Saturday night in Los Angeles shone bright as the Hollywood fraternity took centre stage at the 20th annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards. Amid the glitzy hustle and bustle, director David O Russell’s American Hustle won the top honours in what is expected to be a determinant of the film’s standing at the forthcoming Oscars, according to Reuters.
The film won Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture, which is the SAG Awards’ equivalent of Best Picture. The multi-starrer film won the accolade among films like 12 Years A Slave, Dallas Buyers Club, August: Osage County and The Butler, reported the Huffington Post.
Matthew McConaughey, who lost weight to play a man with AIDS in Dallas Buyers Club, won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role. This win may have upped McConaughey’s chances to win the Best Actor award at the Oscars, but it’s important to note that he wasn’t competing against promising contender Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street, at the SAG Awards.
Cate Blanchett bagged the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for Blue Jasmine. Lupita Nyong’o won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for 12 Years A Slave, and Jared Leto took home The Actor for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for Dallas Buyers Club. With high octane performances and awards’ momentum behind them, the stars are expected to win corresponding awards at the Oscars.
Bryan Cranston, who depicts the character of Walter White on television series Breaking Bad, was awarded the Outstanding Male Actor in a Drama Series award. The show was also named Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series. For playing the dowager countess on the television show Downtown Abbey, Dame Maggie Smith won the Outstanding Female Actor in a Drama Series.
For comedy television shows Veep and Modern Family, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Ty Burrell won awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series, respectively.
Modern Family won the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. “Ed was the only one who thought we were going to win today,” said Julie Bowen about Modern Family co-star Ed O’Neill, according to latimes.com. “The eternal pessimist, who would’ve thought?”
Other SAG Awards winners this year include the stunt ensembles from Lone Survivor and Game of Thrones.
We are delighted at the SAG Awards results. Let’s see what the Oscars have in store for us.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2014.
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