Actors and directors nominate the best of the year in filmIt's a busy time in the Oscar watch countdown, with enough nominations being announced to satisfy the most hardcore awards junkie (I may be in the running for that particular award). Earlier this week, the Writers Guild and Producers Guild announced their film nominations for 2005. Today, the Screen Actors Guild and Directors Guild declared their contenders.
Unlike the Golden Globes, which also have a reputation for foreshadowing Oscar success, many of the voters for the various guild awards also hold membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who determine the Academy Awards. In other words, some of the same people who vote for these "other" Hollywood awards will also be voting for the Oscars. In even more words, that means they are often – but not always – good predictors of Oscar glory.
This year, the actors and directors largely agree with their cousins the writers and producers – Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, and Good Night, and Good Luck are still leading the pack, but there's slightly more hope for Munich today, with Steven Spielberg nominated for the Directors Guild award.
Screen Actors Guild awards
The SAG awards focus on the onscreen talent, of course, which gives them the most public cache of these guild awards in our celebrity culture. Announced Thursday, nominations are for individual achievement as well as for ensembles, with that award going to the whole cast of a movie - the rough equivalent of best picture. The winners are named Jan. 29 in a ceremony televised on TNT and TBS.
Visit the Screen Actors Guild Awards website for all the details, including the television nominees - Felicity Huffman repeats her Golden Globe dual nominations with two SAG nods, too, one for the film Transamerica, one for her role in Desperate Housewives.
Lead actor:
- Russell Crowe, Cinderella Man
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
- Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
- Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line
- David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck
- Judi Dench, Mrs. Henderson Presents
- Felicity Huffman, Transamerica
- Charlize Theron, North Country
- Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line
- Ziyi Zhang, Memoirs of a Geisha
- Don Cheadle, Crash
- George Clooney, Syriana
- Matt Dillon, Crash
- Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man
- Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain
- Amy Adams, Junebug
- Catherine Keener, Capote
- Frances McDormand, North Country
- Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener
- Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain
- Brokeback Mountain
- Capote
- Crash
- Good Night, and Good Luck
- Hustle & Flow
Directors Guild of America awards
I feel like there's something missing with the Directors Guild nods. On Thursday, they named their nominees for outstanding directorial achievement in feature film. Five nominees, one award to be handed out Jan. 28, along with the lifetime achievement award, previously announced, for Clint Eastwood. One award? Did they not get the memo about Hollywood excess? Anyway, according to their website, "only six times since the DGA Awards began in 1949 has the Feature Film winner not gone on to win the Oscar."
See the DGA website for more information.
- George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck
- Paul Haggis, Crash
- Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
- Bennett Miller, Capote
- Steven Spielberg, Munich
For even more to satisfy your awards show cravings, check out the LA Times Oscar Beat.
(Cross posted to Blogcritics)
