{"id":92864,"date":"2019-01-28T20:17:37","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T18:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ngradio.gr\/?p=92864\/"},"modified":"2020-06-18T22:34:22","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T19:34:22","slug":"black-panther-spice-oscars-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ngradio.gr\/en\/cinema-tv\/black-panther-spice-oscars-race\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Black Panther\u2019 Is Here to Spice Up the Oscars Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Instead of cementing favorites, Sunday night\u2019s SAG Awards gave a boost to a couple of dark horses and added a hint of chaos to an awards season that finally seemed to be solidifying.<\/p>\n

With just under a month until the Oscars, a lot of uncertainty remains around some of this year\u2019s biggest awards, including the\u00a0ever-shifting tides in the Best Picture race<\/a>. This is ostensibly when the SAG Awards come in to provide a bit of clarity\u2014not just with the Best Picture front-runners, but with the acting categories. The members of the Screen Actors Guild overlap a lot with\u00a0Academy members<\/a>, and of the Academy\u2019s many branches in the entertainment industry, the acting branch includes the largest number of members. Whichever way the SAG voting swings, the Academy often leans the same way.<\/p>\n

But this year\u2019s SAG Awards, presented Sunday night, weren\u2019t a guide so much as another curveball in what\u2019s shaping up to be one of the most unpredictable Oscars in recent years. With that in mind, here are the five biggest takeaways from the SAG Awards and how they might affect the Oscars\u2019 biggest categories heading into February. (You can check out the\u00a0full list of SAG winners\u2014including the television categories\u2014here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Black Panther<\/em>\u00a0Isn\u2019t Just Happy to Be Here<\/h3>\n

Black Panther<\/em>\u2019s inclusion in the Oscar nominations was supposed to be a victory in and of itself: Finally, a superhero film is being recognized as a Best Picture nominee, a decade after\u00a0The Dark Knight<\/em>\u2019s widely derided exclusion\u00a0prompted a change<\/a>\u00a0in the Academy\u2019s nomination process. (That\u00a0Black Panther<\/em>\u00a0tallied seven Oscar nominations was the icing on the cake.) For a ceremony that\u2019s had dwindling viewers in recent years, the line of thought was that at least one of the highest-grossing films of 2018 could possibly pique Oscars interest outside of cinephiles and awards-season enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

But after winning Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the SAG Awards on Sunday,\u00a0Black Panther<\/em>\u00a0is more than just a welcome addition to the race: It\u2019s a legitimate dark-horse candidate. Granted, winning the award isn\u2019t the most accurate precursor to winning Best Picture\u2014last year\u2019s Oscar winner,\u00a0The Shape of Water<\/em>, didn\u2019t even earn a nomination\u2014but it provides Ryan Coogler\u2019s film with some legitimate momentum against this year\u2019s presumed front-runners,\u00a0Roma<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Green Book<\/em>. (Neither of those films got a SAG nomination, either.)<\/p>\n

And if\u00a0Black Panther<\/em>\u2019s win gave it a boost heading into the Oscars, it also dealt a blow to the Best Picture nominees it beat in the category:\u00a0BlacKkKlansman<\/em>,\u00a0Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em>, and\u00a0A Star Is Born<\/em>. (Crazy Rich Asians<\/em>\u00a0was the other nominee in this category, but it wasn\u2019t nominated for Best Picture.) All three films were on the precipice of the Best Picture race and could\u2019ve used a SAG win to stand a chance of usurping the likes of\u00a0Green Book\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0Roma<\/em>\u00a0at the Oscars. Now if there\u2019s a movie to bet on to sneak into the Best Picture race\u2014even if its chances are still marginal\u2014it might be\u00a0Black Panther.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Chadwick
Chadwick Boseman and the \u2018Black Panther\u2019 cast accept a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Glenn Close: Wife, Best Actress Front-runner<\/h3>\n

The past six SAG winners for Best Actress went on to win the same Oscars category, making it one of the most dependable awards-season precursors. This is great news, then, for Glenn Close. She won a Golden Globe for her leading role in\u00a0The Wife<\/em>\u2014now playing on a domestic or transatlantic flight near you\u2014beating out Lady Gaga for\u00a0A Star Is Born<\/em>, who, at the time, seemed like the Best Actress front-runner. Now Close also has the SAG award over Gaga.<\/p>\n

This is officially Close\u2019s Oscar to lose, with Gaga and perhaps\u00a0The Favourite<\/em>\u2019s Olivia Colman serving as her closest\u2014but by a mile\u2014competitors. (Colman also won at the Globes and could win at the BAFTAs because, you know, it\u2019s basically the British Oscars and, therefore, is very pro-British.) At this point, Close has the award more or less wrapped up; she has the most compelling awards-season narrative, the most awards, and the most momentum. It\u2019ll be a shock if she doesn\u2019t win for\u00a0The Wife<\/em>, even if we\u2019re not entirely sure whether anyone has actually seen\u00a0The Wife<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Between Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet and Michael B. Jordan, is the awards show harness officially a thing now? #SAGawards<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/gpYmyP3O57<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) January 28, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n