Screen Actors Guild Awards might not offer Oscars preview
Scarlett Johansson and Nicole Kidman will have two chances to win Sunday night at the 26th Screen Actors Guild Awards, while the night’s top movie winner may offer a forecast of the Academy Awards.
Among the films vying for the screen actors’ top honour, best ensemble, are Oscar heavyweights “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” and “The Irishman.” They are competing with “Parasite” (only the second foreign language nominee after “Life Is Beautiful,” which received a nod in 1999), “Jojo Rabbit” and “Bombshell.”
Because actors make up the largest percentage of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, their picks are closely watched. But the last two years, the SAG ensemble winner has not gone on to win best picture: “Black Panther” last year and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” in 2018.
Two of this year’s top best-picture contenders at the Oscars — “Joker,” more of a one-man show, and “1917,” more acclaimed for its technical acumen — weren’t nominated for best ensemble. On Saturday, “1917” won top honours at the highly predictive Producers Guild Awards, which 21 of the last 30 years has lined up with the eventual best picture winner.