Screen Actors Guild Nominations - The Movies
Thursday, February 4, 2021 at 11:36AM 
SAG Award nominations were announced this morning by Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) and Lily Collins (Mank). The late Chadwick Boseman made history with 4 nominations simultaneously (2 Cast, 1 Lead, 1 Supporting) and Minari, one of our three favourite pictures of the year, suprised by nabbing THREE nominations when none were at all certain. Trial of the Chicago 7 and Ma Rainey also snagged 3 nominations.
After the jump brief commentary on the surprises, snubs, and what it might mean (or doesn't mean) for Oscar. It's always worth reeminding that there is next to no overlap from group to group in terms of voting. SAG's nominating committee are a mix of random people from their close to 100,000 wide membership and the acting branch of the Academy is infinitely smaller and though they're also members of SAG, only a tiny percentage might actually end up on the SAG nominating committee in any given year...
BEST ACTRESS
- Amy Adams, Hillbilly Elegy
- Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
- Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
- Frances McDormand, Nomadland
- Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman
We really wish we had done a prdiction post because we KNEW Amy Adams was going to happen and now we don't have the receipts to prove it. She's the new Streep in terms of default status. This is a tough break for all the women vying for that fifth slot not to have SAG's support. We think it's between Michelle Pfeiffer and Andra Day and Amy Adams for the fifth slot, and the non SAG nominees might be able to build last minute momentum with their films opening in February.
BEST ACTOR
- Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
- Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
- Anthony Hopkins, The Father
- Gary Oldman, Mank
- Steven Yeun, Minari
A minor but lovely surprise here with Steven Yeun landing a nomination. We still think the Oscar nomination might go to Delroy Lindo but after both Globe and SAG passed, it's an uphill climb.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
- Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
- Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
- Olivia Colman, The Father
- Youn Yuh-Jung, Minari
- Helena Zengel, News of the World
Shocked and thrilled to see Youn Yuh-Jung listed though it's a shock that Amanda Seyfried was passed over. We don't expect that she'll be left out of Oscar lineup so this list won't be exact. There also could be last minute rallying of the Academy's Ellen Burstyn fans or Judas and the Black Messiah's Dominique Fishback making headway in February. Jodie Foster was surely a Globes only thing. We do wonder why Candice Bergen never got any traction though, being an enduring former awards magnet celebrity.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
- Sacha Baron Cohen, Trial of the Chicago 7
- Chadwick Boseman, Da 5 Bloods
- Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah
- Jared Leto, The Little Things
- Leslie Odom Jr, One Night in Miami
Two days in a row, a nomination for Jared Leto. 🤡 If he makes the transfer to Oscar it will be the worst nomination in that category since... Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones (2009). And they both played serial killers so maybe actors are always impressed with that? The other four are surely repeating at Oscar.
Since category fraud isn't quite as rampant this year we're trying to make peace with Daniel Kaluuya in Judas and the Black Messiah. He's very good in the picture but he's playing Fred Hampton in the Fred Hampton biopic so it's egregiously false as a campaign. It's like calling Leonardo DiCaprio a supporting actor in The Great Gatsby. Yes, in both cases the story is told from someone else's perspective but the ENTIRE STORY is about him. (Sigh). As for actual supporting players left out, this might spell doom for Paul Raci's bid for Sound of Metal or Glynn Turman's bid for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Critical favor never guarantees Oscar viability for the lesser fame actors, especially those who are genuinely supporting and not leads or arguable leads (like Odom and Kaluuya and Bill Murray, who might still show up on Oscar nom morning).
STUNT ENSEMBLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
- Da 5 Bloods
- Mulan
- News of the World
- Trial of the Chicago 7
- Wonder Woman 1984
Trial of the Chicago 7 had stunts? I guess there was a police attack scene on the protesters.
BEST CAST OF A MOTION PICTURE
- Da 5 Bloods
- Minari
- Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
- One Night in Miami
- The Trial of the Chicago 7
This is a solid lineup and congrats to all the nominees. Though, as per usual some fine actors were left out of this particular honor due to SAG "solo title card" rule. As for what might have been here that didn't make the cut we assume that Mank and Promising Young Woman were also in the mix though here at the Film Bitch Awards I'd have added in Babyteeth and True History of the Kelly Gang.
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THE SAG NOMINATIONS THIS YEAR?
