Simone Ledward Boseman accepts SAG Award for Best Actor for late husband Chadwick Boseman in “The Blues of Ma Rainey” – SAG Awards / Shutterstock / SIPA
Like the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, awards given by the American Actors’ Union, offer a more or less reliable thermometer before the Oscars. Chicago Seven, the judicial drama of Aaron Sorkin, received this Sunday the supreme award for best film, while Chadwick Boseman the award for best actor, posthumously. He had also won a Golden Globe. “We need leaders to make us hate each other less,” said Frank Langella, who plays the racist judge in Chicago Seven, focused on the repression of protests against the Vietnam War.
Chadwick Boseman, a posthumous Oscar?
Chadwick Boseman, star of Black panther, who died last summer at age 43 of colon cancer that he had never disclosed, won him the title of best actor for his role as a musician in Ma Rainey’s Blues, a drama in the Chicago of the 1920s, a title that could presage an Oscar. Only two comedians have so far received a posthumous Oscar: Peter Finch for Network by Sidney Lumet, and Heath Ledger for The dark knight by Christopher Nolan.
Less prominent than the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild Awards are considered a more reliable indicator for the Oscars as 1,200 of their members vote at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which presents the prestigious golden statuettes. Last year, Parasite had won the most prestigious award of the SAG, that of best distribution, a historic victory, before being crowned best film at the Oscars. The postponed Oscar ceremony is scheduled for April 25.
“To be recognized by Westerners”
Nomadland, who remains a favorite for the Supreme Oscar because of the awards he has already won, has not even received a SAG nomination. It was crowned best film of the year by the Hollywood Producers Association at the end of March. This intimate film by Chloé Zhao, which follows modern nomads traveling the United States in their motorhomes, had already won the supreme award at the Golden Globes.
The flagship actress of Nomadland Frances McDormand did not change her nomination for Best SAG Actress, making way for Boseman’s partner in Ma Rainey’s blues, Viola Davis. The actress thanked ‘the handsome Chadwick Boseman’, while the actor’s widow received the award, quoting it: ‘If you find the world losing its balance, be a crusader weighing all your weight on the pendulum of the mind ”.
Another “Black Panther” by proxy, Briton Daniel Kaluuya received the award for best supporting role for Judas & the Black Messiah. The film shows Fred Hampton’s efforts to mobilize Chicago activists against police violence targeting the black community in the 1960s. South Korean Yuh-jung Youn won Best Supporting Actress in Minari, an immigration story set in 1980s Arkansas. “I don’t know how to describe my feelings, to be recognized by Westerners,” she said, very moved.