Screen Actors Guild Awards hosted their 26th ceremony in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on Jan. 19, where they went with the no-host route just like the Oscars and instead left it all in the hands of the award presenters.
“Parasite,” a South Korean dark comedy thriller film, made history and is on the road to an Oscar win by becoming the first foreign language film to win best performance by a cast in a motion picture. It was a tough category to win as they were nominated against “Bombshell,” “The Irishman,” “Jojo Rabbit” and “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood.”
Amongst other big wins was “The Crown” who had their first win for Best Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” who won Best Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker,” won for Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.
“I now realize how fortunate I am to be a part of this community of such reverence for actors and what we do,” stated Phoenix in his acceptance speech.
He also took the time to acknowledge and appreciate the work of his peers he was up against, including Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Driver and Taron Egerton.
Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role went to Renee Sellweger for “Judy.”
Leonardo Di Caprio presented the Life Achievement Award to Robert De Niro, stating he is “an artist whose personal and professional mission has revolved around our acting community his entire life.”
De Niro gave thanks, but expressed his disappointment about living in a time where there is hostility towards unions and made a call to action.
“Political leaders who support unions are more likely to support affordable care act, equitable taxes, humane immigration regulations, a safe environment, a diverse citizenry, reproductive rights, sensible gun control and fair wages and benefits,” he stated.
De Niro continued, “There is right and there is wrong, and there is common sense and there is abuse of power. And as a citizen, I have as much a right as anybody, an actor, an athlete, a musician, anybody else to voice my opinion. And if I have a bigger voice because of my situation, I am going to use it whenever I see a blatant abuse of power.”
“Avengers Endgame” won for Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture and “Game of Thrones” won it for a Comedy or Drama Series.
Tony Shalhoub won Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and Phoebe Waller-Bridge won the female category for her role in “Fleabag.”
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series went to Jennifer Aniston’s “The Morning Show” and the winner for male actor was Peter Dinklage in “Game of Thrones.”
Brad Pitt took the win for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role with “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” and Laura Dern won in the female category for her role in “Marriage Story.”
The ceremony had good moments but nonetheless all eyes were on the ex-couple Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston who were spotted being very attentive to each other’s speech and congratulating each other backstage.
