Meryl Streep: SAG Awards 2010.
SAG Awards 2010: Just about zero surprises; Oscars in the acting categories appear to be set in stone
Meryl Streep was one of the presenters at the 2010 SAG Awards ceremony. Streep was in the running in the best actress category (for Julie & Julia), but lost to Sandra Bullock for the blockbuster The Blind Side. Without a doubt, Streep and Bullock will be the two top contenders for the best actress Oscar. In fact, both Streep and Bullock won Golden Globes last weekend, while Streep has been one of the critics’ favorites this awards season. The Oscar nominations will be announced Feb. 2.
Julianna Margulies reprised her Golden Globe win of the week before by taking home the Actor for best actress in a television drama series, The Good Wife. Margulies’ competitors included Holly Hunter, Glenn Close, and Patricia Arquette. Many were expecting Close, a five-time Oscar nominee, to win for Damages.
“My mother and father call me after every single episode,” Margulies said at the awards ceremony. “They’ve been so supportive of me and have such interest in my life and every role I take – except for Snakes on a Plane. They weren’t so proud of that one, but they are proud of this one.”
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Julianna Margulies
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Sigourney Weaver, Meryl Streep
Nominees Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep pose for the camera. Streep was a best actress nominee for her Julia Child in Julie & Julia; Weaver was up for a best actress in a television movie or miniseries award for her Christian mother with a gay son in Prayers for Bobby. Streep lost to Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side; Weaver lost to Drew Barrymore in Grey Gardens.
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Jesse James, Sandra Bullock
While accepting her best actress trophy, Bullock thanked her husband, Jesse James, seen below with her. Bullock’s emotional but humorous speech has been widely praised. She and Meryl Streep will likely be the two top contenders for the Academy Awards. Nominations will be announced Feb. 2.
“It’s a fluke,” said Sandra Bullock. “I feel that it’s wrong. I made a bet with the driver – my money was on Meryl.” If so, Bullock hadn’t read any SAG Award predictions. Many – possibly most – pundits believed she was going to win the Screen Actors Guild’s Actor Award for her performance as a conservative, upper middle-class matriarch who discovers compassion after “adopting” an overgrown inner-city teenager. Earlier that evening, Bullock introduced the Life Achievement Award to Betty White, with whom she had played in the comedy hit The Proposal.
The SAG Award winners are chosen by Screen Actors Guild members. There are about 120,000 of those, most of whom are unemployed. It’s unclear how many union members actually do vote for the awards.
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Jessica Lange with Jeff Bridges and wife Susan.
Jessica Lange and Jeff Bridges costarred in Dino de Laurentiis’ costly 1976 version of King Kong. Despite the film’s box office success – though a disappointment in relation to its budget. This year, Lange was up for a SAG Award for best actress in a television movie or miniseries for her performance in Grey Gardens. Her costar, Drew Barrymore, was the winner in that category.
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
At the SAG Awards ceremony, Felicity Huffman had some trouble reading the teleprompter, as she apparently couldn’t find her glasses. She also had some trouble remembering her speech at the Golden Globes last week, but that turned out to be more entertaining than the majority of film-award presentations and introductions.
Alec Baldwin (above, with Huffman) won the best actor in a comedy series SAG Award for the fourth consecutive year. 30 Rock, however, lost out the Actor for best ensemble in a comedy series to the cast of Glee. The same thing happened at the Golden Globes last week.
Diane Kruger, who plays an actress and anti-Nazi spy in Inglourious Basterds, and costar Eli Roth hold their Actor statuettes for best cast in a motion picture. Quentin Tarantino’s World War II drama was by far the biggest box office success among the five SAG Award nominees in that category. Roth is also a director-writer-producer: Hostel (2005) and Hostel: Part II (2007) are two of his credits.
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Diane Kruger, Eli Roth
Justin Timberlake and Kate Hudson handed out the Actor for best actor in a television comedy series to Alec Baldwin at the 2010 SAG Awards ceremony.
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Betty White
Betty White received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. Previous winners include James Earl Jones, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Shirley Temple, and Julie Andrews. White’s trophy was given to her by Sandra Bullock. Both actresses worked together in the summer hit comedy The Proposal.
