South China Morning Post
Advertisement
Advertisement
American cinema
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
Cillian Murphy in a still from “Oppenheimer”, which has five nominations for Screen Actors Guild Awards - for Murphy, two fellow cast members, best director for Christopher Nolan and best cast. The winner of the latter is a hot tip for the best film Oscar. Photo: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures
LifestyleEntertainment

Oppenheimer leads nominations for SAG Awards, key Oscars predictors, which Netflix will broadcast for the first time

  • Christopher Nolan’s epic about America’s race to make an atomic bomb leads the pack in the hunt for Screen Actors Guild Awards, with five nominations
  • It will vie with Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, American Fiction and The Color Purple for the best cast award. The winner is a hot tip for best film Oscar
American cinema
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse
Why you can trust SCMP

Fresh from its wins at the Golden Globes, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer on has topped the nominations for the influential Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, which are key to Oscars success.

The SAG Awards, voted on by Hollywood actors, are likely to enjoy a profile boost of their own this year as they are broadcast globally on Netflix – an awards show first for the world’s biggest streaming platform.

Oppenheimer, which tells the story of the inventor of the atomic bomb, earned nominations for Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jnr and Emily Blunt, as well as “outstanding performance by a cast” – the SAG Awards’ top prize.
Nolan’s three-hour epic, which earned nearly US$1 billion and received rave reviews from critics, is rapidly becoming the clear favourite for the Academy Awards in March.
Ryan Gosling as Ken and Margot Robbie as Barbie in “Barbie”. Both are nominated for acting awards, and the movie for best cast, in the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Photo: courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/TNS
Barbie – the other half of last summer’s “Barbenheimer” box office phenomenon, and the year’s highest grossing film – picked up nominations for Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and overall cast.

The surreal comedy based on the wildly popular doll also picked up a nomination for its stunt performers.

Robert De Niro (left) and Leonardo DiCaprio in a still from “Killers of the Flower Moon”. Photo: Apple
The other films with three acting nominations were historical epic Killers of the Flower Moon – although its leading man, Leonardo DiCaprio, misses out – and scathing satire American Fiction, starring Jeffrey Wright.

Both movies are nominated for best cast, with musical remake The Color Purple rounding out that category.

This year’s SAG Awards gala, held on February 24, will be streamed on Netflix, as the platform slowly moves into hosting live events.
Jeffrey Wright stars as frustrated novelist Thelonious “Monk” Ellison in “American Fiction”, a contender for top prize at the Screen Actors Guild, the winner of which is a hot tip for the best film Oscar. Photo: MGM/Zuma Press/TNS

Speeches at next month’s gala are certain to feature multiple references to last year’s Hollywood strikes, which saw the industry shut down as SAG-AFTRA – along with the writers’ guild – went head to head with studios.

A deal was finally reached to end the actors’ strike in November.

While Netflix will host the gala, none of its films were nominated for the night’s biggest prize.

Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre in a scene from “Maestro”. She and co-star Bradley Cooper are nominated for Screen Actors Guild awards. Photo: Jason McDonald/Netflix via AP
But the streaming giant did land five movie nominations, including Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan for Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, and Jodie Foster and Annette Bening for Nyad.
Elsewhere, Globes winners Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph picked up nominations for The Holdovers, as did Emma Stone and her co-star Willem Dafoe for Poor Things.

All four films missed out on nominations for outstanding cast.

Annette Bening as Diana Nyad in a scene from “Nyad”. Photo: Liz Parkinson/Netflix/TNS
The winner of that prize has gone on to win best picture at the Oscars in three of the past four years (Parasite, CODA and Everything Everywhere All at Once).

Actors represent the biggest branch of the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which votes for the Oscars.

The SAG Awards also honour television, with Succession on top with five nominations, followed by The Bear, The Last of Us and Ted Lasso, all on four.
Emma Stone in a still from Yorgos Lanthimos’ comedy “Poor Things”, shortlisted for the best film prize in the Directors Guild of America awards. Photo: Searchlight Pictures

Hollywood’s directors’ guild also announced its own nominations on Wednesday.

Both Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie again made the shortlist of five nominees for the Directors Guild of America’s best film.

They were joined by Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, and Poor Things from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos.

The DGA Awards will take place on February 10.

1