The Help receives Oscars boost at Screen Actors Guild Awards

If you wanted to follow accepted Hollywood protocol on how not to turn a best-selling novel into a hit film, the path followed by the major studios behind The Help provides an almost impeccable blueprint for failure.

First, they allowed the book’s author, Kathryn Stockett, to co-write the screenplay with a childhood friend called Tate Taylor. Then, again at Ms Stockett’s behest, they agreed to appoint Taylor, a virtually-unknown actor with a chequered CV and exactly zero major behind-the-camera credits, as director.

Finally, having agreed to spend $25 million filming the civil rights-era drama on location in Stockett and Taylor’s native Mississippi, they allowed the ensuing picture to remain slavishly-faithful to the original text, meaning that it meanders for the unfashionably-long duration of two-and-a-half hours.

Today, those studios, Dreamworks and Disney, were having the last laugh. After making more than $200m at the global box office, and becoming one of the year’s great sleeper hits, The Help made a late entry into the Oscar conversation by stealing the show at the Screen Actors Guild awards in Los Angeles.

To the surprise of pundits, the film walked away with three of the five movie awards: Best Actress for Viola Davis, Best Supporting Actress for Octavia Spencer, and Best Ensemble for its cast. “Guys, that’s crazy!” said its star, Emma Stone. “But what does this mean?”

On paper, it means that The Help joins long-standing favourite The Artist along with Hugo and The Descendants at the forefront of an unusually crowded field of front-runners for the 2012 Academy Awards, which take place in less than four weeks.

The “SAGgies” may garner less attention than their major rival, the Golden Globes, but they carry far more prestige. In recent years, they’ve also proven a more reliable guide to future success: while just one of the past seven Globe winners picked-up a Best Picture Oscar, the SAG’s Best Ensemble winner went on to take four of the past six.

Success for The Help, which is short-listed for four 2012 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, would certainly make for a teary Oscar ceremony. The emotional film, which focuses on black housemaids in the Deep South during the 1960s, is overtly-political - at a time when the rights of minorities remains a potent issue.

“I want to thank all the people out there who supported this movie and, after watching it, felt something,” said Spencer in her victory speech. “You felt compelled to make a change in your lives. So I'm going to dedicate this to the downtrodden, the underserved, the underprivileged, the overtaxed, whether emotionally, physically or financially.”

Viola Davis, who beat Meryl Streep to Best Actress (and is now challenging her for the same Oscar) said: "The stain of racism and sexism is not just for people of colour or women. It's all of our burden.... I don't care how ordinary you feel, all of us can inspire change, every single one of us."

The Artist wasn’t entirely shut out: its male lead Jean Dujardin won Best Actor. In the final movie category, Christopher Plummer meanwhile won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Beginners, making him odds-on favourite to win his first Oscar, at the age of 82.

Here is a complete list of winners at the 18th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards:

Film

Actor: Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Actress: Viola Davis, The Help

Supporting actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners.

Supporting actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help.

Cast: The Help

Stunt ensemble: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

Television

Actor in a movie or miniseries: Paul Giamatti, Too Big to Fail.

Actress in a movie or miniseries: Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce.

Actor in a drama series: Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire

Actress in a drama series: Jessica Lange, American Horror Story

Actor in a comedy series: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock.

Actress in a comedy series: Betty White, Hot in Cleveland.

Drama series cast: Boardwalk Empire

Comedy series cast: Modern Family.

Stunt ensemble: Game of Thrones.

Special award

Life achievement: Mary Tyler Moore