SAG Award nominations set up ‘A Star Is Born’ as season’s top contender

NEW YORK — “A Star Is Born” led nominations for the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards with four nods including best ensemble on Wednesday, firmly establishing Bradley Cooper’s romantic revival as this year’s Academy Awards front runner.

In nominations announced Wednesday morning in West Hollywood, California, the actors guild — one of the most predictive bellwethers of the Oscars — threw cold water on the awards campaigns of numerous contenders while elevating others. But “A Star Is Born” fared the best of all, landing nominations for Cooper (best male actor), Lady Gaga (best female actor) and Sam Elliott (best supporting male actor).

The other nominees for the group’s top award, best ensemble, were: “Black Panther,” ”Bohemian Rhapsody,” ”BlacKkKlansman” and “Crazy Rich Asians.”

That category is the most closely watched of the SAG Awards because only once in the last decades has the eventual Oscars best picture winner not been nominated for best ensemble at the SAG Awards. The one aberration, though, was last year, when Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” overcame the SAG omission on its way to winning best picture.

Unless a new trend is forming, that’s bad news for Oscar hopefuls like “Vice,” Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney biopic (which led last week’s Golden Globe nominations), Alfonso Cuaron’s Netflix drama “Roma” (the overwhelming choice of critics groups) and the 1960s road trip “Green Book.”

“Vice” still scored SAG nods for Christian Bale and Amy Adams, just as “Green Book” won nominations for Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali.

But “Roma” was shut out entirely, as was Damien Chazelle’s Neil Armstrong drama “First Man” and Barry Jenkins’ Harlem love story “If Beale Street Could Talk.” Most expected Regina King of “Beale Street” to be among the supporting female actor nominees.

Instead, Wednesday’s nominations gave a boost to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the Freddie Mercury biopic that has been a hit with audiences but was slammed by critics. Its star, Rami Malek, was also nominated for best actor.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ period romp “The Favourite” failed to crack best ensemble, but its three leads — Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone — were all nominated.

Emily Blunt scored two nominations herself: one for her lead performance in “Mary Poppins Returns” and one for her supporting role in “A Quiet Place.”

In television categories, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Ozark” led with four nominations each. “Barry,” ”GLOW,” ”The Handmaid’s Tale,” and “The Kominsky Method” trailed close behind with three nominations each.

The SAG Awards will be held Jan. 27 and broadcast live by TNT and TBS. This year’s show will honor Alan Alda with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.