SAG Awards: ‘Barbie,’ ‘Oppenheimer’ nominated

NEW YORK –

The 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards on Wednesday heaped nominations on “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie” and “American Fiction,” while snubbing Leonardo DiCaprio for best male actor.

Just as they were at the Golden Globes, Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” were again the lead nominees. Each film picked up four nods including best ensemble. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling were nominated for their performances in “Barbie,” while Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt received nods for “Oppenheimer.”

Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” got the biggest momentum boost, landing three nods: best ensemble, Jeffrey Wright for best male actor and Sterling K. Brown for supporting male actor.

Along with those three films, Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Blitz Bazawule’s “The Color Purple” was nominated for best ensemble, the guild’s top award.

Most notably left out of that group was Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” which on Sunday won best comedy/musical at the Golden Globes. The film’s star, Emma Stone, was nominated for best actress while Willem Dafoe (but not Mark Ruffalo) was nominated for best supporting male actor.

But those were far from the only snubs. Nominated for best actor were Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”), Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) and Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”). DiCaprio had long been seen as a presumed nominee for his performance in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Lily Gladstone was among the best actress nominees.

Todd Hayne’s “May December” was completely shut out. Charles Melton was expected to be among the supporting male actors. And neither Sandra Huller (“Anatomy of a Fall”) or Fantasia Barrino (“The Color Purple”) scored individual nominations.

The nominations were announced Wednesday by Issa Rae, who co-starred in both “Barbie” and “American Fiction,” and Kumail Nanjiani on Instagram Live.

This year’s SAG Awards follow a gruelling 118-day strike by the actors guild SAG-AFTRA that put Hollywood in a months-long battle over its future. Pay in the streaming era and artificial intelligence were top issues.

The SAG Awards are closely watched as an Oscar bellwether. Their picks don’t always align exactly with those of the film academy, but seldom is a best-picture or acting winner not nominated first by SAG. That means any best-picture hopes for films like “Poor Things” just took a hit.

The last two best-ensemble winners — “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “CODA” — went on to win best picture at the Oscars.

In the television categories, the trio that nearly swept the Golden Globes — “Succession,” “The Bear” and “Beef” — were again among the lead nominees. “Ted Lasso” and “Barry” also did well.

The SAG Awards will take place Feb. 24 at the Shine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles. Netflix will live stream the ceremony for the first time. Last year’s awards were streamed on Netflix’s YouTube account.

The show will mark one of Netflix’s most notable forays into live programming. The streamer, which has for years been an awards season force, will first to play host, too, in the runup to the Academy Awards in March.

Barbra Streisand will receive the SAG Life Achievement Award.