‘One Battle After Another’ dominated nominations to the ‘Actor Awards’, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s ragtag revolutionary saga landing a record seven nods in the annual SAG-AFTRA honours. In the 31 years of the ‘Actor Awards’, formerly known as the ‘Screen Actors Guild Awards’, no movie has received more than five nominations.
Along with a nod for the guild’s top award, best ensemble, the cast of ‘One Battle After Another’ was showered with nominations for Leonardo DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro and its stunt performers. The four other nominees for best ensemble are ‘Sinners’, ‘Hamnet’, ‘Marty Supreme’ and ‘Frankenstein’.
Usually, to win Best Picture at the Oscars, a movie needs a SAG ensemble nomination. Only four films in the last three decades have managed the feat without that. Among the films that missed the cut this year were ‘Sentimental Value’, ‘Wicked: For Good’ and ‘Train Dreams’.
‘Sinners’ had an especially good result. Along with a best male actor nod for Michael B Jordan, supporting actors Miles Caton and Wunmi Mosaku were both nominated. It collected five nominations in total. In television, Apple’s ‘The Studio’, HBO’s ‘White Lotus’ and Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’ lead the nominees.
Historically, the ‘Actor Awards’ have been one of the strongest Oscar indicators. Actors make up the largest branch of the film academy, and, in the past, individual SAG nominees overlapped with the Oscar field at a rate of roughly four out of five. The ‘Actor Awards’ are presented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
That means the nominees on Wednesday closely resemble those headed to the Oscars. They are - Best male actor: DiCaprio, Timothee Chalamet (‘Marty Supreme’), Michael B. Jordan (‘Sinners’), Ethan Hawke (‘Blue Moon’) and Jesse Plemons (‘Bugonia’). The only surprise of that group was Plemons.
The favourite remains the 30-year-old Chalamet, who won the same award last year for ‘A Complete Unknown’ and vowed to pursue ‘greatness’ in his acceptance speech.
Best female actor: Infiniti, Jessie Buckley (‘Hamnet’), Rose Byrne (‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’), Kate Hudson (‘Song Sung Blue’) and Emma Stone (‘Bugonia’).
In the supporting male actor category, the nominees are Del Toro, Penn, Caton, Jacob Elordi (‘Frankenstein’) and Paul Mescal (‘Hamnet’).
The nominees for best supporting female actor are Taylor, Mosaku, Ariana Grande (‘Wicked: For Good’), Amy Madigan (‘Weapons’) and Odessa A'zion (‘Marty Supreme’). The biggest surprise in that category was the 25-year-old A'zion.
Snubbed altogether was Joachim Trier’s acclaimed Norwegian drama ‘Sentimental Value’. Both Renate Reinsve, as the lead female actor and Stellan Skarsgard, as the supporting male actor, have been viewed as shoo-ins.
Membership in the academy, meanwhile, has grown increasingly international. Along with ‘Sentimental Value’, movies like the Iranian revenge drama ‘It Was Just an Accident’ and the Brazilian political thriller ‘The Secret Agent’ should have greater success come Oscar nominations on January 22.
There have been some prominent differences between SAG and the Oscars. The ‘Actor Awards’ will take place on March 1 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. ‘Netflix’ will stream the ceremony live. Harrison Ford will be presented with the guild’s lifetime achievement award.