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Carey Mulligan
Carey Mulligan became the critics’ darling in the United States. She and Meryl Streep have won more critics’ awards than any other actress this awards season. Mulligan stars in Lone Scherfig’s An Education, in which she plays a 1960s London teen who wants to have her first sexual experience with a man in his thirties. An Education received 8 nominations from the British Academy.
Penélope Cruz was a best supporting actress SAG Award nominee for Rob Marshall’s musical Nine.
Below, Nine costar Sophia Loren admires fellow Nine cast member Marion Cotillard at the SAG Awards ceremony. Loren won a best actress Academy Award for Two Women (1961); Cotillard won hers for La Vie en Rose (2007). They are the only two actresses to have won an Oscar for films made in a language other than English.
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Sophia Loren, Marion Cotillard
Meryl Streep arrives at the 2010 SAG Awards ceremony, held on Sat., Jan. 23, in Los Angeles. Streep was nominated for a best actress SAG Award for her performance as Julia Child in Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia. Her costar in that film, Amy Adams, has been all but ignored this awards season. Streep lost the Actor trophy to Sandra Bullock, the star of the sleeper hit The Blind Side.
Drew Barrymore (below) won the SAG Award for best actress in a television movie or miniseries. Her performance in Grey Gardens has also earned her a Golden Globe in that same category. In that television drama, Barrymore costars with Jessica Lange.
Drew Barrymore
Meryl Streep, Drew Barrymore images: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Justin Timberlake wasn’t nominated for anything at the 2010 SAG Awards, held in Los Angeles on Sat., Jan. 23. Timberlake did, however, present the best actor in a comedy series award to Alec Baldwin (30 Rock), who expressed his gratitude for Timberlake’s presence and even more so for the presence of co-presenter Kate Hudson, a nominee for being part of the Nine ensemble.
Matthew Morrison, above right, was a nominee for being part of the Glee cast. Glee, in fact, won the SAG Award for best cast in a television comedy series.
A highlight at the SAG Awards ceremony was a breathless Drew Barrymore stuttering her through a mostly incoherent acceptance speech. Barrymore had just been named best actress in a television movie or miniseries for Grey Gardens.
“Improv is usually a good thing,” the by now veteran 35-year-old actress said, “… but it’s backfiring on me now.” She then remarked that the Screen Actors Guild was formed in the mid-1930s, a time when the Barrymores were already working in Hollywood (Ethel’s film career began in earnest in the mid-1940s), adding that she’s glad to be “keeping their name alive.”
“And right now I’m feeling really sick,” Barrymore finalized, “… And that’s a good thing … in a professional path.” She was dead serious, but many audience members laughed. Barrymore was just as overwhelmed when she accepted her Golden Globe last week.
Jeremy Renner, Brian Geraghty, and Anthony Mackie introduced their Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker, with Renner ending the intro by saying that “war is a cold, lonely, and lethal addiction.” Maybe that’s why SAG Award voters opted for something lighter like … Inglourious Basterds.
All in all, Inglourious Basterds was the only film to win more than one award: Best Supporting Actor for Christoph Waltz and Best Cast. Best supporting actress winner Mo’Nique thanked the unsung ones from the Precious cast and crew. Mo’Nique has won so many awards already, she can afford to do her thank-yous in installments, so as not to sound repetitive.
The in memoriam segment featured the likes of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, David Carradine, James Whitmore, Gale Storm, Beatrice Arthur, and Patrick Swayze. And to think that Soupy Sales received much more applause than Oscar winner Jennifer Jones or Oscar nominee Richard Todd. That’s lasting fame and prestige for you. And lazy ignorance about their own predecessors.
In fact, how many people under 80 at the SAG Awards had ever heard of the any Barrymores before Drew?
Jeff Bridges was the SAG Awards’ best actor winner for his troubled country singer in Scott Cooper’s Crazy Heart. He’d also won the Golden Globe last week for best actor (drama). Bridges talked about his “acting family” (as in, his fellow actors everywhere), declared “I love being an actor!” and looked dismayed when he was prompted to “Please wrap this up.” I believe it was presenter Meryl Streep who told him to simply ignore it. He did.
Bridges then proceed to thank his family and the Crazy Heart cast and crew. He even mentioned a singing coach who will teach you to sing over the phone. Unfortunately, he forgot to give out the man’s number.
