‘Manchester’ lands most award nominations by Screen Actors Guild

SHARE ‘Manchester’ lands most award nominations by Screen Actors Guild
screen_actors_guild_nominations_65934329.jpg

Casey Affleck (left) and Lucas Hedges of “Manchester by the Sea” both are nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards. | Roadside Attractions/Amazon Studios

“La La Land” may have hit all the right notes for the Golden Globes, but the Screen Actors Guild sung a different tune Wednesday, when Kenneth Lonergan’s New England-set family drama “Manchester by the Sea” picked up the most nominations.

Its leading four nods included best ensemble cast, best actor for Casey Affleck and best supporting performances for Michelle Williams and Lucas Hedges.

Barry Jenkins’ coming-of-age tale “Moonlight” and Denzel Washington’s August Wilson adaptation “Fences” followed with three each, including ensemble. They’ll be competing with the fact-based NASA crowd-pleaser “Hidden Figures” and the family drama “Captain Fantastic.” Shut out of the coveted ensemble award was Damien Chazelle’s candy-colored musical “La La Land,” which scored nominations only for its leads, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling.

Sophia Bush and Common announced the nominees early Wednesday morning in West Hollywood, California.

In the past, SAG nominees have served as helpful predictors of who will land nominations in the four Oscar acting categories.

While some categories looked generally as expected, like the supporting actress nods for Williams, “Fences'” Viola Davis, “Moonlight’s” Naomie Harris, “Lion’s” Nicole Kidman and “Hidden Figures'” Octavia Spencer, others were quite surprising.

In the lead actress category, Annette Bening failed to pick up a nomination for “20th Century Women.” Bening had been an assumed lock for an Oscar nomination and had been considered a top contender against front-runners Natalie Portman (“Jackie”) and Stone (“La La Land”), both of whom were recognized. Instead, SAG nominated Emily Blunt for the adapted thriller “The Girl on the Train,” which scored tepid reviews from critics and had not been seen as a major awards contender. Meryl Streep (“Florence Foster Jenkins”) and Amy Adams (“Arrival”) were also nominated.

“I loved making ‘Jackie’ so much, in large part due to the incredible actors our great director Pablo Larrain assembled,” Portman said in a statement. “Pablo gave us so much freedom and inspiration to play.”

Lead actors nominated were Affleck, Gosling, Andrew Garfield (“Hacksaw Ridge”), Denzel Washington (“Fences”) and Viggo Mortensen (“Captain Fantastic”).

“Have never been happier in my career about any nomination,” Mortensen said in a statement. “That fellow actors in our Screen Actors Guild have just acknowledged that [director] Matt Ross has constructed a truly memorable family story for our times.”

On the supporting side for actors, “Moonlight’s” Mahershala Ali continues to dominate the category with another nomination. He’ll be competing against “Manchester’s” Hedges, Jeff Bridges for “Hell or High Water,” Dev Patel for “Lion” and Hugh Grant for “Florence Foster Jenkins.”

Also missing were nominations for Jeff Nichols’ fact-based civil rights film “Loving” and its leads Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton, as well as for French actress Isabelle Huppert, who has won many of the critics’ awards for her performance in the edgy “Elle.” And it looks like Tom Hanks might not be a player this season for “Sully,” now that he’s been passed over by the Globes and SAG.

In television, series newcomers “The Crown,” ”Westworld” and “Stranger Things” all picked up three nominations each, alongside Emmys favorite “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” and “Game of Thrones.”

“The People v. O.J. Simpson’s” Sterling K. Brown tweeted an emotional video of himself following the nominations.

“I love what I do so much,” Brown said. “To be recognized by my peers in this way is very difficult for me to process right now.”

Winona Ryder and Millie Bobby Brown will be up against one another in the same acting category for Netflix’s “Stranger Things.”

The streaming service utterly dominated television nominations with 17 total, followed by HBO’s 13 and, finally, a broadcast network — ABC with a distant five.

The 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be broadcast live on TNT and TBS on Jan. 29 from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press

The Latest
Despite getting into foul trouble, which limited him to just six minutes in the second half, Shannon finished with 29 points, five rebounds and two assists.
Cowboy hats, bell-bottoms and boots were on full display Thursday night as fans lined up for the first of his three sold-out shows.
The incident occurred about 3:40 p.m. near Minooka. The horse was successfully placed back into the trailer, and the highway reopened about 40 minutes later. No injuries were reported.
The Hawks conceded the game’s only two goals within the first seven minutes and were shut out for the 12th time this season in a 2-0 defeat Thursday.