The Screen Actors Guild has given its opinions on the best TV and movie performances of the year, opinions probably delivered through an assistant while the Actors waited in their trailers. Birdman, a story about an actor, led SAG’s film list with four nominations, followed closely by Boyhood, also a favorite of the New York and Los Angeles critics’ associations, with three. In TV, House Of Cards led the drama category with three nominations, while comedy frontrunner Modern Family received four.
This year’s Best Actor nominations were unsurprising in both the film and TV categories, with SAG continuing to show a bias towards actors who play real people (Steve Carell, Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne) or undergo physical transformations (Jake Gyllenhaal) in the film category. (The fifth nominee, Michael Keaton, played an actor, so there you go.) In TV, SAG rectified the AFI’s snub of True Detective by nominating both Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in the Drama category. Overall, Benedict Cumberbatch scored the most nominations, receiving accolades for his roles in Sherlock: His Last Vow and The Imitation Game, an ensemble nod for The Imitation Game, and presumably a special citation for being the world’s sexiest angry frog.
The actress categories contained more surprises, like a first-time nomination for Jennifer Aniston for her role as a woman suffering from chronic pain in Cake and the naming of six Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series nominees because you know what, TV is pretty great. (Fans upset over SAG’s failure to honor Tatiana Maslany last year will be happy to learn she was nominated for Orphan Black, along with a long-awaited lead actress nod to Viola Davis for How To Get Away with Murder.) Curiously, Transparent, which dominated the Writers Guild’s TV categories, failed to receive a single nomination.
The SAG awards are scheduled for Sunday, January 25 and will air live on TNT and TBS for us ugly people to watch from a safe distance. A partial list of nominees is below, with a full list available on the SAG Awards website.
MOVIES
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory Of Everything
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Jennifer Aniston, Cake
Felicity Jones, The Theory Of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
The Theory Of Everything
TELEVISION
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Peter Dinklage, Game Of Thrones
Woody Harrelson, True Detective
Matthew McConaughey, True Detective
Kevin Spacey, House Of Cards
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
Claire Danes, Homeland
Viola Davis, How To Get Away With Murder
Juliana Margulies, The Good Wife
Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Robin Wright, House Of Cards
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Ty Burrell, Modern Family
Louis C.K., Louie
William H. Macy, Shameless
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Uzo Aduba, Orange Is The New Black
Julie Bowen, Modern Family
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Amy Poehler, Parks And Recreation
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
Boardwalk Empire
Downton Abbey
Game Of Thrones
Homeland
House Of Cards
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
The Big Bang Theory
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Modern Family
Orange Is The New Black
Veep