Best Actress winner Sandra Bullock (for The Blind Side) probably provided the most authentic-sounding speech of the evening. Bullock talked about the downturn in her career following several box office flops not that long ago, thanked the people who helped her look blonde and beautiful on screen (“two very different things” – her morning self from her movie self), and even remarked on a “temper tantrum” she apparently had while being cast for the role. (I didn’t quite get who was involved in that.)
She also told her husband, Jesse James, “I leave you alone at the table and you come back with Morgan Freeman’s e-mail. I don’t know how you do it,” wrapping up with a public declaration of love and lust.
Best ensemble presenter George Clooney then told the audience he once had a guest role in The Golden Girls and “I’d like to thank Betty White for her discretion.” There was no reaction shot of Betty White, who had previously stated she “maybe had a couple” of audience members, because she was walking to her seat at that time and clearly missed out on Clooney’s remarks. Bad timing.
Clooney then announced that Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds was the winner of SAG’s best ensemble award. Here at Alt Film Guide, The Hurt Locker was the expected winner. Wrong. Elsewhere, most pundits believed that Tarantino’s World War II revenge fantasy was going to come out victorious. They were right.
Photo: Inglourious Basterds (François Duhamel / The Weinstein Co.)
Upon accepting her SAG Life Achievement Award, The Golden Girls star Betty White expressed her amazement at “how far a girl as plain as she is can go.”
The She in question was Sandra Bullock, who introduced the award, saying that most people love Betty White, but She finds White, her The Proposal fellow player, “annoying” because the 88-year-old veteran makes her feel like “a slacker.”
White’s acceptance speech, though at times she seemed to be reading cue cards a little too carefully, was peppered with funny moments. In addition to the Bullock joke, White explained she was still starstruck after all these years, going on to talk about the number of famous faces in the crowd. She then casually added, “and I worked with quite a few [of you] … maybe had a couple.” Laughter. Long pause. “And you know who you are.”
White wrapped up his speech saying “I was only 88 last Sunday, so I’ve got lots of stuff to do,” and “This is the highest point of my entire professional life.”
White and Bullock worked together in the 2009 comedy hit The Proposal, in which White plays Ryan Reynolds’ grandmother. Also last year, White provided the voice for the elderly Yoshie in Oscar-winner Hayao Miyazaki’s animated adventure Ponyo and made her farewell appearance on the daytime soap The Bold & the Beautiful. She also played herself in a cameo on 30 Rock. White will next be seen in the Disney feature You Again, starring Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver and Kristin Chenowith.
Past recipients of SAG’s Life Achievement Award include James Earl Jones, Charles Durning, Julie Andrews, Shirley Temple, James Garner, Karl Malden, Clint Eastwood, Edward Asner, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier, Kirk Douglas, Elizabeth Taylor, Angela Lansbury, Robert Redford and George Burns.
Photo: Mark Hill / Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
The cast of Mad Men has won the SAG Award for best ensemble in a television series drama. The series also won the Golden Globe for best television series (drama) last week.
Michael C. Hall was voted the best actor in a dramatic series for Dexter, in which he helps to track down serial killers and the like. Hall has recently undergone cancer treatment, and showed up at the Golden Globes last week wearing a skullcap. He won there as well. And so did Julianna Margulies, SAG Award winner for best actress in a drama television series, The Good Wife.
SAG Award president Ken Howard just finished a very, very lengthy speech during which he thanked film unions, praised the U.S. armed forces, saluted the 120,000 SAG members, and remembered the people of Haiti.
Photo: Mark Hill / Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
The SAG Awards ceremony is currently underway at the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles.
The best actor in a television comedy series was once again Alec Baldwin for 30 Rock. Considering that this is Baldwin’s fourth consecutive win, his remark “This is completely unexpected” was likely genuine. A week ago, Baldwin won the Golden Globe in that same category.
Fellow 30 Rock player Tina Fey also took best actress honors, while also claiming to be “very surprised.” In her speech, Fey made a point of telling NBC that “We are very happy with everything and happy to be there.” Following a reported $45 million settlement, NBC’s Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien is leaving the network so Jay Leno can have his time slot.
Also, during the SAG Awards red carpet arrivals, it was announced that Star Trek and 24 won, respectively, the motion picture and television stunt ensemble awards.
