In Contention

Tag: Screen Actors Guild Awards

  • Predict the SAG winners

    This weekend completes the trio of Guild awards with the most bearing on the Best Picture race, as the Directors’ Guild of America and the Screen Actors’ Guild dish out their prizes on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

    Following the Producers’ Guild’s surprise coronation of “The King’s Speech” last week, the next two days could help level the race — most are favoring “The Social Network” to fight back with a DGA gong, but the SAG Awards are more of a wild card.

    A couple of SAG categories, of course, barely require discussion. In the lead acting races, there’s no reason whatsoever to suspect that Colin Firth and Natalie Portman won’t continue their joint march to the Oscar podium on Sunday. (If Annette Bening were to pull off a shocker, she’d be the first two-time Best Actress winner in the 17-year history of the awards, which somehow makes it seem even less likely.)

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Network’ sweep, Globes outrage, best of 2010

    • Kris listed his 10 favorite films of 2010 in black-and-white, later adding his dream Oscar ballot and winners list.

    • The critics’ award beat turned into a “Social Network” landslide, as New York, Los Angeles, Boston and many, many other groups lined up behind the film.

    • Away from the critics’ circuit, Team Fincher didn’t have it all their own way, as “The King’s Speech” led a widely derided list of Golden Globe nominees.

    • When it was the Screen Actors’ Guild’s turn to announce their nominees, however, the royal biopic had to settle for sharing the lead with “The Fighter.”

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  • ‘Fighter’ and ‘King’s Speech’ lead SAG nominations

    Well, we got ourselves a surprise or two, after all. If you predicted Hilary Swank’s out-of-nowhere Best Actress nomination for “Conviction,” go out and buy yourself a congratulatory drink. (While you’re at the bar, buy a commiserative one for Nathaniel Rogers too.)

    I doubt the nomination will launch her into the Academy’s five (unless story-mongers really are desperate to see another round in the Swank vs. Bening grudge match), but it does demonstrate how up for grabs that fifth slot is. Lesley Manville and Michelle Williams, the ball is still in your court.

    Nothing on the list matches that nomination for sheer unexpectedness, but I suspect a fair few people didn’t see “Winter’s Bone” star John Hawkes coming in the Best Supporting Actor category — much less at the expense of the season’s nominal frontrunner, “The Social Network.” I wrote in my predictions last night that I wasn’t sure how fully SAG would warm to the film’s young, non-insider cast: while I predicted a snub for Jesse Eisenberg, it was actually Andrew Garfield who got the shaft.

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  • Make your SAG predictions

    Now that most of the major critics’ groups have had their say, tomorrow begins the second phase of the precursor season, as the Screen Actors’ Guild makes the first of this year’s industry award pronouncements.

    I always feel a twinge of dread about the SAG nomination list — frequently more middle-of-the-road than the critics’ picks, though with odd flashes of peer affection for unlikely veterans and character actors, they have a way of reducing the pool of Oscar hopefuls rather aggressively. More often than not, boredom ensues: last year, 19 of the 20 SAG individual performance nominees went on to repeat at the Oscars.

    Suffice to say, a snub from these guys stings more than one from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, but Marcia Gay Harden will forever remain a beacon of hope to the SAG-ignored: 10 years ago, a diss from the Guild (and indeed from virtually every other precursor, save the New York critics) didn’t stop her taking the golden boy home for “Pollock.”

    Predictions after the jump.

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  • SAG honors Ernest Borgnine

    There will no doubt be some mixed responses to this announcement, given that 93 year-old Ernest Borgnine is now recognized by a younger generation less as an Oscar-winning actor than “that bigot who refused to see ‘Brokeback Mountain,’” but he has just been named the recipient of the Life Achievement Award at next year’s Screen Actors Guild ceremony.

    As career awards ago, this one is more hard-earned than most: Borgnine’s résumé is long and peppered with notable contributions to notable films: between “The Wild Bunch,” “From Here to Eternity,” “Bad Day at Black Rock,” “The Dirty Dozen,” “Escape from New York,” “Johnny Guitar,” “The Poseidon Adventure,” “Gattaca” (even if he doesn’t care much for it) and, of course, “Marty,” SAG directors should have a pretty easy time assembling a highlight reel. Plus, you know, “Airwolf!”

    The 2010 SAG Awards ceremony will take place on January 30, 2011. Edited (if hardly brief — did we need to cover his Freemason status?) press release after the cut.

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  • How about some SAG predictions?

    Screen Actors Guild awardWith tomorrow’s SAG announcement hovering, waiting to be the first true litmus test of what the industry thinks of the year’s product (being the first guild out of the gate), I thought I’d take a stab at predictions, fit with alternates for old times’ sake.

    I think this will be the first real trial for a film like “The Dark Knight,” virtually assured a nomination for Heath Ledger in supporting actor, but will the ensemble be taken seriously enough?  Better yet, can another of the film’s cast, like, say, Gary Oldman, show up with a surprise mention?

    Meanwhile, Kate Winslet has been coasting with critics’ nomiations for her performance in “The Reader,” but I’m not completely sold yet.  It’s a great portrayal, but that’s a stacked category that could go a number of ways.  Still, the SAG tends to correctly anticipated the Academy’s list of nominees in both actress categories, so when the names are called tomorrow morning, start locking them away and taking them to the bank.

    Speaking of Winslet, “Revolutionary Road” could really use another shot in the arm.  A nomination for Best Ensemble is somewhat crucial, I think, and would be indicative of deep support for the film from the actors, many of which share membership in AMPAS.  I could see anywhere from five nods (including an ensemble bid and notices for Michael Shannon and Kathy Bates), to a mere two (for Winslet and co-star Leonardo DiCaprio).

    One last note, I’m going out on a limb by predicting a Clint Eastwood snub.  I’m probably wrong but the actor’s fellow thesps didn’t vouch for him in 2004 when the Academy did, so it could play out similarly this year.  We’ll know in due time.

    For now, here’s how I see things panning out:

    Best Actor
    Leonardo DiCaprio, “Revolutionary Road”
    Richard Jenkins, “The Visitor”
    Frank Langella, “Frost/Nixon”
    Sean Penn, “Milk”
    Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
    (alt.: Josh Brolin, “W.”)

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