Next year's Screen Actors Guild awards are shaping up as a three-horse race after Inglourious Basterds, Precious and Up in the Air all picked up three nominations last night. The SAG awards were set up in 1995 and focus solely on honouring acting performances, both on film and television.
This year's nominations largely followed the lead set by the Golden Globes, which announced its shortlist earlier this week. Battling it out in the best actor category are Morgan Freeman (Invictus), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), Colin Firth (A Single Man), George Clooney (Up in the Air) and Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart). Nominated for the best actress award are Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia), Helen Mirren (The Last Station), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) and Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side). The Hurt Locker, An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Nine and Precious are all nominated in the best ensemble cast category.
However, the SAG shortlist did feature a few casualties. In recent months, the likes of Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man), Julianne Moore (A Single Man), Matt Damon (The Informant!) and Abbie Cornish (Bright Star) have all been tipped as Oscar frontrunners. None of them feature in the SAG nominations.
The winners of this year's Screen Actors Guild awards will be announced at the Shrine Exposition Centre in Los Angeles on 23 January.