Below, Kate Hudson poses for a photo with her Nine costar Daniel Day-Lewis. Nine received two SAG Award nominations, for best supporting actress (Penélope Cruz) and best ensemble. It lost both. It also came out empty handed at the Golden Globes held the previous weekend. The expensive musical has been a major box office disappointment in the US.
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Kate Hudson, Daniel Day-Lewis
Justin Timberlake signs autographs on his way to the SAG Awards ceremony held Saturday, Jan. 23. Later that evening, Timberlake handed out the best actor in a comedy series award to Alec Baldwin. In 2010, Timberlake will provide the voice of “Artie” in Shrek Forever After and will be featured in David Fincher’s The Social Network.
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Jane Lynch
Best actress nominee in a drama series Holly Hunter (Saving Grace) arrives at the 2010 SAG Awards ceremony, which took place last Saturday, Jan. 23, in Los Angeles. Hunter lost the Actor trophy to Julianna Margulies, who had also won a Golden Globe the weekend before. Hunter has been nominated for four Academy Awards; she won once for Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993). Hunter’s costar in that movie and fellow Oscar winner, Anna Paquin, was also present at the 2010 SAG Awards. Paquin was one of the nominees for best cast in a drama series (True Blood).
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Diane Kruger.
Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer at the SAG Awards.
Anna Paquin was nominated as one of the cast members of HBO’s drama True Blood.
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Jeff Bridges was the best motion-picture actor winner at the SAG Awards 2010 ceremony. Officially, Bridges won his Actor for his performance as a troubled, aging country singer in Scott Cooper’s Crazy Heart. But in truth, it’s impossible not to see his SAG Award – much like his Golden Globe a week ago – as recognition for forty years of consistently good work.
Bridges had been nominated twice before for an Actor: as a member of the Seabiscuit (2003) cast and as best supporting actor for the political drama The Contender (2000). Additionally, Bridges has been nominated for four Academy Awards. He’ll surely get his fifth nomination this year, and probably his first win, too.
Kevin Bacon was voted the best actor in a television movie or miniseries for his performance in Taking Chance. Bacon, like Bridges, also won a Golden Globe last week. In fact, the SAG Awards ceremony seemed to be a replay of the Golden Globes, but with a different background, costumes, and hairdos. Just about every person who won a SAG Award yesterday, whether for work in film or on television, had won a Golden Globe last week.
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Kevin Bacon
U.S. critics favorite Christoph Waltz won the SAG Award for best supporting actor for his cultured Nazi officer in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. In his acceptance speech, Waltz talked about the difference between stage acting and screen acting, and between a movie projectionist and Harvey Weinstein. Or something like that. See below:
“Thank you so much. A stage actor acts on a stage, but a screen actor doesn’t act on the screen. The stage actor just walks on by himself, but the screen actor is put on by projectionist. Yet we dedicate our lives to our contribution of the whole. And yes, in occasional fits of megalomania we consider ourselves worthy of a script like Inglourious Basterds, or a director like Quentin Tarantino, or men like Harvey Weinstein, or David Linde, or a studio like Weinstein or Universal. … We work towards what can only be hoped for in utmost secrecy.”
If The Sound of Music veteran Christopher Plummer were to have won, it would have been less for his dying Leon Tolstoy in The Last Station than for his having survived both the singing von Trapp family and more bad movies than most other actors since the first nickelodeons. A considerable feat.
George Clooney didn’t win any awards (though he was in the running for Up in the Air), but the telethon he helped to organize for the Haiti earthquake relief efforts has reportedly earned nearly $60 million.
Photos: Courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild
Kevin Bacon accepts his SAG Award for best actor in a television movie or miniseries from Jon Hamm. Bacon won for Taking Chance, a drama about the return of a dead soldier’s body to his hometown. Hamm won an Actor as well, for being part of the Mad Men ensemble.
Below are best supporting actor winner Christoph Waltz, best supporting actress nominee Diane Kruger, and Inglourious Basterds director Quentin Tarantino. Kruger lost the supporting actress award to Mo’Nique (for Precious), but she did take an Actor statuette home for being part of the Basterds ensemble.
“On behalf of the entire cast of Inglourious Basterds,” Eli Roth said at the podium, “we want to say thank you to Mr. Quentin Tarantino for what you did for this film. A year ago we all sat down in Berlin and we read through the script. We all sat around and we saw that Quentin had pulled together actors from Ireland and from Austria and from France and from Newton, Massachusetts and from Germany and from New York and from the Fangoria Convention, and pulled together such a wonderful, wonderful cast. We all felt it was really something special. So it was an honor to be a part of it, Quentin.”
