A Hollywood beset by a crisis over diversity will convene for the 22nd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, where the night’s top film honour may be a toss-up between the ensembles of two fact-based tales: “The Big Short” and “Spotlight“.
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Leonardo DiCaprio is one step closer to the Oscars after winning the Screen Actors Guild award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.
British actor Idris Elba won for his roles in the detective drama Luther, and for his supporting role as an African warlord in Beasts of No Nation.
The TV categories seemed to represent the diverse landscape of the medium overall when compared to the film nominations; Idris Elba even made a quip in reference to “diverse TV” when stepping up to introduce Beasts of No Nation later on in the night.
“I’m in shock right now”, Latifah said during her acceptance speech.
But the SAG Awards include television shows and movies, while the Oscar categories are focused only on films.
Nominations for the SAG Awards, which cover both film and TV, were announced in December, ahead of the Oscars’ January 14 nominations announcement, which provoked protest when all the Oscar acting nominationss went to white performers.
“This is not only for survivors of this horrific situation, this is also really for the disenfranchised”, Keaton said. They added: “This is what we talk about when we talk about diversity”.
Uzo and her co-stars in the Netflix series won Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series for a seconf time at the awards, and as Laura Prepon pointed out as they collected their trophies, ‘look at this stage.
That is in stark contrast to the Oscars, where no actors of colour have been nominated this year. Kevin Spacey won his second SAG Award for “House of Cards” – another win for Netflix on the night.
Ever the creatures of habit, SAG voters awarded five of the six reigning TV champions again.
Viola Davis, Queen Latifah and Uzo Aduba were also among the winners at the 22nd SAG Awards.
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“Moreover, Jeffrey Tambor won best comedy series actor for playing Maura Pfefferman, an ageing wealthy transgender woman in Amazon’s Transparent“. There were few surprises among this year’s winners, and it was CBS comedienne Carol Burnett who took home the Life Achievement Award. Other major prizes went to Leonardo DiCaprio for “The Revenant” and Brie Larson for “Room“, who continued their successful march to the end of awards season.
