'A Star Is Born' tops SAG Awards nominations, snubs abound

13/12/2018 1:03

        "A Star Is Born" led nominations for the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards with four nods including best ensemble on Wednesday, firmly establishing Bradley Cooper's romantic revival as this year's Academy Awards front runner. In nominations announced in West Hollywood, Calif., the actors guild — one of the most predictive bellwethers of the Oscars — threw cold water on the awards campaigns of numerous contenders while elevating others. But "A Star Is Born" fared the best of all, landing nominations for Cooper (best male actor), Lady Gaga (best female actor) and Sam Elliott (best supporting male actor). The other nominees for the group's top award, best ensemble, were: "Black Panther," ''Bohemian Rhapsody," ''BlacKkKlansman" and "Crazy Rich Asians." That category is the most closely watched because only once in the last two decades has the eventual Oscars best picture winner not been nominated for best ensemble at the SAG Awards.
        The one aberration, though, was last year, when Guillermo del Toro's "The Shape of Water" overcame the SAG omission on its way to winning best picture. Unless a new trend is forming, that's bad news for Oscar hopefuls like "Vice," Adam McKay's Dick Cheney biopic (which led last week's Golden Globe nominations); Alfonso Cuaron's Netflix drama "Roma" (the overwhelming choice of critics groups); and the 1962 road trip "Green Book." "Vice" still scored SAG nods for Christian Bale and Amy Adams, just as "Green Book" won nominations for Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali.