The Nominations For The 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

The nominations for the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards have just been announced and there were even more surprises to be had than usual, starting off with the fact that Trumbo ended up leading the nominations with three. The great biopic was not expected to make a showing at all, and yet it has managed to get nods for Best Cast, Best Actor (Bryan Cranston), and Best Supporting Actress (Helen Mirren).

But that’s not all. There were a number of surprise nominations including Helen Mirren grabbing a second nomination for Woman in Gold and Sarah Silverman for I Smile Back in the Best Actress category, as well as Christian Bale for The Big Short, Michael Shannon for 99 Homes, and young Jacob Tremblay in Room in the Best Supporting Actor category. There’s also the surprise of Spotlight failing to nab a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for either Mark Ruffalo or Michael Keaton, and instead receiving an unexpected nod for Rachel McAdams for Best Supporting Actress.

Most shocking of all are the nominees for Best Cast of a Motion Picture, only one of which was expected to be there. Spotlight took its expected place, but it’s joined by unlikely candidates like Beasts of No Nation and Straight Outta Compton, the latter being the only nominee in this category not to get any additional nominations.

The biggest snub here is that they failed to nominate Steve Jobs, which is easily the best cast I saw all year, and yet, the film received two individual nominations for Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet. The guild obviously liked the movie, so how did it not beat out others like Straight Outta Compton that didn’t even get one additional nomination? Very peculiar indeed.

With other major snubs for the top category including Carol, The Martian, The Hateful Eight, and Room, it doesn’t seem like there’s going to be much in the way of competition for Spotlight, who was expected to be the winner even before the nominees were announced, though I’ll still hold on to a little hope that Trumbo might be able to snag the win thanks to all of its unexpected nominations.

As you all probably know, historically, the eventual Oscar winner for Best Picture is among these five nominees, and since only one of these is likely to get a Best Picture nom, it would seem to be all wrapped up for Spotlight even before the race has really taken off. However, you never really know with these things. Perhaps this will be the first time since Braveheart that the Academy breaks this long-standing tradition, though with the way the race has been shaping up so far, it doesn’t seem particularly likely.

Coming up tomorrow morning, we have the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announcing their nominees for the Golden Globes, so be sure to join us then to see what surprises await. In the meantime, you can find a complete list of today’s nominees (including television) below: