SAG Awards: Chadwick Boseman and Spike Lee receive nominations in Oscar barometer race

SAG Awards nominees differ notably from Golden Globe nominations

Chadwick Boseman and Spike Lee have both received nominations at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, known to serve as a reliable barometer for the Academy Awards.

Boseman received two posthumous nominations during an announcement via Instagram Live on Thursday, while Lee's Vietnam veteran drama Da 5 Bloods, as well as the Korean American family drama Minari, were among the nominees for Best Ensemble.

Boseman, who died last year at the age of 43 of colon cancer, is nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for his role in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Da 5 Bloods.

The SAG Awards nominees differed notably from the Golden Globe nominations announced the day before.

Read more: The Golden Globes snubbed Michaela Coel and honoured James Corden – do we live in hell?

While the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognised films with largely white casts in its tops awards, the actors guild selected a strikingly more diverse slate of nominees for its top award, Best Ensemble.

Up for Best Ensemble are Regina King's One Night in Miami, George C Wolfe's August Wilson adaptation Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; Lee Isaac Chung's Minari; Lee's Da 5 Bloods, and Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7.

All of those films, except Sorkin's, were overlooked on Wednesday by the Globes. Minari, set in Arkansas but with largely Korean dialogue, was even ruled ineligible for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's top award, Best Dramatic Film.

The SAG Awards are considered a far better predictor for the Oscars.

Actors account for the largest percentage of the Film Academy – the organisation behind the Academy Awards. Usually, the eventual Oscar Best Picture winner was previously nominated for Best Ensemble at the SAG Awards, though Green Book and The Shape of Water were two recent exceptions.

Last year, Bong Joon Ho's Parasite won the SAG's top honour (and became the first non-English film to do so) before triumphing at the Oscars.

The Associated Press contributed to this report