By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The late Chadwick Boseman and Korean-language family drama “Minari” could be in for a big night on Sunday at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards, one of the last major ceremonies before the Oscars.
In a scaled-down event because of the coronavirus pandemic, Boseman is considered the front-runner for another posthumous accolade for his final film role as an ambitious trumpet player in jazz period movie “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
A win on Sunday, after a Golden Globe in January, would position Boseman as a favorite for his first Oscar on April 25. The multiple wins follow the unexpected death from cancer in August 2020 of the popular “Black Panther” star at the age of 43.
Boseman is also nominated on Sunday in the supporting actor category for Vietnam War drama “Da 5 Bloods.”
The SAG awards, chosen by members of the acting union, only honor actors but are closely watched because actors form the largest voting group in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Oscars.
In an upset last year, SAG picked the dark South Korean satire “Paradise” for its top prize of best ensemble cast. The movie went on to sweep the Oscars a few weeks later and become the first film in a foreign language to win the best picture Academy Award.
Sunday could crown a very different movie that also features Korean and Korean-American talent. “Minari,” the Korean-language story of an immigrant family struggling to make it in 1980s Arkansas, got three SAG nods, including best ensemble and for actors Steven Yeun and 73-year-old Youn Yuh-jung as a cantankerous grandmother.
“Minari,” also a best picture Oscar contender, is competing at SAG for the top prize along with 1960s protest film “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “One Night in Miami” about the meeting of four Black icons in 1964, “Da 5 Bloods,” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
In the best actress field, Britain’s Carey Mulligan from feminist revenge drama “Promising Young Woman” faces off against “Nomadland”‘s Frances McDormand, who plays a woman traveling the United States in a van taking gig economy jobs.
Two other Britons – Sacha Baron Cohen and Daniel Kaluuya – are among a diverse supporting actor field for their respective performances in “Trial of the Chicago 7” and as the late Black Panther activist Fred Hampton in “Judas and the Black Messiah.”
The SAG awards also recognize television performers, with the casts of “The Crown,” “Bridgerton,” “Ted Lasso” and “Schitt’s Creek” competing for the top prizes.
The SAG ceremony will be broadcast on Sunday on U.S. cable TV networks TNT and TBS starting at 9 p.m. ET (0100 on Monday GMT). Many of the nominees are also up for honors at the British BAFTA awards next week, and the Independent Spirit awards on April 22.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
