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The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards were announced on January 25th, and there were few real surprises in the proceedings, as Danny Boyle's critical darling Slumdog Millionaire took the award for Best Ensemble, and people like the late Heath Ledger and Kate Winslet were awarded for their work in 2008. The only shock was minimal, when acting legend Meryl Streep won the Best Actress award for Doubt. Sorry, Mamma Mia! fans.

Though a few new categories, such as Best Stunt Ensemble, have been added to the SAGs, and television dramas and comedies are honored along with films, there are really only five important categories for those film lovers curious about the connections between the SAGs and Oscars. Those categories are Best Actor and Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, and Best Ensemble, the SAG version of Best Picture.

What's worth noting about the SAGs is how frequently they will honor the commercial success along with the critical success. Only a few years ago, Johnny Depp won the Best Actor award for his portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Remember when that series wasn't overlong and ridiculous? Ah, the good days.

Of the major categories, the SAGs have come close, but never been perfectly matched with the winners at the Academy Awards in the past ten years. Some major misses were their 2006 Best Ensemble winner, Little Miss Sunshine; 2007's Best Supporting Actress winner, Ruby Dee for American Gangster; 2006's Best Supporting Actor winner, Paul Giamatti for Cinderella Man; and the 2005 Best Ensemble winner, Sideways. Poor Paul Giamatti...the Oscars will not give him an even break! Seriously, the point here is that it's more likely than not that the Oscars and SAGs will not see eye to eye with their eventual winners. Lucky for Giamatti that John Adams was never a movie, because you know he'd lose at the Oscars for that.

This year's Best Ensemble SAG Award has been given to, no surprise, Slumdog Millionaire. Despite not being shown any love in the separate acting categories, the SAG has fallen for this film, just like the Golden Globes and the Producer's Guild. At this point, it's highly unlikely (but not impossible) for this underdog to be stopped. In that case, doesn't that make this movie not an underdog anymore? I'm confused! The SAGs have predicted only six of ten Oscar winners for Best Picture in previous years, handing out awards to Gosford Park in early 2002 instead of the Oscar winner, A Beautiful Mind, and Traffic the year before instead of Gladiator. Still, it's worth noting that they picked Crash instead of Brokeback Mountain for Best Ensemble, and it's a rare occasion when the surprise pick worked out at the Oscars, too.

This year's Best Actor SAG Award went to Sean Penn as Harvey Milk in the Gus Van Sant biopic Milk. Though Mickey Rourke, in The Wrestler, is still the sentimental comeback choice, Penn is and has been the biggest competition, as they both appear to be leaving Frank Langella in the dust, despite his captivating performance as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon. Penn may very well be looking at a new Oscar in a few weeks' time. In this category, however, the SAGs have only gotten it right seven of ten times (seven of ten is the best the SAGs are at predicting the Oscars, actually; the actors have got to step it up!). Another miss between the SAGs and Oscars is with Benicio Del Toro, who won as lead in Traffic at the SAGs, but won Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars. That, of course, is rare and won't be repeated this year.

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