2021 Screen Actors Guild Award winners (SAG): Netflix rules, people of color dominate film awards

Erik Anderson April 4, 2021

The 27th Screen Actors Guild Awards were held tonight where The Trial of the Chicago 7, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Minari and Judas and the Black Messiah took home top motion picture awards and The Crown, Schitt’s Creek and Ted Lasso found themselves the television winners.

The show began with a skit from the Ted Lasso cast about being SAG-nominated and then transitioned into a simple clip package of “And the nominees are…” Throughout the one-hour show, actors like Helen Mirren, Jimmy Fallon, Daveed Diggs, Josh Gad, Sterling K. Brown and more participated in a very different version of the “I’m an Actor” segments.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 won the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award, with Frank Langella speaking for the cast and commemorating the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was a double winner with the late Chadwick Boseman taking Male Actor in Leading Role (his first individual win) and Viola Davis taking Female Actor in a Leading Role. It was her second win in this category and sixth win overall. Davis’s win here creates a most interesting situation when it comes to the Oscars. As she is not BAFTA-nominated, we will have a different winner for all four precursors going into the Academy Awards. Davis also introduced the In Memoriam, which began with Cloris Leachman and ended with Boseman.

All four acting wins in motion picture went to people of color for the first time ever, with Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah) and Youn Yuh-jung (Minari) taking the supporting prizes. Youn is the first female winner at SAG for a non-English language performance.

The Crown took television prizes for its cast and for Gillian Anderson in Female Actor in a Drama Series, where she was nominated against two of her co-stars. Jason Bateman won Leading Actor, making the drama categories a clean sweep for Netflix. In comedy, Schitt’s Creek and Ted Lasso shared wins while The Queen’s Gambit and I Know This Much is True won awards for Anya Taylor-Joy and Mark Ruffalo.

The full list of actors set to present and/or participate were: Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal, Mogul Mowgli), Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us, Black Panther), Viola Davis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences), Daveed Diggs (Hamilton, Snowpiercer, Blindspotting), Ethan Hawke (The Good Lord Bird, The Northman), Dan Levy (Schitt’s Creek, Happiest Season), Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso, Saturday Night Live) and the ensemble from Ted Lasso; along with Lily Collins (Emily in Paris, MANK), Common (Selma, The Hate U Give), Ted Danson (Mr. Mayor, Curb Your Enthusiasm), Cynthia Erivo (Genius: Aretha, Harriet), Jimmy Fallon (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon), Josh Gad (Avenue 5, Central Park), Henry Golding (Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, Crazy Rich Asians), Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project, Late Night), Helen Mirren (The Queen, Prime Suspect), Rita Moreno (West Side Story, One Day at a Time), Daisy Ridley (Murder on the Orient Express, Star War: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker), and Mary Steenburgen (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Happiest Season).

Here is the complete list of nominees and winners.

MOTION PICTURE

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Da 5 Bloods
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Minari
One Night in Miami
The Trial of the Chicago 7 [WINNER]

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture

Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom [WINNER]
Anthony Hopkins – The Father
Gary Oldman – Mank
Steven Yeun – Minari

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture

Amy Adams – Hillbilly Elegy
Viola Davis – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom [WINNER]
Vanessa Kirby – Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand – Nomadland
Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Sacha Baron Cohen – The Trial of the Chicago 7
Chadwick Boseman – Da 5 Bloods
Daniel Kaluuya – Judas and the Black Messiah [WINNER]
Jared Leto – The Little Things
Leslie Odom Jr. – One Night in Miami

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Maria Bakalova – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Glenn Close – Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman – The Father
Youn Yuh-jung – Minari [WINNER]
Helena Zengel – News of the World

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

Da 5 Bloods
Mulan
News of the World
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Wonder Woman 1984 [WINNER]

TELEVISION

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series

Better Call Saul
Bridgerton
The Crown [WINNER]
Lovecraft Country
Ozark

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

Dead to Me
The Flight Attendant
The Great
Schitt’s Creek [WINNER]
Ted Lasso

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series

Jason Bateman – Ozark [WINNER]
Sterling K. Brown – This Is Us
Josh O’Connor – The Crown
Bob Odenkirk – Better Call Saul
Regé-Jean Page – Bridgerton

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series

Olivia Colman – The Crown
Gillian Anderson – The Crown [WINNER}
Emma Corrin – The Crown
Laura Linney – Ozark
Julia Garner – Ozark

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series

Nicholas Hoult – The Great
Daniel Levy – Schitt’s Creek
Eugene Levy – Schitt’s Creek
Jason Sudeikis – Ted Lasso [WINNER]
Ramy Youssef – Ramy

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series

Christina Applegate – Dead to Me
Linda Cardellini – Dead to Me
Kaley Cuoco – The Flight Attendant
Annie Murphy– Schitt’s Creek
Catherine O’Hara – Schitt’s Creek [WINNER]

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series

Bill Camp – The Queen’s Gambit
Daveed Diggs – Hamilton
Hugh Grant – The Undoing
Ethan Hawke – The Good Lord Bird
Mark Ruffalo – I Know This Much is True [WINNER]

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series

Cate Blanchett – Mrs. America
Michaela Coel – I May Destroy You
Nicole Kidman – The Undoing
Anya Taylor-Joy – The Queen’s Gambit [WINNER]
Kerry Washington – Little Fires Everywhere

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series

The Boys
Cobra Kai
Lovecraft Country
The Mandalorian [WINNER]
Westworld

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.