Wicked leads acting awards race but Jolie snubbed

Jonathan Bailey, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande hugging and smiling — Wicked scored five nominations including nods for Jonathan Bailey, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande

Wicked leads the nominations for this year’s Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, while Pamela Anderson scored a surprise nod but Angelina Jolie missed out.

The origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West has five nominations in total, including individual nods for Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey.

Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown scored four nominations, including one for its lead actor Timothée Chalamet.

There were three nominations each for Anora, which follows a New York stripper’s whirlwind romance with the son of a wealthy Russian, and Emilia Pérez, a musical about a drug lord who changes gender.

The film nominees

The SAG Awards are often a strong indicator of who will score a nomination at the Oscars.

Meanwhile, Shogun, which was heavily rewarded at the recent Golden Globe and Emmy Awards, scored the most TV nominations with five, while The Bear has four.

The winners are voted for by the Sag-Aftra union’s membership of around 130,000 actors worldwide.

Snubs and surprises

Actress Pamela Anderson attends the 'The Last Showgirl' photocall during the 72nd San Sebastian International Film Festival at the Kursaal Palace on at Kursaal, San Sebastian on September 27, 2024 in San Sebastian, Spain — Pamela Anderson is in the running for the best actress award for her role in The Last Showgirl

The best actress field is extremely crowded again this year, which means several names hotly tipped for an Oscar nomination next week have missed out at SAG.

Angelina Jolie missed the category for her performance as opera singer Maria Callas, just a week after she also failed to make the Bafta longlist. That suggests a significant loss of momentum and makes her vulnerable at the Oscars.

Also missing at SAG were Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths) and recent Golden Globe winner Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here).

Several other favourites in the category did score a nomination, but the big surprise was former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson getting in for The Last Showgirl.

The film sees her give a vulnerable and powerful performance as an ageing Las Vegas dancer who struggles to find work when her show abruptly closes. It is a solid film, but Anderson was not the strongest contender in the category despite also having scored a Golden Globe nomination.

Danielle Deadwyler in The Piano Lesson — Danielle Deadwyler’s nomination for The Piano Lesson gives her Oscars campaign a much-needed boost

There were plenty of surprises in supporting actress category too, with Jamie Lee Curtis also getting in for The Last Showgirl, and Danielle Deadwyler included for The Piano Lesson, a performance that needed a boost of momentum to stay in the awards race.

There was no room, however, for Isabella Rossellini (Conclave) or Margaret Qualley (The Substance), two strong contenders at the Oscars who were nominated at the Globes.

The biggest shock in the supporting actor category was the absence of Denzel Washington for Gladiator II, but other favourites such as Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) and Yura Borisov (Anora) were nominated as expected.

Perhaps the biggest loser overall at SAG was The Brutalist, with Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce, both very likely to get Oscar nominations, missing out in the supporting categories.

But in contrast to the snubs and surprises, the leading actor category went off as expected – with all five of the predicted Oscar nominees getting in at SAG, with a possible upset from Golden Globe winner Sebastian Stan failing to materialise.