SAG Proves Slumdog Millionaire is the One to Beat

Posted by Michael Dance

The Screen Actors Guild awards were held last night, and in general there were very few surprises -- 30 Rock took a lot of TV awards, and Kate Winslet and Heath Ledger won the Supporting Actor categories.

Meryl Streep took Best Actress. As Streep, Hathaway, and Winslet seem to be splitting that award, but Winslet keeps winning for The Reader -- I'm guessing she'll be the one to take the Oscar home.

Sean Penn took Best Actor, a good reminder that it's still a two-way race with Mickey Rourke. In fact, Penn might have the upper hand -- it reminds me of his race with Bill Murray for Lost in Translation a few years back. Everybody was pulling for Murray to win because he was the outsider to the race, but Penn won because he was a known quantity.

The big story, though, was that Slumdog Millionaire won Best Ensemble. Despite being nominated for no other acting categories except Dev Patel in Supporting Actor, and a cast that mostly consisted of India natives. In other words, it's not a big movie for actors, and it's not a movie for Hollywood actors at all -- and yet they all voted for it anyway.

Slumdog has been the frontrunner for a while, but the SAGs really prove how strong it is. Of the top awards, the Oscars are looking to go like this:

Picture: Slumdog
Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog
Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Actor: Sean Penn, Milk
Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog

Still up in the air are Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay. Kate Winslet's absence from the Supporting category leaves it without a frontrunner; I'll say Penelope Cruz at the moment. As for Original Screenplay, Milk is the only Best Picture nominee among them, which I guess makes it the automatic frontrunner. There's room in both categories for a good surprise, though.

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SAG Proves Slumdog Millionaire is the One to Beat

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