Screen Actors Guild Awards 2015 Nominations: 'Birdman,' 'Boyhood' Dominate Nominees, While 'Selma,' Others Get Snubbed
Ansel Elgort and Eva Longoria announced Wednesday morning that "Birdman," the 2014 American arthouse black comedy by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, and "Boyhood," Richard Linklater's coming-of-age drama, have landed the most 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations.
The Screen Actors Guild Awards nominates actors and acting ensembles in 13 categories across film and TV, CNN reports.
Six films were nominated for Best Ensemble, the award show's top prize and a category where actors are nominated for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture. Those six included "The Grand Budapest Hotel," "The Imitation Game" and "The Theory of Everything." "Birdman" and "Boyhood" have also been honored with similar recognition.
"Birdman," a landmark film that Peter Debruge of Variety called "a self aware showbiz satire," follows as a once bankable Hollywood superhero actor who tries to revive his career and reinvent his image as a "serious actor" with a Broadway play.
The film was praised, thanks to the tech wizardry by Alejandro González Iñárritu's team that makes it appear to consist of a single shot. Michael Keaton stars in a role that his earned him universal acclaim and a Best Male Actor nomination, while his co-stars Edward Norton and Emma Stone received nods for Best Supporting Male Actor and Best Supporting Female Actor, respectively.
Filmed over the course of 12 years and named the best film of the year by Sight & Sound after polling 112 international film critics, "Boyhood" follows its protagonist, played by Ellar Coltrane, and his older sister (played by Linklater's daughter Lorelei Linklater) from the age of 6 through his adolescence.
Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke, who play Coltrane's parents in the film, also earned nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role and Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, respectively.
Trailing after those acclaimed films with three nominations is "The Theory of Everything," the beloved biopic of physicist and mathematician Stephen Hawking. The Guardian's Catherine Shoard praised Eddie Redmayne, who was also nominated.
"Redmayne towers: This is an astonishing, genuinely visceral performance which bears comparison with Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot," Shoard wrote.
Felicity Jones was also nominated.
However, not granted a single nod was the critically lauded "Selma," the Ava DuVernay-directed all-star historical drama surrounding the 1965 Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches led by James Bevel, Hosea Williams and Martin Luther King, Jr. of SCLC and John Lewis of SNCC.
Also shut out was the much publicized "Unbroken," Angelina Jolie's adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling World War II epic about Louis Zamperini's experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
Various films did not get recognition either, but several actors in those films were.
Benedict Cumberbatch received SAG Awards nominations for Best Male Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie for "Sherlock: The Last Vow" and his critically acclaimed performance as Alan Turing, a pioneering British cryptanalyst and father of artificial intelligence in "The Imitation Game."
Mark Ruffalo, also received two nods for his performance in "Foxcatcher" and the HBO TV film, "The Normal Heart."
Fellow nominee Steve Carell congratulated the actor via social media.
"Congratulations @markruffalo on his two @SAGawards nominations!" he tweeted.
Rounding out the acting categories were J.K. Simmons' riveting performance in "Whiplash" as an abusive music instructor, screen icon Meryl Streep in Stephen Sondheim's "Into The Woods" as the Witch, and Jake Gyllenhaal's spellbinding and cringe-worthy performance as a videographer in "Nightcrawler."
But perhaps the most exciting of all is that of Jennifer Aniston, who flexed her acting muscles in the indie film "Cake," co-starring Oscar-nominated actress Anna Kendrick. Earning her first nod for Best Female Actor, Aniston plays an acerbic woman in a chronic pain support group who investigates the suicide of a fellow attendee while battling her own personal demons.
"This is the best 6 a.m. wake up call ever. Words can't describe how blessed I feel to be recognized like this by my peers for this film. What an enormous feeling of joy and gratitude," Aniston said in a statement.
The 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will air on TBS and TNT on Jan. 25, 2015. Read the complete list of nominees here.
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