26th Annual SAG Awards

by Nathaniel R

It's SAG night. Let's jump right in...

Christina Applegate got here SAG card in the 70s on an indie film. She doesn't remember what it was (yeah, right) but everyone was "really really high". Cynthia Erivo played a shepherd -- "Everyone lauded my performance." she was hooked at five years old. Eugene Levy dreamed of being the next Mr Whipple but goes on and on in a funny bit. They are actors! (We always love that corny intro.)

Levy and (hot/gay) Son present Male Actor, Comedy Series for which, inexplicably, neither of them is nominatd. The statue goes to awards magnet Tony Shalhoub in Marvelous Mrs Maisel

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"Everyone was nominated... except you!" Our annual SAG outrage!

by Nathaniel R

Alanna Ubach does a lot with very little screen time in "Bombshell" but she isn't part of the cast nomination

We'll keep doing these posts each year until the Screen Actors Guild does something about their most unfortunate awards rule. For those who are new to the awards game, please note: If you are a working actor lucky enough to wind up in a film nominated for "Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture," that doesn't mean you are included in the nomination; you have to have your own title card for that! What this means each year is that actors who aren't really famous yet, or don't have an aggressive agent, wind up left out of the official nomination even if they contributed immeasurably to the success of the film or were highly memorable in some small but defining way.

So who got the stealth snub in 2019, who otherwise had every reason to celebrate the nomination? Read on for the specific exclusions this year and the history of most embarrassing omissions from the past due this ruling...

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SAG Nominations

by Nathaniel R

It was a surprising morning at the SAG nominations with Bombshell coming in hot with 4 nominations (!!!) and Parasite becoming only the second foreign language film ever nominated for Oustanding Cast. In other news we saw the first chink in Netflix's considerable Oscar-seeking armor today as The Irishman and Marriage Story both arguably underperformed and Dolemite was shut out. (And, as always, we've investigated the "Cast" nominations to see who was left out.)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role:

Christian Bale (“Ford v Ferrari”)

Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)

Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”)

Taron Egerton (“Rocketman”)

Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”)

In a surprising state of affairs -- though not as surprising if you remember that SAG nominations often skew “earlier” buzz than what’s happening in December, Taron Egerton, Leo DiCaprio, and Christian Bale are all accounted for rather than later openings like Robert DeNiro, Adam Sandler. Netflix push Eddie Murphy also failed to win them over...

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FYC: Underrated Players on Emmy-Noticed Series

Team Experience is sharing FYCs as the Television Academy votes on Emmy nominations (voting closes on June 24th). Here's Abe Fried-Tanzer

There are so many deserving series and performers that never stand a chance at the Emmys simply because voters don’t seem to notice their existence. The best recent example of an extremely talented cast almost entirely missing the Emmy radar is Parenthood, which squeaked out one lone acting bid – for guest actor Jason Ritter – over the course of its six seasons. While it hasn’t received that level of acclaim, Billions is another instance of a show with tremendous awards potential that hasn’t picked up any to date. But then there are shows that do manage to earn accolades, yet the enthusiasm doesn’t extend to all players. John Krasinski never got nominated for The Office despite three costars being nominated, and he’s not the only one to be ignored even though Emmy voters were clearly watching his show.

Here are five underrated players from shows Emmy voters do watch that deserve to break through this year...

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Film Bitch Awards: Casting, Ensemble, Breakthrough, Young Actors

by Nathaniel R

We're still hoping to have the Film Bitch Awards wrapped up before Oscar night. Tonight, the remaining "extra" acting categories. We've already shared the Best Cameo performances so here's four more prizes to discuss and consider. Please do share your own favourites in these categories, too.

BEST CASTING / BEST ENSEMBLE
Some might argue that these categories go hand in hand (the way others object to the notion of Picture/Director splits) but we think of them as two different though highly complimentary accomplishments...

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