Sunday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards honored plenty of the Oscars’ darlings, and it’s very little surprise that Natalie Portman of Black Swan and Colin Firth of The King’s Speech garnered the Outstanding Performances in a Leading Role awards. The King’s Speech also won for Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture award.
A star-studded roster of presenters joined their peers at the awards ceremony tonight. Celebrity presenters give the SAG Awards a friendly “we’re-all-celebs-here” atmosphere. It was a sight to see, with the glitterati out in their best duds, rubbing elbows in the proscenium spaces of the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles. Presenters included (and the list was very long, so I’ve only named a dozen or so): Natalie Portman, Tine Fay, Susan Sarandon, Donald Sutherland, Amy Adams, Alec Baldwin, Jason Bateman, Scott Bakula, Jeff Bridges, Helena Bonham Carter, Jesse Eisenberg, Colin Firth, Tim Conway, Jon Hamm, Nicole Kidman, Mila Kunis…and I could go on.
Now to the good stuff; the winners.
A special mention for the Life Achievement Award winner Ernest Borgnine. In his 90s, Borgnine smiled through praise and jokes at his expense as the evening wore on. When he finally got his moment on the stage, and was presented with his trophy, he reminded the celebrities around him that “we are a privileged few…I hope we’ll never let our dedication to our craft fail.”
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role: Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers in Black Swan
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role: Colin Firth as King George VI in The King’s Speech
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Melissa Leo as Alice Ward in The Fighter
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale as Dicky Eklund in The Fighter
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series: Betty White as Elka Ostrovsky in Hot in Cleveland
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series: Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy in 30 Rock
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series: Julianna Marguiles as Alicia Florrick in The Good Wife
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series: Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson in Boardwalk Empire
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries: Clare Danes as Temple Grandin in Temple Grandin
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries: Al Pacino
as Jack Kevorkian in You Don’t Know Jack
Outstanding Performance by a cast in a Motion Picture: The King’s Speech (this hot-ticket film boasts of a cast including Anthony Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Guy Pearce, Geoffrey Rush and Timothy Spall).
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series: Boardwalk Empire (this new HBO series’ cast includes Steve Buscemi, Dabney Coleman, Paz De La Huerta, Stephen Graham, Anthony Laciura, Kelly MacDonald, Gretchen Mol, Aleska Palladino, Vincent Piazza, Michael Pitt, Michael Shannon, Paul Sparks, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Shia Whigham).
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series: ABC’s Modern Family (winners included Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Nolan Gould, Sarah Hyland, Ed O’Neill, Rico Rodriguez, Eric Stonestreet, Sofia Vergara and Ariel Winter).
Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series: True Blood (The cast of HBO’s popular vampire drama includes Nick Brandon, Charlie Brewer, Kevin Derr, Crystal Dyson, Mike Gains, Jack Gill, Jason Gray, Oliver Kelly, Mike Massa, Heidi Pascoe, Ben Scott, Matt Taylor and Mark Wagner).
Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture: Inception (The long list of this Warner Bros.’ release includes Danny Le Boyer, Andy Bradshaw, Richard L. Bucher, Allison Caetano, Bruce Cain, Tom Cohan, Eliza Coleman, George Cottie, Steve DeCastro, Jake Dewitt, Wade Eastwood, Rick English, Roel Filma, Mark Fichera, Marie Fink, Steve Griffin, Bobby Hanlon, Adam Hart, Logan Holladay, Sy Hollands, Gary Hoptrough, Jason Hunjan, Stephen Izzi, Terry Jackson, Ruth Jenkins, Luke Kearney, Jess King, Nito Larioza, Maurice Lee, Terry J. Leonard, James Lew, Michael Li, Diana R. Lupo, Rick Miller, Steve Oeding, Monte Perlin, Norbert Phillips, Andy Pilgrim, Mark Rayner, Rex J. Reddick, Simon Rhee, Tracey Rugglero, Brandon Sebek, Diz Sharpe, Gunther Simon, Paul Sklar, Marvin Stewart-Campbell, John Street, Tom Struthers, Melissa R. Stubbs, Mens-Sana Tamakloe, Philip Tan, Marlow Warrington–Mattei, Chrissy Weathersby, Jim Wilkey, Brent Woolsey, Harry Wowchuk, Richard Wu and Ryan Young).
The SAG Awards are yet another awards show honoring the year’s best and brightest (aka those in the right cliques). The awards season is upon us, and it has its favorites. The SAG Awards have only been around since 1995, but according to the Guild they’re now the “industry’s most prized honor.” It, unlike most other awards ceremonies this season, honors only performers in film and TV. So you won’t see a category for Best Director (leave that to the DGA), or Best Screenplay. The Screen Actors Guild is actually a labor union, one of the biggest in the nation, and it is the only awards show on network TV to “acknowledge the work of union members.” Actors in the union do the voting and the nominating, so it’s literally the celebs honoring the celebs at this one. At least they look good while doing all that back-slapping.
