Film News: Screen Actors’ Guild Nominations Contain a Few Surprises

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CHICAGO – The announcements keep coming for award season winners and nominees. Today, we have the list of nominees for this year’s Screen Actors’ Guild awards. The awards celebrate the best male and female performances in film and television, leaving out awards like Best Picture or Best Director. “The Help” leads this year’s films with four different nominations.

The nominees for the top prize of the night, Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, are the casts of “The Artist,” “Bridesmaids,” “The Descendants,” “The Help,” and “Midnight in Paris.” Curious not to see “Moneyball” or “My Week with Marilyn” on this list as both films have two individual nominations for top acting awards (Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill for “Moneyball” and Michelle Williams and Kenneth Brangah for “Marilyn”).

The list of curious nominees and snubs doesn’t end there. Demian Bichir has been nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for his work in “A Better Life.” While the other nominees (Clooney, DiCaprio, Dujardin, and Pitt) have been common in most awards so far this year, Bichir has been seen a rare number of times compared to Michael Fassbender for “Shame” and Michael Shannon for “Take Shelter” (a role Shannon just won Best Actor for yesterday from the Toronto Film Critics).

The snub list doesn’t end there. Albert Brooks has won several supporting actor awards early in this award season for his role in “Drive,” yet he was not even nominated by the SAG. Another name that has showed up as a runner-up several times and a nominee a few more is Patton Oswalt for “Young Adult.” He is also missing from this list. Instead a few names we have not seen often, or at all, like Jonah Hill (“Moneyball”) and Nick Nolte (“Warrior”) made the SAG cut.

On the TV side of things, Comedy Ensemble nominees went to “30 Rock,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Glee,” “Modern Family,” and “The Office,” while Drama Ensemble nominees consisted of “Boardwalk Empire,” “Breaking Bad,” “Dexter,” “Game of Thrones,” and “The Good Wife.”

You can view a full list of this year’s SAG nominees below, and don’t forget to tune in Sunday January 29 on TNT or TBS to see the 2011 Screen Actors’ Guild Awards.

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

“The Artist”
“Bridesmaids”
“The Descendants”
“The Help”
“Midnight in Paris”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

Demián Bichir, “A Better Life”
George Clooney, “The Descendants”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “J. Edgar”
Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”
Brad Pitt, “Moneyball”

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Glenn Close, “Albert Nobbs”
Viola Davis, “The Help”
Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”
Tilda Swinton, “We Need To Talk About Kevin”
Michelle Williams, “My Week With Marilyn”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Kenneth Brangah, “My Week with Marilyn”
Armie Hammer, “J. Edgar”
Jonah Hill, “Moneyball”
Nick Nolte, “Warrior”
Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

Bérénice Bejo, “The Artist”
Jassica Chastain “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer, “Albert Nobbs”
Octavia Spencer, “The Help”

Female Actor - Movie or Miniseries

Diane Lane, “Cinema Verite”
Maggie Smith, “Downton Abbey”
Emily Watson, “Appropriate Adult”
Betty White, “The Lost Valentine”
Kate Winslet, “Mildred Pierce”

Male Actor - Movie or Miniseries

Laurence Fishburne, “Thurgood”
Paul Giamatti, “Too Big To Fail”
Greg Kinnear, “The Kennedys”
Guy Pearce, “Mildred Pierce”
James Woods, “Too Big to Fail”

Female Actor - Comedy Series

Julie Bowen, “Modern Family”
Edie Falco, “Nurse Jackie”
Tina Fey, “30 Rock”
Sofia Vergara, “Modern Family”
Betty White, “Hot in Cleveland”

Male Actor - Comedy Series

Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock”
Ty Burrell, “Modern Family”
Steve Carell, “The Office”
Jon Cryer, “Two and a Half Men”
Eric Stonestreet, “Modern Family”

Ensemble - Comedy Series

“30 Rock”
“The Big Bang Theory”
“Glee”
“Modern Family”
“The Office”

Female Actor - Drama Series

Kathy Bates, “Harry’s Law”
Glenn Close, “Damages”
Jessa Lange, “American Horror Story”
Julianna Margulies, “The Good Wife”
Kyra Sedgwick, “The Closer”

Male Actor - Drama Series

Patrick James Adams, “Suits”
Steve Buscemi, “Boardwalk Empire”
Kyle Chandler, “Friday Night Lights”
Bryan Cranston, “Breaking Bad”
Michael C. Hall, “Dexter”

Ensemble - Drama Series

“Boardwalk Empire”
“Breaking Bad”
“Dexter”
“Game of Thrones”
“The Good Wife”
Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

“The Adjustment Bureau”
“Cowboys & Aliens”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 2”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“X-Men: First Class”

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series

“Dexter”
“Game of Thrones”
“Southland”
“Spartacus: Gods of the Arena”
“True Blood”

By TIM MARTENS Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com tim@hollywoodchicago.com