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Source: USA Today
With a more specific focus (and therefore viewer award count) than the likes of the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild Awards may not seem like the type of ceremony to be worthy of major media attention. However, its airing on national television (specifically Turner-owned networks TBS and TNT) seems to suggest otherwise, and it’s not hard to see why. As actors are often seen as the biggest names to be associated with filmmaking, it only makes sense that an awards show dedicated solely to this one craft would be more appealing to the general public than any other aspect of the overall process, even those that are arguably more important. Because of this, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the labor union representing a majority of the film industry’s working actors, has found a way to bring its annual awards handout into the spotlight and even become something of a predictor for the Academy Awards. That’s certainly the case this year, as the latest SAG Awards recently took place on Sunday, February 27th, and the results have provided the industry with some insight as to what and who could go on to Oscar success later on.
Although the SAG Awards do not have an award specifically for Best Picture (as its focus is solely on acting and on no other components of filmmaking), it does have its own top prize in the form of the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, to which this year’s award went to the coming-of-age comedy-drama “CODA” centered around members of the deaf community. Other films contending for the award were the semi-biographical “Belfast”, the global-warming satire “Don’t Look Up”, the biographical crime-drama “House of Gucci”, and the sports-centric biography “King Richard”; still, it was “CODA” that members of SAG ended up favoring above all others, with cast members Eugenio Derbez, Daniel Durant, Emilia Jones, Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin, and Ferdia Walsh-Peelo being named in association with this award. This particular win actually serves as something of a milestone for the disabled acting community, as “CODA” marks the first time that deaf/non-hearing actors have been honored as being part of a film that would win the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award. Given that this category has tended not to correlate with the Academy Awards’ eventual Best Picture choice (with 2019’s “Parasite” being the only film of the past few years to win both), “CODA” is not yet guaranteed a major win at the Oscars, but that doesn’t make its success here any less admirable.
The success of “CODA” was not limited to only one award, however, as one of its actors, Troy Kotsur, also managed to receive the award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role. In doing so, Kotsur beat out competing actors Ben Affleck for “The Tender Bar”, Bradley Cooper for “Licorice Pizza”, Jared Leto for “House of Gucci”, and Kodi Smit-McPhee for “The Power of the Dog”. Kotsur, a deaf actor, became the first disabled actor to be nominated for a SAG Award, and with this win, he immediately became the first to win such an award. His success here will certainly improve his chances of winning an Oscar in the same category, though given some stiff competition, especially from Golden Globe winner Kodi Smit-McPhee, there’s still no guarantee that this will be the case.
Also shaking up the awards race for a specific category this year is the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, which was given to Jessica Chastain for her role in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”. The other actors contending for the award were Olivia Coleman for “The Lost Daughter”, Lady Gaga for “House of Gucci”, Jennifer Hudson for “Respect”, and Nicole Kidman for “Being the Ricardos”, and had this been the exact line-up for those nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars, then maybe Chastain would be a more predictable choice for that award’s eventual winner. However, for that ceremony, both Gaga and Hudson are absent, and in their places are Penelope Cruz for “Parallel Mothers” and Kristen Stewart for “Spencer”. Although Chastain’ still has a chance of winning the Oscar, especially considering her SAG success, this change of competition may prove to be quite the challenge.
The remaining two SAG winners, on the other, seem to be all but guaranteed to win at the upcoming Academy Awards. For Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Will Smith was honored for his performance in “King Richard”, triumphing over the likes of Javier Bardem for “Being the Ricardos”, Benedict Cumberbatch for “The Power of the Dog”, Andrew Garfield for “tick, tick… BOOM!”, and Denzel Washington for “The Tragedy of Macbeth”. Ariana DeBose, meanwhile, won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, beating out Caitriona Balfe of “Belfast”, Cate Blanchett of “Nightmare Alley”, Kirsten Dunst of “The Power of the Dog”, and Ruth Negga of “Passing”. Both of these actors won the exact same awards earlier at the Golden Globes, so their success in winning not one, but two of the industry’s most prestigious acting awards, their chances of going on to win at the Academy Awards are much likelier than before, if not outright certain.
Finally, there is the award for Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture, one of the few instances where stunt work is given recognition by a major awards organization. This year’s winner was the James Bond film “No Time to Die”, being chosen in favor of other stunt-heavy films like Marvel superhero films “Black Widow” and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, as well as Warner Brothers’ “Dune” and “The Matrix Resurrections”, the former of which is seen as the frontrunner for many technical Academy Awards. This award’s inclusion makes for a strong reminder of how versatile the art of acting can truly be, and that whether or not an actor’s face is seen up close to the camera or far away from it, there is much to appreciate about an actor’s skill. That seems to be the mission statement of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and this latest ceremony is yet another example of dedication to that mission.