There are approximately 120,000 Screen Actors Guild members. How many actually cast ballots for the SAG Awards is a mystery.
Roth quote: About.com
SAG Awards 2010 presenters
Presenters at the 2010 SAG Awards ceremony included the following:
Sigourney Weaver, Justin Timberlake, Kyra Sedgwick, Ray Romano, Jeremy Renner, Carey Mulligan, Anna Kendrick, Felicity Huffman, Brian Geraghty, Anthony Mackie, Alec Baldwin, Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Jane Lynch, Michelle Monaghan, Chris O’Donnell, Anna Paquin, Meryl Streep, and Stanley Tucci.
Also: Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Jenna Fischer, Jon Hamm, Nicole Kidman, Christina Applegate, Simon Baker, Benjamin Bratt, Morgan Freeman, Kate Hudson, Diane Kruger, Helen Mirren, Mo’Nique, Gabourey Sidibe, and Christoph Waltz.
SAG Awards 2010: Winners & nominations
FILM
Best Actor
* Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt LockerBest Actress
* Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
Meryl Streep – Julie & JuliaBest Supporting Actor
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
* Christoph Waltz – Inglourious BasterdsBest Supporting Actress
Penélope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Diane Kruger – Inglourious Basterds
* Mo’Nique – PreciousBest Cast
An Education
Dominic Cooper, Alfred Molina, Carey Mulligan, Rosamund Pike, Peter Sarsgaard, Emma Thompson, Olivia Williams
The Hurt Locker
Christian Camargo, Brian Geraghty, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Renner
* Inglourious Basterds
Daniel Brühl, August Diehl, Julie Dreyfus, Michael Fassbender, Sylvester Groth, Jacky Ido, Diane Kruger, Mélanie Laurent, Denis Ménochet, Mike Myers, Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Til Schweiger, Rod Taylor, Christoph Waltz, Martin Wuttke
Nine
Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren
Precious
Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Sherri Shepherd, Gabourey Sidibe
PRIMETIME TELEVISION
Best Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
* Kevin Bacon – Taking Chance
Cuba Gooding Jr. – Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
Jeremy Irons – Georgia O’Keeffe
Kevin Kline – Great Performances: Cyrano de Bergerac
Tom Wilkinson – A NumberBest Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Joan Allen – Georgia O’Keeffe
* Drew Barrymore – Grey Gardens
Ruby Dee – America
Jessica Lange – Grey Gardens
Sigourney Weaver – Prayers for BobbyBest Actor in a Drama Series
Simon Baker – The Mentalist
Bryan Cranston – Breaking Bad
* Michael C. Hall – Dexter
Jon Hamm – Mad Men
Hugh Laurie – HouseBest Actress in a Drama Series (six nominees)
Patricia Arquette – Medium
Glenn Close – Damages
Mariska Hargitay – Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Holly Hunter – Saving Grace
* Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife
Kyra Sedgwick – The CloserBest Actor in a Comedy Series
* Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock
Steve Carell – The Office
Larry David – Curb Your Enthusiasm
Tony Shalhoub – Monk
Charlie Sheen – Two and a Half Men
Best Actress in a Comedy Series
Christina Applegate – Samantha Who?
Toni Collette – United States of Tara
Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie
* Tina Fey – 30 Rock
Julia Louis-Dreyfus – The New Adventures of Old ChristineBest Ensemble in a Drama Series
The Closer
G. W. Bailey, Michael Paul Chan, Raymond Cruz, Tony Denison, Robert Gossett, Phillip P. Keene, Corey Reynolds, Kyra Sedgwick, J. K. Simmons, Jon Tenney
Dexter
Preston Bailey, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter, Brando Eaton, Courtney Ford, Michael C. Hall, Desmond Harrington, John Lithgow, Rick Peters, James Remar, Christina Robinson, David Zayas, et al.
The Good Wife
Christine Baranski, Josh Charles, Matt Czuchry, Julianna Margulies, Archie Panjabi, Graham Phillips, and Makenzie Vega
* Mad Men
Alexa Alemanni, Jared Gilmore, Jon Hamm, Jared Harris, Christina Hendricks, January Jones, Robert Morse, Elisabeth Moss, John Slattery, Rich Sommer, Christopher Stanley, Aaron Staton, et al.
