SAG Awards 2025: Conclave comes on strong

LOS ANGELES – The papal thriller Conclave won the top prize – Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture – at the 31st Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards on Feb 23, thwarting a guild sweep by Anora, which had scored big wins in February at ceremonies thrown by the producers, directors and writers guilds.

The last three winners of SAG’s top prize – Oppenheimer (2023), Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) and Coda (2021) – went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars.

Some of those had been season-long sweepers, unlike Conclave, which can boast only one other Best Picture award from the Baftas. Still, the win indicates that the Oscar race remains fluid leading up to the March 2 ceremony.

SAG’s lead actor race produced an upset victory too, as A Complete Unknown star Timothee Chalamet finally nabbed a prize for his portrayal of American music legend Bob Dylan. The award had gone all season to American actor Adrien Brody (The Brutalist).

“I’m really in pursuit of greatness,” Chalamet, 29, said when accepting his award. “I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats.”

Over the past three years, every individual acting winner at SAG has gone on to bag an Oscar, except 2024’s SAG winner Lily Gladstone (Killers Of The Flower Moon), who lost the Best Actress Oscar to Emma Stone (Poor Things).

The Best Actress battle is even more competitive in 2025, with The Substance lead Demi Moore and Anora actress Mikey Madison trading industry prizes all season.

And though Golden Globe winner Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here) was not nominated at the SAG awards, she has nevertheless mounted a late surge with many Oscar voters, who have just got round to watching her movie.

At the SAG awards, it was Moore, 62, who was triumphant. As she did at the Golden Globes in January, she gave a galvanising speech that she dedicated to “that little girl who didn’t believe in herself”.

As she grew emotional, Moore closed with: “The words are kind of beyond me. So, I’m just going to have to say thank you.”

In SAG’s supporting races, prizes went to Zoe Saldana (Emilia Perez) and Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain), who have swept their categories all season and are the prohibitive favourites at the Oscars.

“Believe it or not, this actually means a lot to me,” Culkin, 42, said, after riffing at length about the heaviness of the SAG statuette and the self-seriousness of his fellow actors. “It’s hard to be sincere here. Or in general.”

But evincing sincerity was not an issue for Jane Fonda, who accepted her Lifetime Achievement award with an overtly political rallying cry to those in the room.

“This is it and it’s not a rehearsal,” the 87-year-old actress said. “And we mustn’t for a moment kid ourselves about what’s happening.” NYTIMES

The complete list of SAG winners

Film

Outstanding cast: Conclave
Actor in a lead role: Timothee Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Actress in a lead role: Demi Moore, The Substance
Actor in a supporting role: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Actress in a supporting role: Zoe Saldana, Emilia Perez
Stunt ensemble in a movie: The Fall Guy

Television

Ensemble in a drama series: Shogun
Ensemble in a comedy series: Only Murders In The Building
Actor in a drama series: Hiroyuki Sanada, Shogun
Actress in a drama series: Anna Sawai, Shogun
Actor in a comedy Series: Martin Short, Only Murders In The Building
Actress in a comedy Series: Jean Smart, Hacks
Actor in a TV movie or limited series: Colin Farrell, The Penguin
Actress in a TV movie or limited series: Jessica Gunning, Baby Reindeer
Stunt ensemble in a TV series: Shogun