‘A Star is Born’ SAG Awards noms
Snubs and surprises abound
NEW YORK, Dec 13, (AP): “A Star Is Born” led nominations for the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards with four nods including best ensemble on Wednesday, firmly establishing Bradley Cooper’s romantic revival as this year’s Academy Awards front runner.
In nominations announced in West Hollywood, Calif, the actors guild – one of the most predictive bellwethers of the Oscars – threw cold water on the awards campaigns of numerous contenders while elevating others. But “A Star Is Born” fared the best of all, landing nominations for Cooper (best male actor), Lady Gaga (best female actor) and Sam Elliott (best supporting male actor).
The other nominees for the group’s top award, best ensemble, were: “Black Panther”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “BlacKkKlansman” and “Crazy Rich Asians”.
That category is the most closely watched because only once in the last two decades has the eventual Oscars best picture winner not been nominated for best ensemble at the SAG Awards. The one aberration, though, was last year, when Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” overcame the SAG omission on its way to winning best picture.
Unless a new trend is forming, that’s bad news for Oscar hopefuls like “Vice”, Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney biopic (which led last week’s Golden Globe nominations); Alfonso Cuaron’s
release his latest film “Pain & Glory” in Spain via Sony Pictures Releasing International on March 22, 2019.
“We are delighted and excited that we Netflix drama “Roma” (the overwhelming choice of critics groups); and the 1962 road trip “Green Book”.
“Vice” still scored SAG nods for Christian Bale and Amy Adams, just as “Green Book” won nominations for Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali.
But “Roma” was shut out entirely, as was Damien Chazelle’s Neil Armstrong drama “First Man” and Barry Jenkins’ Harlem love story “If Beale Street Could Talk”. Most expected Regina King of “Beale Street” to be among the supporting female actor nominees.
Boost
Instead, Wednesday’s nominations gave an unlikely boost to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the Freddie Mercury biopic that has been a hit with audiences but was slammed by critics. Despite being widely viewed as a riveting oneman show by Rami Malek as Mercury, the film ended up nominated for its ensemble cast. Malek was also nominated for best actor.
The screen actors appeared to favor big ticket sellers over smaller independent ensembles.
Ryan Coogler’s comic-book sensation “Black Panther” also landed a nomination for its stunt ensemble team. Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” scored nods for both John David Washington and Adam Driver. “Crazy Rich Asians” co-star Awkwafina, a presenter Wednesday morning, has the unusual pleasure of announcing the hit
are releasing “Pain & Glory” in Spain with a whole new team: Sony Pictures in Spain,” said his producing partner and brother Agustin Almodovar of El Deseo. romantic comedy’s ensemble nomination. “It was all me,” she joked.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ period romp “The Favourite” failed to crack best ensemble, but its three leads – Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone – were all nominated, as expected. Stone added a second nod for her performance in the Netflix miniseries “Maniac”.
Emily Blunt also scored two nominations herself: one for her lead performance in “Mary Poppins Returns” and one for her supporting role in “A Quiet Place”. The other best female performance nominees alongside Blunt, Lady Gaga and Colman were Glenn Close (“The Wife”) and Melissa McCarthy (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”)
Blunt’s nomination for “A Quiet Place” was among the nominations’ many surprises, as was Margot Robbie’s supporting turn as Queen Elizabeth in “Mary Queen of Scots”.
Timothee Chalamet (“Call Me By Your Name”) scored his second straight SAG nomination for his supporting performance in the addiction drama “Beautiful Boy”. Rounding out the category alongside Ali, Driver and Elliott was Richard E. Grant for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
In television categories, “The Marvelous Mrs Maisel” and “Ozark” led with four nominations each. “Barry”, “GLOW”, “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Kominsky Method” trailed close behind with three nominations each.
“After more than 25 years working together in the US under Sony Pictures Classics, both Pedro and myself consider Sony as part of our family; this decision reinforces the bonds we have been developing with Sony for a long time and this can’t be better news for all of us,” he added. (RTRS)
LOS ANGELES:
Christophe Honore’s drama “Sorry Angel”, which world premiered in competition at Cannes Film Festival, won France’s prestigious Louis Delluc Prize.
Kicking off France’s award season, the Louis Delluc prize is chosen by French critics and has been described as the film equivalent to the Goncourt prize for literature.
“Sorry Angel” stars French actors Pierre Deladonchamps as a 30-something jaded, HIV-positive novelist who comes across an enthusiastic aspiring writer, Arthur (Vincent Lacoste) in his early 20s. “Sorry Angel” marks the director’s comeback to Cannes’s competition 11 years after “Love Songs”.
The film beat out Jacques Audiard’s “The Sisters Brothers”, Emmanuel Mouret’s “Mademoiselle de Joncquieres”, Gilles Lellouche’s “Le Grand Bain”, Claire Denis’ “High Life”, Pierre Salvadori’s “En liberte!”, Cedric Kahn’s “La Priere”, Jean-Paul Civeyrac’s “Mes provinciales” and Emmanuel Finkiel’s “Memoir of War” which represents France is the foreign-language Oscar race. (RTRS)