True Blood
Chris Bauer, Anna Camp, Michelle Forbes, Mariana Klaveno, Ryan Kwanten, Todd Lowe, Michael McMillian, Stephen Moyer, Anna Paquin, Carrie Preston, William Sanderson, Alexander Skarsgård, et al.Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Larry David, Susie Essman, Jeff Garlin, Cheryl Hines
* Glee
Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer, Patrick Gallagher, Jane Lynch, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Heather Morris, Matthew Morrison, Mark Salling, Harry Shum Jr., Josh Sussman, et al.
Modern Family
Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Nolan Gould, Sarah Hyland, Ed O’Neill, Rico Rodriguez, Eric Stonestreet, Sofia Vergara, Ariel Winter
The Office
Brian Baumgartner, Steve Carell, Jenna Fischer, Kate Flannery, Ed Helms, Mindy Kaling, Ellie Kemper, John Krasinski, Paul Lieberstein, B.J. Novak, Oscar Nuñez, Craig Robinson, Rainn Wilson, et al.
30 Rock
Scott Adsit, Alec Baldwin, Katrina Bowden, Kevin Brown, Grizz Chapman, Tina Fey, Judah Friedlander, Jane Krakowski, John Lutz, Jack McBrayer, Tracy Morgan, Keith PowellLIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Betty White
STUNT ENSEMBLES
Best Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
Public Enemies
* Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the FallenBest Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series
The Closer
Dexter
Heroes
* 24
The Unit
SAG Awards 2010 predictions
Best Actress
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Sandra Bullock’s The Blind Side is truly a career-capping flick – as in, more box office cash registers ringing than, say, Miss Congeniality, Infamous, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, or The Proposal. Additionally, the heart-warming, family-friendly, holiday-cheering, greenhouse-gas-reducing The Blind Side proves that
a) Bullock can be really successful in dramas,
b) she can have two major box office hits in a single year (that used to be Julia Roberts’ exclusive province),
c) she looks good as a blonde.
Item c) is the most difficult to accomplish, something I’m sure SAG members will recognize. I’m betting they’ll also want to reward Bullock for
a) her perseverance (she’s been around for more than two decades),
b) for proving everyone wrong about her “fading” box office appeal
c) for daring to (once again) get cast against type.
In just about any other year, Meryl Streep would have been my pick for the SAG Awards for her star turn in Julie & Julia. After all, Bullock has never even been nominated for an individual SAG Award (though she was part of the winning Crash ensemble back in early 2006), while Streep won last year for Doubt.
Best Actor
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Reason #1: He is George Clooney, a well-liked, well-respected actor who has often used his name to push projects that have something say, e.g., Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck., The Men Who Stare at Goats, and most recently Jason Reitman’s dramatic comedy Up in the Air, in which Clooney plays a corporate-downsizing expert whose job is to ensure that thousands of other people lose theirs.
Before you begin hating his character, consider this: It could have been much worse. Clooney’s Ryan Bingham could have been a banker or a politician, doing his utmost to destroy the lives of millions instead of mere thousands. Also, he does meet Vera Farmiga and rediscovers there’s more to life than frequent-flyer miles and pink slips.
Best Supporting Actress
Mo’Nique, Precious
Mo’Nique’s worst obstacle at the SAG Awards (and elsewhere) isn’t Anna Kendrick or Vera Farmiga (both for Up in the Air), but Mo’Nique herself. She’s recently gained a reputation – whether fairly or not – of wanting $$$ to make appearances at awards shows, film festivals, etc. to promote Precious.
She didn’t show up at the Toronto Film Festival to promote her film and may not show up at the New York Film Critics Circle gala evening.
Having said all that, my money (no pun intended) rests on Mo’Nique.
Best Cast in a Motion Picture
The Hurt Locker – Christian Camargo, Brian Geraghty, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Renner
Many consider the Screen Actors Guild’s Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture Award as SAG’ Best Picture equivalent. Generally speaking, that’s nonsense. A “cast,” or “ensemble,” is exactly what the name implies: A group of performers interacting with one another in a movie. SAG Award voters, whether when selecting their nominees or winners, have almost always followed the “Outstanding Cast = Outstanding Group Acting” concept.
