Oscar Road, Part 3: The SAGs

SAG or Screen Actors Guild is a union representing over a 120,000 actors and performers in Television and Film industries working in the United States. It was found in 1933 to protect the rights of actors and prevent their exploitation in the hands of Studios who at that time were forcing them to sign inflexible multi year contracts. The Screen Actors Guild has specific rules for joining and working as a member for the actors and the Studios employing them.

The SAG along with the other guild particularly the Writer's guild was plagued by the Blacklisting that happened during the HUAC era. From time to time they have had strikes when the studios and other Industry members have denied the actors their rights or dues. It is anticipated that they are going to strike sometime in 2009 on similar grounds as the WGA strike to tackle the system of royalties for sale of films and shows over new media.

The Screen Actors Guild have given away the Screen Actors Guild Awards since 1995 to recognise the best among their peers every year. This award like the other guild awards is said to be a fairly good indicator for the upcoming Oscars.

The Screen Actor Guild Awards are given in the following categories

Film awards

• Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
• Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
• Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
• Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
• Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Television awards

• Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
• Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
• Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
• Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
• Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
• Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
• Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
• Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series

This year's complete list of SAGs nominations and winners can be found here.

For our countdown to the oscars these awards are quite significant as the nominations for the Best Actor and Best Actress and The Best Actor and Actress in a supporting role are very identical to what the oscars have with 17 of the 20 nominations being the same. The only two changes being in the Supporting Role categories with Michael Shannon from Revolutionary Road instead of SAG's Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire. The other change being Marisa Tomei from the Wrestler in lieu of the eventual SAG winner Kate Winslet for the Reader. It is interesting to note that Kate Winslet has got a lead actress nomination in the Academy Awards for the same role. Here at the SAG's Kate Winslet was nominated for the Revolutionary Road instead.

With that being said and nominations being almost same and along their history of being a precursor the Oscars the Screen Actors Guild awards are of quite some importance. Heath Ledger as expected was given the Best Supporting Actor nomination. Just a routine stop in this years obvious sweep of awards for Ledger. As mentioned earlier Kate Winslet won the Supporting actress award leaving the field wide open for the other nominees to fight it out at the Oscars.

Now the big ones. The best actress award went to Meryl Streep, beating out Angelina Jolie, Kate Winslet, Melissa Leo and Anne Hathaway. Meryl Streep is already the highest nominated actress in the history of oscars (15 including this year) with only 2 wins. The last time she won was in 1983 for Sophie's Choice .

The best Actor award went to Sean Penn for his portrayal of Harvey Milk,the first openly gay person to be elected for an office in the US. Sean Penn has been an darling for the oscar voters being nominated for the fifth time now for the best actor in a leading role and having won it in 2002 for Mystic River. He beat out Brad Pitt, Frank Langella, Richard Jenkins and Mickey Rourke for the award.

In the Television department 30 Rock's Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey walked away with best actor and best actress award in a comedy series.Thats no surprise as 30 Rock has been the darling of all award panels since it started airing in 2006 and for the the quality of stuff they put out they deserve it. It also won the best ensemble award. This is an echo for what happened in the Golden Globes a few days back. However I would have preferred Entourage for the ensemble award.

For the Drama series, Hugh Laurie and Sally Field won the leading role awards for the House M.D and Brothers and Sisters respectively. Mad Men, the brilliant period drama capturing the troubled lives of New York ad agency executives in the 60's won the ensemble award. And finally John Adams, a mini series revolving around the lives of the founding fathers won the awards for Best TV movie/mini series as it did at the Golden Globes and the Emmy's.