In Contention: The Screen Actors Guild Awards

By Josh Spiegel

January 27, 2009

You have acted in exactly one less movie than either of them.

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The Best Actress SAG winner is Meryl Streep, thankfully not for the execrable Mamma Mia!, but for her role as Sister Aloysius in Doubt. Though it may come as a surprise to some, as it leaves another double win for Kate Winslet in the dust along with another award for Anne Hathaway, Streep's status as the most prolific American actress of our time along with the Oscar snub of Winslet in Revolutionary Road lends this award some sense. Streep may still lose to Winslet for another film come February, but her chances have increased a lot here. As with Best Actor, though, the SAGs are only good for seven of ten Oscar winners, having missed out last year, when the Oscar went to Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose and the SAG Award went to Julie Christie for Away From Her. Another miss was when Renee Zellweger won for Chicago at the SAGs and Nicole Kidman (remember when these two women made successful films?) won for The Hours at the Oscars.




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The Best Supporting Actor SAG winner is...you're not holding your breath for Robert Downey Jr., are you? I hope not, because this year's winner is, of course, Heath Ledger for his performance in The Dark Knight. Whatever major snubs The Dark Knight had at the Oscars, this one is about as close as there is to a sure thing. Ledger not only deserves it, but the universal success and praise of the film are doing plenty of favors for the role. Still, the SAGs are, it turns out, pretty bad at picking the Oscar winners here, getting only four of ten correct. They missed out with Giamatti with Cinderella Man. Most recently, the SAG Award went to Eddie Murphy for Dreamgirls, while the Oscar went to Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine. Anne Hathaway, this year, will hopefully not learn Murphy's lesson: don't make movies like Norbit or Bride Wars, or no award for you!

The Best Supporting Actress SAG winner is Kate Winslet for her role as an ex-Nazi in The Reader, which has also slipped into the Oscar race. The Academy really does seem to love Harvey Weinstein movies, and movies about Nazis. Weird list of likes, but there you go. It's just about pointless to talk about Winslet's chances of winning for this role, because she's not been nominated for Supporting Actress at the Oscars, but as lead. Though there won't be an exact repeat of Del Toro's separate-category win in early 2001, Winslet has the best chance of doing so this year, not just because of the Academy's nominating her for this role as a lead, but the amount of momentum pushing her to victory. Personally, I'm glad, though it would be nice to see her nominated for Revolutionary Road instead of The Reader at the Oscars.


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