SAG Awards to honor best performances — with some distance

'Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,' 'One Night in Miami' and 'Da 5 Bloods' are among titles vying for the top Screen Actor Guild Awards honor

Apr 4, 2021

Several Oscar hopefuls will reunite at Sunday’s Screen Actor Guild Awards, albeit in the same virtual, socially-distanced way that most gatherings have happened in the last year.

Normally held in a star-packed ballroom in Los Angeles, this year’s ceremony will be a stripped down, hourlong affair that aims to deliver its annual celebration of the best film and television actors through pre-taped segments. The show will feature more of the SAG Awards’ signature opening “I Am an Actor” segments in which stars describe what their craft means to them.

This Jan. 27, 2019 file photo shows a replica of The Actor statue on the red carpet at the 25th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

Competing for the show’s top honor, outstanding film ensemble, are Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Minari, One Night in Miami, Da 5 Bloods and The Trial of the Chicago 7.

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The category is a reliable bellwether of which film will win best picture at the Oscars, including last year when Parasite took home both honors. (Actors make up the largest percentage of Academy Awards voters.)

Chadwick Boseman, who died in August at age 43, is nominated individually for his performances in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and his supporting role in Da 5 Bloods. He has four total nominations from the ensemble nods, which set a record for film nominees.

This combination of photos show nominees for the Screen Actors Guild Award for best male actor in a supporting role, from left, Sacha Baron Cohen in “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Chadwick Boseman in “Da 5 Bloods,” Daniel Kaluuya in “Judas and the Black Messiah” Jared Leto in “The Little Things,” and Leslie Odom Jr. in “One Night in Miami.” (Netflix/Netflix/Warner Bros./Warner Bros/Amazon Studios via AP)

In the television categories, The Crown, Schitt’s Creek and Ozark are the leading nominees. All of the female leads in a drama series nominees came from either The Crown (Gillian Anderson, Olivia Colman, Emma Corrin) or Ozark (Laura Linney, Julia Garner).

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The show will air live on TNT and TBS at 9 p.m. Eastern.

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