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

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.

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