SAG nominations snub critical darlings – and Saltburn – as Oscars race tightens

Acclaimed performances by Leonardo DiCaprio, Natalie Portman and Barry Keoghan were all overlooked

The nominations for the 2024 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards have been announced, with a handful of prominent snubs pointing towards which films could be facing a quiet awards season.

The SAG Awards are seen as a useful indicator for the Academy Awards, as actors make up the largest voting bloc for the Oscars.

There is significant overlap between SAG’s film and TV nominating committee, which has around 4,200 members, and the actors branch of the Academy which has close to 1,400 members.

That could spell bad news for fans of Emerald Fennell’s streaming hit Saltburn who are hoping the film will receive Academy recognition, as the film failed to pick up any nominations from SAG.

The same could be said of Todd Haynes’ May December, which did not receive any nominations despite the acclaim heaped on its trio of leading actors Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore and Charles Melton.

Other prominent snubs include Leonardo DiCaprio, who wasn’t nominated in the acting category for Killers of the Flower Moon, although his co-star Lily Gladstone is up for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Natalie Portman and Barry Keoghan all missed out on SAG Awards nominations (Getty)

Andrew Scott, who recently picked up the Best Actor award from the National Society of Film Critics, was overlooked by SAG for his turn in Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers.

Last year, the SAG Awards winner went on to win the Oscar in all four major film acting categories: Brendan Fraser won Best Actor for The Whale, while Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis won Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively for Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Everything Everywhere All At Once also won Best Ensemble Cast in 2023, which was seen as a predictor for the film’s eventual Best Picture win at the Oscars. This year, Oppenheimer, The Color Purple, Barbie, American Fiction and Killers of the Flower Moon are all competing for that group award, with no room for critical darlings such as Poor Things, Past Lives, The Zone of Interest or Anatomy of a Fall.

This year’s SAG Awards winners will be announced during a live ceremony on 24 February at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles. It will be live-streamed on Netflix beginning at 5pm PT/8pm ET.

Find the full list of SAG Awards 2024 nominees here.

The Academy Awards will be held on 10 March, with nominees announced on 23 January.