This year’s Oscars best picture race is, for the first time in years, wide open.
Will the newly ascendant front-runner “Anora,” Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner about a stripper who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch, take the statuette? Will Brady Corbet’s epic “The Brutalist” find its way to the top? And what about the wild card, the papal thriller “Conclave,” which recently took top honors at the EE British Academy Film Awards, or BAFTAs — Britain’s version of the Oscars?
With the days ticking down until the March 2 Academy Awards ceremony, the Screen Actors Guild Awards could offer some clarity. In four of the past five years, the SAGs have given their top honor — best ensemble — to the eventual Oscar winner.
The 15 awards, which are voted on by actors and other performers who belong to the SAG-AFTRA union, honor the best film and television performances from the past year. The movie musical “Wicked” and the FX series “Shogun” are the leading nominees.
Here’s how to watch, and what to watch for.
What time does the show start, and where can I watch?
The two-hour ceremony begins at 8 p.m. Eastern time (5 p.m. Pacific time) at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, a historic venue that has also hosted the Oscars. For the second year, the awards show will stream live and exclusively on Netflix; there is no way to watch without a subscription.
Is there a red carpet?
The red carpet preshow will stream live on Netflix beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern time (4 p.m. Pacific time). The YouTube star Lilly Singh and the actress and former “Saturday Night Live” comedian Sasheer Zamata will host the event, which will include interviews with nominees and the announcement of the winners in the best stunt ensemble categories.
Who is hosting?
Kristen Bell, who recently starred in the Netflix rom-com “Nobody Wants This,” will steer the ship. This will be her second time hosting; the first was in 2018.
Who is presenting?
The stars set to take the stage on Sunday night include Pamela Anderson, Quinta Brunson, Timothée Chalamet, Jamie Lee Curtis, Colman Domingo, Cynthia Erivo, Ralph Fiennes, Harrison Ford, Lily Gladstone, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Zoe Saldaña and Michelle Yeoh.
Who votes on the awards?
Any paid-up member of SAG-AFTRA is eligible to cast a ballot. This year, according to the organization, that’s more than 122,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voice-over artists and others.
How much overlap is there between SAG and Oscar winners?
Since actors make up the largest branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, people looking for a preview of the Oscars tend to watch the SAG film categories closely. In 2024, three of the four individual SAG winners went on to repeat at the Oscars, while the SAG ensemble winner, the Christopher Nolan epic “Oppenheimer,” also took the Oscars’ best picture prize.
Who is nominated?
“Wicked,” which leads all films with five nominations, will go up against the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” (four), ““Emilia Pérez” (three), “Anora” (three) and “Conclave” (two) for the guild’s top prize, best ensemble.
In the best actor race, Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”), Timothée Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), Daniel Craig (“Queer), Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”) and Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) will square off, while Pamela Anderson (“The Last Showgirl”), Cynthia Erivo (“Wicked”), Karla Sofía Gascón (“Emilia Pérez”), Mikey Madison (“Anora”) and Demi Moore (“The Substance”) will duke it out for best actress.
On the TV side, “Shogun” is looking to continue its Emmys and Golden Globe dominance with five nominations, followed by Season 3 of FX’s restaurant dramedy “The Bear” (four) and Netflix’s political thriller “The Diplomat” (three).
What award is Jane Fonda receiving?
Fonda, the 87-year-old actress who has won two best actress Oscars (for “Klute” in 1972 and “Coming Home” in 1978) and one Emmy (in 1985 for the TV movie “The Dollmaker”) in a career spanning more than six decades, will receive the lifetime achievement award. (Previous winners include Frank Sinatra, Sidney Poitier, Carol Burnett and Barbra Streisand.)
What should you watch for?
On the film side, all eyes will be on the best actress race: Demi Moore, who plays an aging actress obsessed with regaining her youth in the body horror film “The Substance,” will go up against the 25-year-old Mikey Madison, the breakout star of “Anora.” Can Moore maintain her momentum from the Golden Globes, where she delivered a viral acceptance speech asserting that she had spent her entire career being dismissed as a “popcorn actress”?
The supporting actress race also holds considerable intrigue, with Zoe Saldaña, who plays a savvy lawyer in “Emilia Pérez,” having won every major Oscars precursor over Ariana Grande, who plays the bubbly witch Glinda in “Wicked.” But “Wicked” made a strong showing at the SAGs, leading all films in nominations, and the controversy around the old tweets of Saldaña’s co-star, Gascón, continues to dog the candidacies of both Saldaña and the film’s director, Jacques Audiard.
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