For instance, among past SAG Award nominees in the Outstanding Cast category have been How to Make an American Quilt, Marvin’s Room, Boogie Nights, The Green Mile, Chocolat, and Bobby – movies that weren’t particularly well received upon their release (and some of which turned out to be box office disappointments), but that are ensemble pieces as opposed to showcases for only one or a couple of performers.
That concept can also be seen at work on the list of Best Cast SAG Award winners, e.g., The Full Monty, Traffic, Gosford Park, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Sideways, Crash, and Little Miss Sunshine.
The Hurt Locker doesn’t have a stellar cast like Rob Marshall’s Nine, but it does have something else going for it: It has gained the reputation as the year’s most prestigious film. Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq War drama, which also features Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce, has already won numerous critics awards, and is a shoo-in to nab a Best Picture Oscar nomination. See last year’s Slumdog Millionaire.
Upset possibility: Quentin Tarantino’s revenge fantasy Inglourious Basterds, which has gained momentum after U.S. film critics began announcing their year-end picks.
- SAG Awards 2010 nominations: The one notable surprise is Diane Kruger up for Best Supporting Actress. Ah, and let’s not forget that Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air failed to land a Best Cast nod – despite three of its cast members receiving individual mentions.
SAG Awards 2010: Diane Kruger gets surprise nomination, Up in the Air ensemble bypassed despite 3 individual nods
The nominations for the 2010 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards were announced on Dec. 17. Among those in the running in the Film categories (see full list further below), there were only a couple of surprises:
- Diane Kruger is a Best Supporting Actress contender for her portrayal of a German film star and spy (shades of Swedish-born Nazi era superstar and rumored spy Zarah Leander?) in Quentin Tarantino’s World War II revenge fantasy Inglourious Basterds.
- Starring Carey Mulligan, and featuring Emma Thompson, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, and Olivia Williams, Lone Scherfig’s low-budget British drama An Education landed a Best Cast nomination.
Diane Kruger’s SAG Award nod is her first notable mention this awards season. In fact, so far only one Inglourious Basterds performer has been singled out time and again: Christoph Waltz, who, as it happens, is the SAG Awards’ shoo-in in the Best Supporting Actor category. And let’s not forget that Mélanie Laurent was the Austin and Online Film Critics’ Best Actress pick.
But for Kruger it has been pretty much zilch. That is, until today.
As for An Education, its Best Cast nomination wasn’t exactly unexpected. The surprising thing about it is that Best Actress contender Carey Mulligan is the movie’s only performer who succeeded in getting an individual SAG Award nod.
Supporting cast seemingly brings Up in the Air down to earth
Making just about as much sense, Jason Reitman’s socially conscious comedy-drama Up in the Air collected no less than three individual nods – Best Actor for George Clooney; Best Supporting Actress for Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick – but was not shortlisted for Best Cast.
That unquestionably means the film’s supporting players – Melanie Lynskey, Jason Bateman, Amy Morton, J.K. Simmons, Sam Elliott, Chris Lowell, et al. – must have been so godawful that they eviscerated all the goodwill bestowed on the three principals.
Think about it: Up in the Air received more individual SAG Award nominations than any of the Best Cast (or “Performance by a Cast”) nominees. Inglourious Basterds and Lee Daniels’ family drama Precious managed two, while Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq War thriller The Hurt Locker, Rob Marshall’s widely panned musical Nine, and the aforementioned An Education received one each.
Go figure.
Below is the list of this year’s SAG Award nominees in the Film categories.
SAG Awards vs. Academy Awards
Expect the Academy Award nominations to look pretty much like those for the SAG Awards, except for:
- Diane Kruger’s spot will likely go to Julianne Moore for A Single Man, Emma Thompson for An Education, Samantha Morton for The Messenger, or even Marion Cotillard for Nine.
- Up in the Air will undoubtedly be shortlisted in the Best Picture category, which now has 10 slots.
In fact, 2010 may turn out to be the second year when the Best Picture winner – Up in the Air, or even something like James Cameron’s SAG Award orphan Avatar – ends up taking home an Oscar statuette despite the absence of a Best Cast SAG Award nod.
The first and only time to date that happened?
Back in early 1996, the second year of the SAG Awards, when Mel Gibson’s medieval war epic Braveheart became the Academy’s Best Picture after its cast – and individual cast members – was/were (appropriately) left off the SAG roster.
Immediately below is our – shockingly (for the most part) on-target – SAG Award predictions, which were posted yesterday.
SAG Awards 2010 predictions
Dec. 16: Tomorrow morning, Chris O’Donnell and Michelle Monaghan will announce the nominations for the 2010 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards. As usual, expect a handful of surprises in the Film categories.
In the past, SAG Award voters – only a relatively small percentage of SAG members select the nominees – have made a not insignificant number of unexpected choices. These include a Best Supporting Actor nod for Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire, 2008); Best Actress nods for Patricia Clarkson (The Station Agent, 2003) and Zhang Ziyi (Memoirs of a Geisha, 2005); and Best Cast nods for Hustle & Flow (2005), Hairspray, and 3:10 to Yuma (both 2007).
But no matter what, don’t expect a Best Cast nomination for Avatar.
Best Actress
Critics’ faves Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan will surely be shortlisted in the SAG Awards’ Best Actress category. The other three slots are a little iffier.
Sandra Bullock will likely get her first Best Actress SAG Award nod for playing a “conservative” matriarch who adopts an inner-city teenager (Quinton Aaron) in John Lee Hancock’s sentimental socially conscious family drama The Blind Side, a sleeper hit that is about to cross the $200 million mark in the U.S. and Canada – and that is about to become Sandra Bullock’s biggest domestic box office success to date (not adjusted for inflation).
Besides, Bullock has been around for more than two decades, and Hancock’s crowd-pleasing drama was her second major hit of 2009, following Anne Fletcher’s The Proposal. All About Steve notwithstanding, this has been the year when Bullock proved she can do both comedy and drama while earning millions in both genres – and that’s no small feat. Indeed, U.S. exhibitors named her the top box office attraction in the country, the first woman to hold that position since Julia Roberts in 1999.
Best Actor
The 2010 SAG Awards’ Best Actor field is a little crowded. Even so, four actors have a lock on a nomination: Awards season fave George Clooney for Up in the Air, Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart, Colin Firth for A Single Man, and Morgan Freeman for Invictus.
The fifth slot, however, is up for grabs. Jeremy Renner is a strong possibility, especially considering that The Hurt Locker is sure to get a Best Cast nod.
That said, it’s just as possible that Daniel Day-Lewis will get shortlisted for Nine – Rob Marshall’s (reportedly) $80 million big-screen version of the Broadway musical – even though neither the film nor Day-Lewis’ performance has found much favor so far this awards season.
Best Supporting Actress
The actresses listed below are the same ones who received Golden Globe nominations. Two of them are shoo-ins: Mo’Nique for Precious and Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air. The other three are “very strong possibilities.”
Bear in mind that even though French Oscar winner Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose, 2007) is the one getting a large chunk of the (relatively few) good notices for Nine, Spanish Oscar winner Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 2008) has the showier role and another 2009 performance – in Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces – to help her get a nod from her fellow actors for playing Italian filmmaker Daniel Day-Lewis’ sensual mistress (Sandra Milo in Federico Fellini’s 8½).
Best Supporting Actor
The SAG Award nominations in the Best Supporting Actor category will most likely match those of the Golden Globes, as this has turned out to be the least competitive race in the acting categories.
The one upset nominee would be Christian McKay for his portrayal of the Citizen Kane and The Lady from Shanghai filmmaker in Richard Linklater’s little-seen Me and Orson Welles. (Zac Efron is the titular “Me.”)
Best Cast
Our SAG Award predictions:
- The Hurt Locker
The 2009–2010 awards season’s favorite narrative feature and very much an ensemble piece. - Inglourious Basterds
Large international “name” ensemble in a generally well-regarded blockbuster. - Nine
Never underestimate the power of The Weinstein Company’s awards season machine. - Precious
The year’s socially conscious sleeper hit. - Up in the Air
Another awards season favorite starring awards season favorite actor George Clooney.
Adventurous Choice:
- Moon (Sam Rockwell in what amounts to an ensemble of one)
“SAG Awards 2010 Nominations” notes/references
SAG Awards website.
Diane Kruger Inglourious Basterds image: The Weinstein Company.
Sandra Bullock The Blind Side image: Ralph Nelson | Warner Bros.