‘A Star Is Born,’ ‘Mrs. Maisel,’ ‘Ozark’ Lead SAG Awards Nominations

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “A Star Is Born” maintained its awards momentum as the music drama led the way with four SAG feature film nominations , while “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Ozark” each scored a quartet of TV nominations.

“BlacKkKlansman” and “The Favourite” both took a trio of film nominations at the announcement Wednesday morning, followed by “Barry,” “GLOW,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and “The Kominsky Method,” each scoring three TV nods.

“,” which has emerged as a front-runner during awards season, received a nomination for the feature film ensemble cast trophy along with box office titan “Black Panther,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” “BlacKkKlansman,” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

The winner of the SAG ensemble trophy is a quirky predictor of Oscar success and has matched the Oscar best picture winner only 11 times in the past 23 years. “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri“ and “Hidden Figures” won the last two SAG Awards, while “The Shape of Water” and “Moonlight” took the Oscars for best picture. “Spotlight” and “Birdman” won the SAG cast award and the Oscar for best picture in the two years prior.

Lady Gaga scored an actress nomination for “A Star is Born” along with Glenn Close for “The Wife,” Olivia Colman for “The Favourite,” Melissa McCarthy for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” and Emily Blunt for “Mary Poppins Returns.”

Bradley Cooper, who also directed “A Star Is Born,” nabbed a best actor nod, as did Christian Bale for “Vice,” Rami Malek for “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Viggo Mortensen for “Green Book,” and John David Washington for “BlacKkKlansman.”

Washington portrayed undercover police officer Ron Stallworth in Spike Lee’s movie, and cited him in a statement: “Thank you SAG-AFTRA for this honor. Most importantly because in doing so you are recognizing Ron Stallworth, a man whose bravery and ingenuity fought racism at its core. To Spike, Ron, cast and crew — I will never forget this experience we had together. Love you all.”

The individual SAG nominations often closely mirror Academy Award nominations, particularly in the Best Actor category. In last year’s awards race, Gary Oldman, Timothée Chalamet, Daniel Kaluuya and Denzel Washington were all nominated for both awards. Last year’s SAG nominations included James Franco, who was subsequently accused of sexual harrassment, while the fifth Oscar nod went to Daniel Day-Lewis.

Blunt landed a second nomination in the supporting actress category for the horror-thriller “A Quiet Place.” Rounding out that category were Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz for “The Favourite,” Amy Adams for “Vice,” and Margot Robbie for “Mary Queen of Scots” — one of the biggest surprises of the Wednesday morning announcement. Stone and Adams also received nominations on the TV side for work in the limited series category — “Maniac” for Stone and “Sharp Objects” for Adams.

Sam Elliott took a supporting actor nomination for “A Star Is Born,” along with Mahershala Ali for “,” Timothee Chalamet for “Beautiful Boy,” Richard E. Grant for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and Adam Driver for “BlacKkKlansman.”

Box office smash “” nabbed a second nomination in the stunt ensemble category, joining “Green Book,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and “Vice” as movies that took two SAG nominations. “Vice” led the Golden Globe nominations last week with six nods, while “A Star Is Born,” “Green Book” and “The Favourite” took five each.

Awards contenders such as Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” Steve McQueen’s heist thriller “Widows” and Barry Jenkins’ romantic drama “If Beale Street Could Talk” were shut out of SAG nominations on the film side, as were Golden Globe TV nominees including Julia Roberts’ “Homecoming,” “The Good Place,” “Kidding” and “Pose.”

On the TV front, the best drama series ensemble contenders are “The Americans,” “Better Call Saul,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Ozark,” and “This Is Us.” NBC’s water-cooler drama took home that prize last year. It was the first SAG nod for “The Americans,” which has concluded after six seasons.

Best comedy series ensemble nominations went to “Atlanta,” “Barry,” “GLOW,” “The Kominsky Method,” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Netflix’s “GLOW” was the only repeat comedy series nominee with this year’s winner, HBO’s “Veep,” ineligible. It was the first SAG nom for “Atlanta,” now in its second season.

Tony Shalhoub, Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein received acting nominations for “Mrs. Maisel.” Julia Garner, Laura Linney and Jason Bateman took acting nods for “Ozark.”

Shalhoub will face competition in the TV comedy actor category from Bill Hader and Henry Winkler for “Barry” and Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin in “The Kominsky Method.” William H. Macy won the category this year for his role in “Shameless.”

Brosnahan and Borstein, who won Emmys in September for “Mrs. Maisel,” are facing each other in the TV comedy actress category along with “GLOW’s” Alison Brie and “Grace & Frankie’s” Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda.

Nominees were announced by “” star Awkwafina and Laverne Cox of “Orange is the New Black” at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, Calif.

SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris told Variety that she believes the nominations reflect the industry’s moves towards inclusion, diversity, and complexity in storytelling. “It’s really exciting,” she said.

The nominations were based on voting by two nominating panels of SAG-AFTRA members, with each comprised of about 2,000 randomly selected members.

The 25th Annual will be held Jan. 27 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. About 130,000 SAG-AFTRA members are eligible to vote. Voting begins Dec. 18 and closes on Jan. 25.

Alan Alda will be honored during the 2019 show with SAG’s Life Achievement Award.