Reader Comments (83)
Poor Ellen and Sophia are likely toast. :(
Lindo, Raci, Burstyn. Who will go to the Oscars?
Michael Troutman: Which takes more talent: being able to find the truth in a character and creating a three-dimensional character out of a shitty script, a clueless director, a studio that offers no support and fellow castmates impatient to move on to better things: or being able to work with a good script, a sensitive director, a studio that has your back and a cast that believes in teamwork?
What’s most shocking about the Seyfried snub is she’s worked consistently and constantly the past two decades. You’d think she’d have some goodwill with the peers she’s collected over that time!
Ma Rainey was a tedious movie. Just another Broadway play with lots of yelling by mean-spirited protagonists. We're supposed to feel sorry for a guy who kills a man because he stepped on his shoe. Not. Chicago 7 was static and boring. Couldn't finish it. Didn't care, even though I was a pre-teen at the time of the events watching in horror on the TV news about what was happening in Chicago then. The movie came no where close to the true stress of the time. This was really a bad year for movies. I blame Netflix.
There's done excellent points here but I think before we jump to any conclusions from the Globes and SAG nominations this year. Academy members won't be voting for another 4 weeks (is that the longest gap between precursor announcements and Oscar voting) - the Globes will have just given out the winners but SAG will be a distant memory with the award show still a month away.
I think this year more than ever the Academy will have the opportunity to sit and breathe with the films allowing them to percolate before making any choices. Will they be more idiosyncratic or less because of that? Obviously it's too early to tell but I do think they're less likely to be influenced by sudden rushes of late season buzz than most years.
While I had major problems with HE as a film overall, I felt Close was amazing in the role. She underplayed it beautifully. She reminded me so much of my own grandmother it was scary. On an unrelated topic, I feel (and have felt for weeks) that Minari is going to win Best Picture.
BJT : from your lips to God's ears.
Team Glenn! She's more than earned her Oscars position, and I'll be more than thrilled if she goes all the way for a win. To expect a 74-year-old woman to wait around for proper Oscar-bait when this is right here and is perfectly deserving of recognition? Please. It'll be a much-deserved win.
Please, God don't make Sacha Baron Cohen happen at the Oscars! Please, God, Please! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Giovanni: I join in your prayers. How did he become the designated Supporting Actor contender in Chicago 7 anyway?
Frank Langella pelase .
Nothing for our girl Kate Winslet this award season. I don't think they like her anymore. 😭
Da Five Bloods is da one da beat. Can you dig it?
BJT, excellent point. All I've got for Nomadland, The Father, Judas, and Minari is anticipation. I don't think buzz can really build until many more people get to see them besides the early screeners (of whom I am intensely jealous, to be sure!)
Onion Headline: Golden Globes Praised for Diverse Talent Level of Nominees
Andrew -- i really think the Sophia situation is entirely how sort of *mild* that role is. I was kind of shocked that she gets so little of note to do in the movie. It all kind of belongs to the kid.
Sam --- hyperbole much? I think if you're using Glenn Close as an example of "white mediocrity" it's clear you are operating from a place that is not about concerns of quality but more about mouthing off and point-scoring. It's needlessly divisive. Glenn Close? Who many actors revere and who has been called a genius many times over by many different people for 30+ years across three separate actors mediums? That Glenn Close? Hillbilly Elegy is a bad movie. This does not mean she is bad in it. Just say you dont think she deserves the nod this year. Simpler! Less silly
Susanita -- yeah, i agree..
JF -- I live for three-way races... but five-way races are the best. It sucks that they're so rare in modern awardage.
BJT -- its true. That month long period (so unusual) *should* give them time to watch everything and consider. But will they? Or will they just be streaming Bridgerton and then just voting for whoever they've heard is good.
Don't get me started on the Sophia situation! Her son cutted ALL her juicy monologues! All of them! Still can't believe it. In the play she dies for like ten minutes in a row, if you know what I mean.
I really am sick of racist comments on this blog. Black is excellent and interesting. White is bad and boring. It is really sad that great film versus bad film has become a political issue. Frankly, every major award, from Oscar to Emmy to Grammy to Tony has become politicized and worse, lazy,. Let's nominate Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson and Taylor Swift and Beyonce and Julia Louis Dreyfus and the same people again and again. Blah, blah, blah. The focus on awards is ridiculous. Let's all get a life and help this country heal and become better. Put your efforts into something real.
