By Nathaniel R
Another day, another set of honors to parse. The nominations were announced by Olivia Munn and Niecy Nash this morning. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri and Big Little Lies led the honors with 4 nominations each. Generally speaking the SAG lineups indicate you have a great shot at also becoming an Oscar nominee, if not a locked shot, so the nominees this morning have a lot to be excited about. SAGs nominations for TV are less relevant in terms of awards prospects since they don't divvy up the categories in quite the same way as the Emmys, nor is their timetable the same.
The nominee list and commentary follows...
FILM NOMINATIONS
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role:
Timothee Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
James Franco, “The Disaster Artist”
Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”
Denzel Washington, “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”
Time to rethink the Best Actor predictions though I firmly do not believe or expect that this exact lineup will transfer to Oscar. Waiting in the wings to surprise on nomination morning? I still believe either Tom Hanks in The Post or Jake Gyllenhaal in Stronger could knock one of these men out.
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role:
Judi Dench, “Victoria & Abdul”
Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”
Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
In something of a shocker given Streep's usual ease at winning nomination she's absent from Best Actress here (and SAG definitely saw The Post. The movie was carting out the big names for those screenings). As we've long suspected Judi Dench is still a formidable threat for an Oscar nod for reprising a role that many thought she might win for the first time (Her Majesty Mrs Brown in 1997). Will the two default contenders cancel each other out? And if so does a feisty dark horse like Annette Bening or Jessica Chastain slip in. Or will Dench and Streep both make it displaying one of the other four here? SOUND OFF.
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role:
Steve Carell, “Battle of the Sexes”
Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
Woody Harrelson,”Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Richard Jenkins, “The Shape of Water”
Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
In perhaps the most surprising category, it was Three Billboards and not Call Me By Your Name that scored a double Supporting Actor nod. Carell's Battle of the Sexes part is the real surprise here but it is comic and scenery chewing and SAG likes that even more than Oscar does. Since this list is markedly different than the Globes what happens with Oscar? We'll have to update all these charts.
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role:
Mary J. Blige, “Mudbound”
Hong Chau, “Downsizing”
Holly Hunter, “The Big Sick”
Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”
Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
Hong Chau has come up from behind in the precursors despite apparently dwindling support for her film. That's quite a feat for a non-celebrity actor. She's terrific in Downsizing so it's a fun turn of events. But it apparently came at the expense of Tiffany Haddish for Girl's Trip who also missed the Globe nomination or Octavia Spencer who missed here for The Shape of Water but was Globe nominated. If they both show up on Oscar nomination morning one of the usual suspects will have to fall away. Supporting Actress is getting crazy crowded, isn't it!?
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture:
“The Big Sick”
“Get Out”
“Lady Bird”
“Mudbound”
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
The shocker is the lack of a nod for The Post (though I'm personally okay with it since it's not a particularly ravishing display of ensemble potency -- the way say Get Out or Lady Bird are here -- but rather just a huge collection of stars doing good work together. That said, SAG usually cares more about those "big collection of stars" movies and considers those "Outstanding Performances by a Cast" so it is perplexing. What happened?
YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT THIS CATEGORY IN OUR ANNUAL TAKE ON WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS CATEGORY GIVEN WHO IS EXCLUDED FROM THE "CAST" LIST - THE SAG RULES NEED TO CHANGE HERE.
Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture:
“Baby Driver”
“Dunkirk”
“Logan”
“War For The Planet Of The Apes”
“Wonder Woman”
Good nominees, don't you think? Though obviously Atomic Blonde shoulda won one of these spots
TELEVISION NOMINATIONS
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries:
Benedict Cumberbatch, “Sherlock”
Jeff Daniels, “Godless”
Robert De Niro, “The Wizard of Lies”
Geoffrey Rush, “Genius”
Alexander Skarsgard, “Big Little Lies”
SAG doesn't differentiate lead from support for their TV prizes so this is a huge get for Skarsgard
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries:
Nicole Kidman, “Big Little Lies”
Jessica Lange, “Feud: Bette & Joan”
Susan Sarandon, “Feud: Bette & Joan”
Reese Witherspoon, “Big Little Lies”
Laura Dern, “Big Little Lies”
Trivia question for those more invested in TV Awards than I: has one category at SAG ever been devoted to only two projects before?
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series:
rJason Bateman, “Ozark”
Sterling K. Brown, “This Is Us”
Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones”
David Harbour, “Stranger Things”
Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series:
Millie Bobby Brown, “Stranger Things”
Claire Foy, “The Crown”
Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale”
Robin Wright, “House of Cards”
Laura Linney, “Ozark”
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series:
Anthony Anderson, “Black-ish”
Aziz Ansari, “Master of None”
Larry David, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”
Sean Hayes, “Will & Grace”
William H. Macy, “Shameless”
Marc Maron, “GLOW”
YES. at this GLOW nomination for Maron. He's superb on that show but I figured it would be too muted a form of comedy for awards.
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series:
Uzo Aduba, “Orange Is the New Black”
Alison Brie, “GLOW”
Jane Fonda, “Grace and Frankie”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Veep”
Lily Tomlin, “Grace and Frankie”
Seriously what is with their Uzo Aduba obsession? She's in one of the richest casts TV has ever assembled and she's the only one from it that's ever so honored despite not even being the best performance on the show. Justice for Danielle Brooks who has been running circles around Aduba for at least a couple of the show's seasons.
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series:
“The Crown”
“Game of Thrones”
“The Handmaid’s Tale”
“Stranger Things”
“This Is Us”
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series:
“Black-ish”
“Curb Your Enthusiasm”
“GLOW”
“Orange is the New Black”
“Veep”
Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series:
“Game of Thrones”
“GLOW”
“Homeland”
“Stranger Things”
“The Walking Dead”