Gold Standard: How will the SAG Awards affect the Oscar races?
Welcome to the Gold Standard, the newsletter from the Los Angeles Times that helps guide you through the ins and outs of the awards season, leading up to the Oscars. I’m Glenn Whipp, The Times’ awards columnist and your newsletter host. The Screen Actors Guild Awards went down last weekend; the Directors Guild hands out its prizes on Saturday. Let’s look at what happened this week.
SAG Awards: Diversity the big winner
Idris Elba with one of the two statues he won at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Members of the Screen Actors Guild proved far more inclusive than their film academy counterparts, honoring a diverse array of actors during their annual awards show — and making a pointed contrast to #OscarsSoWhite.
The big winner was Idris Elba, who was honored with SAG awards for both his film (“Beasts of No Nation”) and television work (“Luther”). You can read my wrap-up of the event here, as well as my analysis on how many of the SAG Awards winners will go on to take Oscars and what “Spotlight’s” ensemble win could mean for the best picture race.
And if you want even more SAG Awards stories, you can check out The Times’ complete coverage here.
Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara dish on Todd Haynes’ favorite ‘Carol’ scenes
Rooney Mara, left, and Cate Blanchett are both nominated for Oscars for their work in “Carol.”
In a conversation with The Envelope, Todd Haynes, director of the beautiful, spellbinding romance “Carol,” mentioned his three favorite scenes shared by his Oscar-nominated actresses, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Naturally, we had to ask the women about them too. Their reactions to Haynes’ choices — along with his own comments — provide a glimpse into the deliberate decisions and considerable challenges that went into making this celebrated film. You can read the story here.
Animation, documentary, foreign-language races feature strong front-runners
Most pundits see “Inside Out,” “Amy” and “Son of Saul” taking the animated, documentary and foreign film Oscars, respectively. I agree. You can read my predictions for those races here.
Oscar acting nominees’ key moments
The producers, directors and writers of the films for which this year’s lead actors and actresses were nominated shared with us moments they believe their stars shone the brightest. You can watch the scenes here and see if you agree.
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