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In the 31-year history of the Actor Awards, previously known as the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, no film has ever surpassed five nominations.
The film One Battle After Another not only secured a nomination for the prestigious best ensemble award, but its cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn, and Benicio Del Toro, along with its stunt team, also received individual nods.
Traditionally, an ensemble nomination from SAG is a strong predictor for winning best picture at the Oscars. However, in the past 30 years, only four films have achieved Oscar glory without such a nomination. This year, films like Sentimental Value, Wicked: For Good, and Train Dreams were notably absent from the SAG ensemble category.
Sinners performed exceptionally well, earning five nominations, including a best male actor nomination for Michael B Jordan, with supporting actor nods for Miles Caton and Wunmi Mosaku.
In the realm of television, Apple’s The Studio, HBO’s White Lotus, and Netflix’s Adolescence emerged as leading contenders among the nominees.
Historically, the Actor Awards have been one of the strongest Oscar indicators. Actors make up the largest branch of the film academy, and, in the past, individual SAG nominees have overlapped with the Oscar field at a rate of roughly four out of five. The Actor Awards are presented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
That means the nominees announced today may closely resemble those headed to the Oscars. They are:
In the supporting male actor category, the nominees are: Del Toro, Penn, Caton, Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein) and Paul Mescal (Hamnet).
Snubbed altogether was Joachim Trier’s acclaimed Norwegian drama Sentimental Value. Both Renate Reinsve, in lead female actor, and Stellan SkarsgÃ¥rd, for supporting male actor, have been viewed as shoo-ins. Many analysts have even considered SkarsgÃ¥rd the favourite to win. With more than 122,000 voting members, the actors guild has tended to skew more populist and the guild often shies away from non-English language nominees.
Membership in the academy, meanwhile, has grown increasingly international. Along with Sentimental Value, movies like the Iranian revenge drama It Was Just an Accident and the Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent should have greater success come Oscar nominations on January 22.
There have been some prominent differences between SAG and the Oscars. Last year, Chalamet won best male actor but lost to Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) at the Oscars. The papal drama Conclave took best ensemble, but Sean Baker’s Anora won best picture at the Academy Awards.
The Actor Awards will take place this Sunday.
