SAG Awards nominate ‘Barbie’, ‘Oppenheimer’, snub ‘Poor Things’

NEW YORK — At the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards on Wednesday, “Oppenheimer” snubbed Leonardo DiCaprio for best actor as nominations piled up for “Barbie” and “American Fiction.”

At the Golden Globes, Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” starred again. Each film received four nominations, including best ensemble. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling were nominated for their performances in “Barbie,” while Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt were nominated for their performances in “Oppenheimer.”

Barbenheimer continues to dominate Hollywood’s awards season as well as the summer box office.

Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” gained the most momentum with three nominations: best ensemble, Jeffrey Wright for best actor and Sterling K. Brown for supporting actor.

In addition to these three films, Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Blitz Bazawule’s “The Color Purple” were also nominated for best ensemble, the guild’s top award.

The most notable of those left out of this group was Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” which won best comedy/musical at the Golden Globes on Sunday. The film’s star, Emma Stone, was nominated for best actress, while Willem Dafoe (not Mark Ruffalo) was nominated for best supporting actor.

But those weren’t the snubs in the nominations, which were announced by Issa Rae, the leading lady of both “Barbie” and “American Fiction,” and Kumail Nanjiani on Instagram Live.

Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”), Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), Murphy and Wright were nominated for best actor. DiCaprio had long been considered a candidate for his performance in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Lily Gladstone, who is set to make history at the Oscars, is among the nominees for best actress, while Robert De Niro was also nominated for best supporting actor.

Todd Hayne’s “May December” and Celine Song’s tender love story “Past Lives” were left out entirely. Charles Melton, the leading actor of the movie “May December”, was also expected to be among the supporting actors. And neither Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”) nor Fantasia Barrino (“The Color Purple”) were nominated individually.

In addition to Gladstone and Stone, the best actress nominees were Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”) and Annette Bening (“Nyad”). Bening’s leading lady Jodie Foster joins a supporting actress category that also includes Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”), Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple”) and Penélope Cruz for “Ferrari.”

The SAG Awards are closely followed as the precursor to the Oscars. Their choices don’t always line up exactly with those of the film academy, but there’s rarely a best picture or acting winner who isn’t nominated by SAG for the first time. That means best picture hopes for movies like “Poor Things” have taken a big hit. Celine Song’s tender love story “Past Lives” also took a backseat.

The last two best ensemble winners — “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “CODA” — won best picture at the Oscars.

This year’s SAG Awards follow a grueling 118-day strike by the actors’ guild, SAG-AFTRA, that has left Hollywood in a months-long fight over its future. In the streaming age, payment and artificial intelligence were the hot topics.

In the television categories, the trio “Succession”, “The Bear” and “Beef”, which almost took the Golden Globe by storm, were again among the main candidates. “Succession” led the entire series with five nominations (though Jeremy Strong was overlooked), while “The Last of Us,” “Ted Lasso” and “The Bear” collected four nominations.

The SAG Awards will take place on February 24 at Shine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles. Netflix will broadcast the ceremony live for the first time. Last year’s awards were published on Netflix’s YouTube account.

The series will be one of Netflix’s most notable forays into live programming. The broadcaster, which has been an awards season powerhouse for years, will also host for the first time ahead of the Academy Awards in March.

Barbra Streisand will receive the SAG Life Achievement Award.