SAG Awards: Big Night for Black Panther, Mrs. Maisel
The 25th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards offered some much-needed clarity for this year's Academy Award acting races. Rami Malek took home Best Leading Actor, making him the clear front-runner in the Oscar race, while Glenn Close affirmed her position at the head of the pack for the Best Actress Oscar by picking up the SAG Award. Mahershala Ali is also the leader in the Best Supporting Actor race after following up his Golden Globe victory with a SAG win.
SAG gave Best Supporting Actress to Emily Blunt for her performance in A Quiet Place. Blunt, however, is not nominated for the Academy Award. The presumed front-runner for the Oscar, Regina King, wasn't nominated for the SAG Award. What should we make of this? That the race hasn't really changed at all. King is still the likely front-runner for the Oscar, and if anything, she solidified her position. Now if Amy Adams had picked up the SAG Award, this race would be very interesting.
And speaking of a race that's heating up, SAG's Best Performance by a Cast went to... Black Panther! That's right; the groundbreaking Marvel superhero movie took home SAG's version of the Best Picture award. What does this really mean for Black Panther's Oscar chances? Probably not much. For the years 2010-2017, the SAG award has synced up with the Academy Award for Best Picture with The King's Speech, Argo, Birdman, and Spotlight, or 50% of the time. However, the SAG Award has been off for the last two years: Hidden Figures (2016) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), both of which lost the Best Picture Oscar (to Moonlight and The Shape of Water, respectively). Black Panther also took home the award for Best Stunt Ensemble, a bit of an upset over Mission: Impossible - Fallout.
On the television front, it was a big night for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which took home Best Comedy Actor (Tony Shaloub), Best Comedy Actress (Rachael Brosnahan), and Best Cast - Comedy. This is Us won Best Cast - Drama, while Jason Bateman won Best Drama Actor (Ozark) and Sandra Oh won Best Drama Actress (Killing Eve). Darren Criss (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story) and Patricia Arquette (Escape at Dannemora) took home Best Actor and Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie, respectively. Netflix's female wrestling series Glow took home the TV award for Best Stunt Ensemble.