SAG Nominees: Best Actor in a Supporting Role

My predictions: 4/5, picking Garfield over Hawkes
Who’s missing: Golden Globe nominees Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) and Michael Douglas (Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps), Sam Rockwell (Conviction), Justin Timberlake (The Social Network), Ed Harris (The Way Back)

I yelped out loud in joy when I heard John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone) announced as a nominee. The long-working character actor delivered a terrific performance in one of this summer’s best movies, and I’m so thrilled to see him getting recognition for it, even if the film didn’t earn an ensemble nomination as I had predicted.Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right), whose film did earn an ensemble nod, gets back into the running here, which is good for him, though not so good for Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), whose film performed more quietly than ever with the SAGs with only two mentions. The absence of Michael Douglas (Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps) suggests that perhaps he’s not as strong of a dark horse as anticipated, and instead Jeremy Renner (The Town), all on his own without an ensemble nod, really might go the distance. And then we have frontrunners Christian Bale (The Fighter) and Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech), both in good company with two other performers and their entire ensembles nominated. Sam Rockwell (Conviction)’s snub stings even more since costar Hilary Swank, who most would agree isn’t as good, did make it in for Best Actress.

Who could win? Probably Bale, but how cool would it be if it was Hawkes?