelope, the very young new girlfriend of McDormand’s ex, played by Jon Hawkes. Weaving bluntly summed up Penelope as “very naive”.

“She doesn’t quite know what’s going on,” she told Birth. Movies. Death.

“It was a nice change.”