Inglourious Basterds wins top prize at Screen Actors Guild awards

11 April 2012
The Weekender

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Inglourious Basterds won the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild, while Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock were hailed as best movie actor and actress of 2009.

Director Quentin Tarantino's World War Two revenge fantasy won for best ensemble cast in a Los Angeles ceremony that is usually seen as a key indicator of likely success in March at the Oscars.

Avatar, which won a Golden Globe and has earned more than $1.6 billion at global box offices, was not in the running at SAG, which rewards acting talent rather than action adventure movies.

Inglourious Basterds beat off challenges from independent Iraq war movie The Hurt Locker, British film An Education, star-studded musical Nine, and urban drama Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire.

George Clooney presents the award to the cast of Inglourious Basterds

However the wins for Bullock and Bridges, make them leading favorites for Oscar glory. Both also won at the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards.

Bullock, previously best known for romantic comedies, plays a wealthy white mother who takes a down-trodden black high school football player into her home in The Blind Side.

"Thank you for making me proud to be an actor, and allowing me to be here, and just accepting me," she said, accepting her trophy.

Bridges, who plays a drunken country singer in Crazy Heart, was given a standing ovation by his fellow actors.

"I love being an actor, pretending to be in the shoes of other folks," he said, saying the array of stars at the SAG dinner were like "a big family."

Actor George Clooney's critically acclaimed corporate down-sizing tale Up in the Air also failed to get a best ensemble cast nomination from the 120,000 SAG members who work in U.S. films, television shows and commercials.

The popular Clooney, who helped organize Friday's celebrity telethon for victims of the Haiti earthquake, also lost out in the best actor race.

Christoph Waltz took his first supporting actor SAG award for playing a manipulative Nazi officer in Basterds. Comedy actress Mo'Nique took home the supporting actress award for playing against type as an abusive mother in Precious.

Both Waltz and Mo'Nique came off Golden Globe wins last weekend.

"I have no lucky charm. I am 100 per cent superstition-free and I take nothing for granted," Waltz told reporters when asked about his Oscar chances.

SAG also hands out awards for television, with AMC's stylish 1960s series Mad Men won for a second year for best ensemble drama cast and the Fox high school comedy Glee taking the award for best ensemble comedy cast in its first season.

Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin continued their long streak of wins for best comedy actress and actor for NBC's 30 Rock, while Julianna Margulies won for best TV drama actress for The Good Wife on CBS, while Michael C. Hall won for his role as a serial killer in Showtime drama Dexter.

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