Another weekend in January, another awards ceremony in Hollywood. This morning (our time) was the turn of the Screen Actor's Guild to honour their best and brightest. We can't say that there were many surprises. In fact, in the big categories, there were precisely none. Nada. Zip. Bubkis. Bugger all, etc.
Just to recap: these awards are important because the voting contingent makes up the majority of the voting contingent for the acting categories at the Oscars. And given that the list of nominees for both organisations is almost identical, this is the form to study if you are of the betting persuasion.
And the winners are:
ACTOR
WINNER: Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland
Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling - Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole - Venus
Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness
ACTRESS
WINNER: Helen Mirren - The Queen
Penelope Cruz - Volver
Judi Dench - Notes on a Scandal
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet - Little Children
SUPPORTING ACTOR
WINNER: Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Departed
Jackie Earle Haley - Little Children
Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
WINNER: Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Adriana Barraza - Babel
Cate Blanchett - Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine
Rinko Kikuchi – Babel
ENSEMBLE CAST
WINNER: Little Miss Sunshine (Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Greg Kinnear)
Babel
Bobby
The Departed
Dreamgirls