“One Battle After Another” dominated nominations to the Actor Awards on Wednesday, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s ragtag revolutionary saga landing a record seven nods in the annual SAG-AFTRA honors.
In the 31 years of the Actor Awards, formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards, no movie has received more than five nominations. Along with a nod for the guild’s top award, best ensemble, the cast of “One Battle After Another” was showered with nominations for Leonardo DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and its stunt performers.
The four other nominees for best ensemble are: “Sinners,” “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme” and “Frankenstein.” Usually, to win best picture at the Oscars, a movie needs a SAG ensemble nomination. Only four films in the last three decades have managed the feat without that. Among the films that missed the cut this year were “Sentimental Value,” “Wicked: For Good” and “Train Dreams.”
“Sinners” had an especially good result. Along with a best male actor nod for Michael B. Jordan, supporting actors Miles Caton and Wunmi Mosaku were both nominated. It collected five nominations in total.
In television, Apple’s “The Studio,” HBO’s “White Lotus” and Netflix’s “Adolescence” lead the nominees.
Historically, the Actor Awards have been one of the strongest Oscar indicators. Actors make up the largest branch of the film academy, and, in the past, individual SAG nominees have overlapped with the Oscar field at a rate of roughly four out of five. The Actor Awards are presented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
That means the nominees Wednesday may closely resemble those headed to the Oscars. They are:
Best male actor: DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet (“Marty Supreme”), Michael B. Jordan (“Sinners”), Ethan Hawke (“Blue Moon”) and Jesse Plemons (“Bugonia”). The only surprise of that group was Plemons. The favorite remains the 30-year-old Chalamet who won the same award last year for “A Complete Unknown” and vowed to pursue “greatness” in his acceptance speech.
Best female actor: Infiniti, Jessie Buckley (“Hamnet”), Rose Byrne (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”), Kate Hudson (“Song Sung Blue”) and Emma Stone (“Bugonia”).
In the supporting male actor category, the nominees are: Del Toro, Penn, Caton, Jacob Elordi (“Frankenstein”) and Paul Mescal (“Hamnet”).
The nominees for best supporting female actor are: Taylor, Mosaku, Ariana Grande (“Wicked: For Good”), Amy Madigan (“Weapons”) and Odessa A’zion (“Marty Supreme”). The biggest surprise in that category was the 25-year-old A’zion.
Snubbed altogether was Joachim Trier’s acclaimed Norwegian drama “Sentimental Value.” Both Renate Reinsve, in lead female actor, and Stellan Skarsgård, for supporting male actor, have been viewed as shoo-ins. Many analysts have even considered Skarsgård the favorite to win. With more than 122,000 voting members, the actors guild has tended to skew more populist and the guild often shies away from non-English language nominees.
Membership in the academy, meanwhile, has grown increasingly international. Along with “Sentimental Value,” movies like the Iranian revenge drama “It Was Just an Accident” and the Brazilian political thriller “The Secret Agent” should have greater success come Oscar nominations on Jan. 22.
There have been some prominent differences between SAG and the Oscars. Last year, Chalamet won best male actor but lost to Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”) at the Oscars. The papal drama “Conclave” took best ensemble, but Sean Baker’s “Anora” won best picture at the Academy Awards.
On the television side, the leader in comedy was “The Studio,” which scored nods for its ensemble, Seth Rogen, Kathryn Hahn, Catherine O’Hara and Ike Barinholtz. The top drama was “The White Lotus,” which collected four nominations including best ensemble and nods for Parker Posey, Walton Goggins and Aimee Lee Wood. The limited series “Adolescence” also landed four nominations, for Owen Cooper, Stephen Graham, Erin Doherty and Christine Tremarco.
The Actor Awards will take place Sunday, March 1, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Netflix will stream the ceremony live. Harrison Ford will be presented with the guild’s life achievement award.