'Manchester' grabbed four SAG nominations this morning
Well, just when I've all but wrapped the Oscar race in my mind this year, here comes SAG with the outright snubbing of La La Land in Best Ensemble! That's the big surprise, since every single Best Picture winner of the past twenty years has at least been nominated for SAG's BP equivalent. Does that mean it can't win? I don't know about that. Lots of precedents have been broken in recent years. I think it can still go all the way, it'll just be the first movie to win without a SAG ensemble nod since Braveheart in 1995 (which was the very first year of the SAG awards, interestingly enough). On the other hand, these are the first industry nominations of the year, so the fact that they snubbed it (even though they did nominate both Gosling and Stone) could mean something. We just don't know yet.
Best Film Ensemble
“Captain Fantastic”
“Fences”
“Hidden Figures”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight”
Best Actor
Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”
Andrew Garfield, “Hacksaw Ridge”
Ryan Gosling, “La La Land”
Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic”
Denzel Washington, “Fences”
Best Actress
Amy Adams, “Arrival”
Emily Blunt, “The Girl on the Train”
Natalie Portman, “Jackie”
Emma Stone, “La La Land”
Meryl Streep, “Florence Foster Jenkins”
Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight”
Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water”
Hugh Grant, “Florence Foster Jenkins”
Lucas Hedges, “Manchester by the Sea”
Dev Patel, “Lion”
Best Supporting Actress
Viola Davis, “Fences”
Naomie Harris, “Moonlight”
Nicole Kidman, “Lion”
Octavia Spencer, “Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams, “Manchester by the Sea”
Best Stunt Ensemble
“Captain America: Civil War”
“Doctor Strange”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“Jason Bourne”
“Nocturnal Animals”
Other things of note in these nominations- as was the case last year, there's no lack of diversity within SAG, as the 100,000 member branch includes many TV actors and the entire AFTRA wing, which means there's radio journalists and other TV people who aren't even actors in the voting membership. But this means no single category aside from Best Actress (hopefully that will change someday) is made up of all white people. So that's a good thing, but the categories usually match Oscar 4 for 5 or even 3 for 5, so there will be some names not included on Oscar morning. I'm guessing Emily Blunt's a no go, to be replaced by either Annette Bening or Isabelle Huppert. Hugh Grant is a question mark, but it looks like actors liked his and Meryl Streep's film Florence Foster Jenkins, so maybe there's a chance for him after all these years. And I don't know what's going on with this Captain Fantastic movie or why they liked it so much here, but the Best Actor category is weak so maybe that means Viggo gets in? Of the weak SAG nominees for BP at the Oscars, obviously it's that one and Hidden Figures- the rest are probably getting in. I'm not sure why Tom Hanks continues to be overlooked- he was great in Sully, but people must just think he's playing himself in these late career movies of his. One last note- if La La Land is still the Best Picture frontrunner, I would definitely expect Emma Stone to win Best Actress at SAG, since it's now pretty much the only place they can award the film.
Will Meryl Streep get her 20th Oscar nomination and bring Hugh Grant along for the ride with his first?
