2017 SAG Nominations: Fantastic Surprises and Tons of Diversity
The nominations were just announced for the 2017 Screen Actor’s Guild Awards, and with a couple of exceptions, I did just fine. I’ll just recap the film nominations, and there’s only five categories, so this will be kind of short.
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Viola Davis, Fences
Naomi Harris, Moonlight
Nicole Kidman, Lion
Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea
The only gal I missed here was Greta Gerwig, who’s having trouble getting in. I did say Octavia Spencer or her co-star Janelle Monae were threats here, so that makes sense. Notice that three of the five nominees are african-american. SAG was the only awards show last year to have a number of non-caucasian actors nominated or non-caucasian led films be in the lead category, and they usually are more diversified.
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Hugh Grant, Florence Foster Jenkins
Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
Dev Patel, Lion
So Dev, Mahershala, and Jeff have all made in to the Critic’s Choice, Golden Globe, and now SAG nominations for this category. They look pretty solid right now for Oscars, but then again Jake Gyllenhaal made all three for Nightcrawler (2014) and ended up being snubbed at the end. The only one I missed was Grant, and I had Michael Shannon for Nocturnal Animals instead. Turns out the Globes just really, really liked that one and nobody else did.
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Amy Adams, Arrival
Emily Blunt, The Girl on the Train
Natalie Portman, Jackie
Emma Stone, La La Land
Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins
They love their Streep, don’t they? So no Annette Bening or Ruth Negga here, which makes this the weakest category predictions-wise for me, with the exception of Outstanding Cast, which I’ll get to in a minute. And this is the only category this morning to have all white nominees. Kind of surprising when Negga and Taraji P. Henson in Hidden Figures are in very popular films, and Figures ended up in the Outstanding Cast nominees, so we’ll have to just accept that these five were more popular at SAG.
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
Ryan Gosling, La La Land
Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington, Fences
So Viggo had more bravado than we thought! He kicked out Joel Edgerton for Loving and Tom Hanks for Sully, but then again I never had Hanks in, and Loving got no recognition today. The other four look pretty solid for the Oscars, so we’ll have to see who takes that fifth slot: Hanks, Edgerton, Mortensen, or maybe someone else?
Outstanding Cast
Captain Fantastic
Fences
Hidden Figures
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
Here’s a bit of trivia for you: name the only movie ever to win Best Picture at the Oscars not to at least be nominated in this category at SAG. Answer: Braveheart (1995). So that means if La La Land is our Best Picture winner, that’s a record that’s stood for a long time. But seriously, why the hell didn’t they go for it? It’s the most nominated film at every other awards show so far this year, and the word on the street was the producers and Oscar campaigners and everybody was saying that almost every actor employed in the film was a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild. So this is a stumper. Instead Captain Fantastic took that spot. I had Nocturnal Animals in as well after it’s over-performance at the Globes, but as it turns 0ut, they didn’t like it. And Fences was my first-runner up if either Animals or Figures missed. I never would have guessed La La Land was the expendable one.
So the big winner this morning was Manchester by the Sea with four nominations, followed by Moonlight and Fences, which each earned three. What’s also weird is that each year there’s almost always a film in that Outstanding Cast category that gets no other nominations, just that one, but that wasn’t the case this time. And yes, if that adage of Best Picture has to be nominated in that category at SAG stands, then this is the first sign we’ve seen of La La Land being in trouble for that top prize. But let’s not push the panic button yet; La La will almost undoubtedly be the most nominated film Oscar morning and it will also appeal at BAFTA, and potentially also be most nominated over there, so let’s just say that like last year where Beasts of No Nation (2015) and Straight outta Compton (2015) both ended up in that category and missing at Oscars, as did Trumbo (2015), then they are just weird.
