Vatican thriller “Conclave” won top prize at an unpredictable Screen Actors Guild Awards gala Sunday, throwing a potential late curveball into the Oscars race just a week before the Academy Awards.
Having also won big at Britain’s recent BAFTA awards, “Conclave” now appears a strong, late-breaking contender for the best picture Oscar, alongside critical darlings such as “Anora.”
In another upset, Timothee Chalamet won the SAG Award for best actor for his portrayal of a youthful Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.”
Adrien Brody has long been seen as the runaway favorite for this year's awards season with his performance as a brilliant architect, haunted by the Holocaust, in “The Brutalist.”But Chalamet's win suggests that the Oscars race could be closer than expected.
The SAG Awards are voted on by Hollywood actors, who represent the biggest branch of the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which votes for the Oscars.The prizes are therefore closely watched as indicators of who is likely to win Academy Awards.
More closely following pundit predictions Sunday, Demi Moore won the best actress SAG Award for her role in gory body horror “The Substance.”
Moore’s role as an aging celebrity who injects a serum to temporarily reclaim her younger body -- with disastrous consequences -- has marked a stunning career renaissance for the 1990s megastar.
Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldana won the best supporting actor and best supporting actress awards for “A Real Pain” and “Emilia Perez,” respectively, at the gala aired on Netflix.
Culkin plays an emotional and charismatic tourist retracing his ancestral roots in Poland with his mismatched, neurotic cousin (Jesse Eisenberg).
Saldana portrays a lawyer hired to help a Mexican cartel boss undergo gender reassignment surgery in the scandal-hit Netflix film “Emilia Perez.”
Both have won nearly every prize in their categories at multiple shows this year, and appear to be shoo-ins for the Oscars next Sunday.
In the television awards, Japanese period drama "Shogun" won best ensemble and best stunt ensemble, while its stars Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada won individual awards.
In comedy, Martin Short won for best actor for “Only Murders in the Building,” which also won the best ensemble prize, while Jean Smart won for "Hacks.”
Bd-pratidin English/ Afia
