SAG Awards to honor best performances — with some distance

Updated: Apr 4, 2021 / 05:16 AM CDT

FILE – This Jan. 27, 2019 file photo shows a replica of The Actor statue on the red carpet at the 25th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles. The 2021 SAG Awards will take place on April 4. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Several Oscar hopefuls will reunite at Sunday’s Screen Actor Guild Awards, albeit in the same virtual, socially-distanced way that most gatherings have happened in the last year.

Normally held in a star-packed ballroom in Los Angeles, this year’s ceremony will be a stripped down, hourlong affair that aims to deliver its annual celebration of the best film and television actors through pre-taped segments. The show will feature more of the SAG Awards’ signature opening “I Am an Actor” segments in which stars describe what their craft means to them.

Competing for the show’s top honor, outstanding film ensemble, are “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Minari,” “One Night in Miami,” “Da 5 Bloods” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

The category is a reliable bellwether of which film will win best picture at the Oscars, including last year when “Parasite” took home both honors. (Actors make up the largest percentage of Academy Awards voters.)

Chadwick Boseman, who died in August at age 43, is nominated individually for his performances in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and his supporting role in “Da 5 Bloods.” He has four total nominations from the ensemble nods, which set a record for film nominees.

In the television categories, “The Crown,” “Schitt’s Creek” and “Ozark” are the leading nominees. All of the female leads in a drama series nominees came from either “The Crown” (Gillian Anderson, Olivia Colman, Emma Corrin) or “Ozark” (Laura Linney, Julia Garner).

The show will air live on TNT and TBS at 9 p.m. Eastern.

This combination of photos shows poster art for the nominees for the Screen Actors Guild Award for best cast in a motion picture, from left, “Da 5 Bloods,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Minari,” “One Night in Miami,” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” (Netflix/Netflix/A24/Amazon Studios/Netflix via AP)
This combination of photos shows Screen Actors Guild Award nominees the best female actor in a leading role category, from left, Frances McDormand in “Nomadland,” Amy Adams in “Hillbilly Elegy,” Carey Mulligan in “Promising Young Woman,” Viola Davis in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and Vanessa Kirby in “Pieces of a Woman.” (Searchlight Pictures/Netflix/Focus Features/Netflix/Netflix via AP)
This combination of photos shows Screen Actors Guild Award nominees for the male actor in a leading role category, from left, Gary Oldman in “Mank,” Chadwick Boseman in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Riz Ahmed in “Sound of Metal,” Anthony Hopkins in “The Father,” and Steven Yeun in “Minari.”(Netflix/Netflix/Amazon Studios/Sony Pictures Classics/A24 via AP)
This combination of photos shows nominees for a Screen Actors Guild Award in the female actor in a leading role category, from left, Olivia Colman in “The Father,” Yuh-Jung Younin “Minari,” Glenn Close in “Hillbilly Elegy,” Maria Bakalova in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and Helena Zengel in “News of the World.” (Sony Pictures Classics/A24/Netflix/Amazon Studios/Universal Pictures via AP)
This combination of photos show nominees for the Screen Actors Guild Award for best male actor in a supporting role, from left, Sacha Baron Cohen in “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Chadwick Boseman in “Da 5 Bloods,” Daniel Kaluuya in “Judas and the Black Messiah” Jared Leto in “The Little Things,” and Leslie Odom Jr. in “One Night in Miami.” (Netflix/Netflix/Warner Bros./Warner Bros/Amazon Studios via AP)