SAG Awards Reactions

No real surprises here, though the humility of all the recipients and their great generosity in thanking everyone was nice to see. The supporting trophies went to expected winners Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique, and Waltz gave another fantastic and moving speech. The leading categories cemented frontrunners Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock over George Clooney and Meryl Streep for the Oscar derby, even though I had predicted the latter two to win at this particular ceremony. And Best Ensemble goes to the spectacular cast of “Inglourious Basterds,” and Eli Roth delivers a fun speech in which he notes the origins of all the cast members and gives a great shout-out to Newton, Massachusetts, the hometown of “The Office” star B.J. Novak. While the acting winners are important for the upcoming Oscar race, the ensemble win for “Basterds” doesn’t mean that it’s suddenly jumped ahead of its competition since “The Hurt Locker” had a cast of relative unknowns and both “Avatar” and “Up in the Air” weren’t nominated here. The Oscar race is officially underway, and I’ll have final predictions up starting tomorrow morning, three categories per day. Stay tuned.