Critics love it + audiences love it = Surefire Oscar contender.

Saoirse Ronan's new movie Lady Bird has been quietly building up massive momentum, both critically and commercially, which means that Ronan, who has been nominated for an Oscar twice already, could be looking to make it third time lucky this time around. The movie opened in just four screens in America in the first weekend of November, and in that weekend in made $375,612, or a hugely impressive $93,903 average per screen. This beats 2017's previous record holder for best per-screen average when The Big Sick opened to $84,315 per screen. It also set a new record for a per-screen average for a female director, and for the movie's second weekend, it expanded to 37 screens and continued to put up huge numbers, pulling in over $1.1 million. In terms of wide release movies, Lady Bird has a score of 94% on Metacritic, which makes it the joint-second best-reviewed movie of 2017 so far, as both it and Dunkirk are just one point behind the best-reviewed movie of the year to date, Call Me By Your Name. Also, after 115 reviews, it remains at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

"Lady Bird is a coming-of-age story distinguished by a great script and a perfect cast." - Toronto Sun "Highlighted by an awards-worthy performance by Saoirse Ronan and structured around a light, witty script by Gerwig, the movie delivers a well-targeted snapshot of a year-in-the-life of an ordinary high school senior." - ReelViews "Saoirse Ronan plays Lady Bird as if she'd been following writer-director Greta Gerwig around all her life - mannerisms and liberated worldview fully internalized." - NPR "In Ronan's marvelous performance, tough and transparent at the same time, we can see the blurred outlines of the equally assured filmmaker behind her." - Boston Globe "Lady Bird is a triumph of style, sensibility and spirit. The girl at its centre may not be a heavyweight, but her movie is epic." - Washington Post "It's funny, lively, and then devastating when it needs to be, made with the kind of confidence even its heroine could only dream of." - The Atlantic "Lady Bird finds fresh purchase in well-trodden territory by observing the human carnival from a girl's point of view." - Slate "Lady Bird consolidates the style and sensibility of a generation caught between the last gasp of the 20th century and post-9/11 disillusionment like nothing else before." - IndieWire

Lady Bird is due to arrive in Irish cinemas on Friday 16 February, but we'd wager a bet it will the 2018 Dublin Film Festival opening film on Thursday 15 February.