SAG Awards 2016: Who Will Go the Distance?

Jay Roach’s Trumbo led with three nominations, including ones for Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren, while Homeland, Game of Thrones, and House of Cards led the television categories, each picking up three nods.

The Oscars race officially kicked off on Wednesday with the Screen Actors Guild nominations that saw “Trumbo”, a biopic about a blacklisted 1940s screenwriter, score the most nominations.

Idris Elba was nominated for best supporting actor in the child soldier drama “Beasts of No Nation” and is the sole individual minority nominee in the movie categories of the 22nd annual SAG nominations announced Wednesday.

NetflixThe Screen Actors Guild Awards is a year-end awards show that gets a lot of attention because the acting body of the Academy (which overlaps with SAG) is the largest among the groups that choose the Oscars every year.

For the upcoming 2016 SAG Awards, to be held on January 30, the whole cast of Game of Thrones is in the running for “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series”. Helen Mirren is also nominated in the supporting category for her role in Trumbo, along with another Brit, Kate Winslet, for Steve Jobs, and Rachel McAdams (Spotlight). Mirren was also nominated for best actress for “Woman in Gold”.

Then Beasts of No Nation, The Big Short, Carol, The Danish Girl, Room, Spotlight, and Steve Jobs, have two nominations each. Ronan was honoured for her role as a homesick immigrant in Brooklyn, as well as Cate Blanchett for Carol, Brie Larson for Room and Sarah Silverman for I Smile Back. Sometimes nominees at the SAG awards do not end up with Oscar nominations. The mostly baffling choices (full list here) betrayed an old-fashioned approach to what qualifies as the “best” when it comes to TV’s increasingly wide range of performances-and a dispiriting retreat to the familiar rather than a determination to highlight the new.

He will compete against Johnny Depp for “Black Mass”, Leonardo DiCaprio for “The Revenant“, Michael Fassbender for his work on “Steve Jobs” and Eddie Redmayne for “The Danish Girl”. There are six nominees due to a tie.

The surprise nod for Murray, plus nomination newcomers Ellie Kemper of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and the stunt team on Marvel’s Daredevil combined with returning favorites House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black to give Netflix eight nominations, more than any other network.

Kidman’s nomination proved bad films, if aired first on TV, can still nab award nominations.

Aside from Spotlight this season’s main players should come further into focus on Thursday when the nominees are announced for the Golden Globe Awards.

“Orange’s” Uzo Aduba earned an acting nomination, as did “Big Bang’s” Jim Parsons, “Transparent’s” Jeffrey Tambor and “Veep’s” Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Elba and Rylance also scored nominations for outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role in a motion picture.

Bryan Cranston-starrer Trumbo earned three nominations, including the guild’s top prize for best ensemble cast.