Am I crazy to think that Amy Adams gonna win this?
SAG tend to reward recurrent nominees and Adams doesn't looks so strong to be Oscar nominated, they could make her the winner like Emily Blunt when she had zero chances with uncle Oscar.
If things go wilder this could be the push that Oscars need similiar to 2009 when Kate Winslet wasn't a favorite for The Reader until she won the Globe. But they will enmend its omissions twice in the same night making Adams and Close winners?
We have to wait to see.
Best cast nominees feel very male heavy this year.
Coming to an awards website and complaining about [checks notes] awards? Maybe put YOUR efforts into something real.
Hillbilly Elegy is nowhere near as bad as critics and film twitter made it out to be. It kind of backfired I guess? Support from the industry seems rather strong based on SAG and the 6 BAFTA longlist mentions and would not surprise me if it was very close for ensemble at SAG.
And in terms of her performance Glenn Close pulls off the trickiest role from the main contenders and has the most to do as an actor. And yes, is definitely big and loud and opposite to her work in The Wife but then she lost to the flashier role. In a reversal of 2018, she and Olivia Colman will fight it out again, this time with Colman giving the more subtle performance. As Colman has won already, think this gives the edge to Close finally wining.
SAG made it highly unlikely for Seyfried to win the Oscar at this point. Regina King comparison does not stand as her SAG snub was due to late screener while now they certainly seen Mank as they nominated Oldman. Plus the SAG winner Emily Blunt was snubbed at the Oscars.
An interesting fact about Anthony Hopkins is that he's never won a competitive Golden Globe or SAG. He might very well win both with Chadwick Boseman winning the Best Actor Oscar. They could go the route to reward him in supporting but he was just so much better in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom that I don't think it will happen.
Hillbilly Elegy and Jared Leto... BLECH!!!!!
The good Terminators won today!!! Glenn Close turned the tide around for herself against biased, shitty film critics and even brought along Amy Adams for the ride! Legend if there ever was one! Get your long-overdue Oscar!
Close is winning for Hillbilly and Leto gets a nom this year. Luckily i'm like Three Artful and would give Close a win for a Norbit level achievement.
@Susanita I think Winslet may have cooked her goose by taking paychecks from Polanski and Woody Allen and then denouncing them way after that ship had sailed. In other words, if she would have done it at the same time as everyone else, well, she just would have been part of the hypocritical crowd. But she waited and waited, and then suddenly, after nobody cared any more threw them under the bus when it was convenient. She should have taken a lessen from Scarlett Johansson and stood her ground. ScarJo was double nominated last year.
Lol that some commenters see no issue with the use of the words "Asian/Oriental," and "full retard." Perhaps they also would have no problem with the use of equally offensive yet for the most part dated terms once used to describe other minorities. Throw in "crippled," "colored," "homo," "Redskins," etc, etc, etc. Even MLB has taken steps to rename their offensively named teams like "The Cleveland Indians." Yet being sensitive to the feelings of others (being politically correct) has become viewed as a negative by too many. Ok I better embrace for a barrage of insults and cries of free speech-infringement.
@Peggy Sue - "cutted" is not a word.
@Patryk, you’ll find that you are going to be the only showing up for that barrage come the proverbial morning.
Cash -- it is! Trial of the Chicago is literally all men, One Night in Miami and Da 5 Bloods are almost all men, and Ma Rainey is the only woman in Ma Rainey's nominees. Minari is the only film with any balance.
Everyone -- please dont use offensive language in the comments section. We have a diverse and international readership and everyone needs to feel safe. thank you.
The Best Actress line-up probably would be the same at the Oscars; Close is gonna win everything ( I am NOT shocked and couldn't care less about Seyfried snub, I mean, she's fine but Mank is tedious so is Oldman) and I agree that Burstyn looks too old for the part and as long as Pieces of a Woman is a Scorsese production he could've given this juicy role to one of his 90's collaborators (just think how Sharon Stone would've been great in it making a deserved Oscar comeback, plus she is the right age).
Just love that SAG recognized Yeun and Youn Yuh-Jung.
Winslet wasn't nominated because her movie wasn't well-liked. Awards bodies love Ronan, her co-star, and they aren't nominating her either.
So often people feel that their favorites are being persecuted when they aren't nominated, when it's really just a matter of them not having the roles or films that appeal to awards bodies.