SAG Awards Nominations 2024: The 11 Biggest Snubs and Surprises

The Screen Actors Guild Awards offer an annual opportunity for actors to celebrate each other, and it’s probably a particularly good feeling after all that strike-era solidarity. But with the nominations coming just day before Oscar nomination voting begins, and in the heat of awards season, they also offer a window into the preferences of one of the industry’s biggest, most influential groups of voters.

The full list of nominees across both film and television includes people who are already awards season favorites — Lily Gladstone and Da’Vine Joy Randolph on the film side, everyone involved in The Bear for TV — but also surprises in terms of who is included and who isn’t. Below, we’ve broken down the 12 biggest snubs and surprises from this morning’s announcement.

The Supporting Actor Shuffle

The supporting actor category for film this season has been cut-throat from the start, with lots of strong performances to pick from; still the SAG-AFTRA picks raise a lot of eyebrows. They went for Willem Dafoe over Mark Ruffalo for Poor Things, though Ruffalo arguably has the flashier performance and has been garnering more attention all season (this is Dafoe’s fifth SAG Awards nomination, though he’s never won). But the biggest surprise is the absence of May December’s Charles Melton, who has been racking up critics awards and already won at the Gotham Awards and the NYFCC. But he’s not the only May December actor left out this morning. —Rebecca Ford

No Room for May December

The SAG-AFTRA nominating committee tends to lean a little mainstream, but they also love Netflix titles due to their wide availability, thereby putting a bubble contender like May December in a strange position—simply, would the actors go for this complex, arty indie? Especially after largely missing on the BAFTA longlists, which always feature the vast majority of eventual acting Oscar nominees, it seemed imperative for the hopes of the campaign to at least get a mention or two here. Alas, that did not happen, and Todd Haynes’s acting masterclass was somehow blanked here across the board. No doubt Netflix’s priorities on this one will be shifting toward a more targeted push, in the hope of still finding a way for Charles Melton or Julianne Moore, particularly, to figure into the supporting races. But right now they’re on the outside looking in. —David Canfield

Sterling K. Brown Shines

Sterling K. Brown delivers a scene-stealing performance in American Fiction as the newly divorced and newly openly gay brother of the main protagonist, but most of the attention for that film has been focused on Jeffery Wright’s strong lead performance. So what a nice surprise to see Brown earn a nomination in the supporting actor category. It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, though, because Brown is beloved by the SAG community — he has six individual acting nominations for his TV work, and won in 2018 for This Is Us, when made history as the first Black actor to win for best actor in a drama series. —RF

DiCaprio Sits This One Out

Leonardo DiCaprio has been nominated for six individual SAG Awards acting nominations over the years (and won for The Revenant), and was most recently nominated for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. But with the incredibly competitive lead actor race this year, someone had to be left out and SAG-AFTRA went with DiCaprio. Though DiCaprio is still nominated as a part of the cast of Killers of the Flower Moon in the performance by a cast of a motion picture category, it’s very possible this lead actor line-up may repeat when Oscar nominations are unveiled. —RF

The Color Purple Holds Strong, Poor Things Misses 

The Color Purple has been a bit of a question mark this season so far. It’s had a strong awards campaign with its dynamic cast (and of course Oprah Winfrey, a producer) rustling up plenty of press and lots of passion at Q&As. But it’s still been unclear if it would land many nominations outside of Danielle Brooks’ supporting performance. But the Warner Bros. musical took one of the five coveted spots for the big ensemble category, reflecting significant support in the acting community. This film’s inclusion likely meant that Poor Things—considered a strong best picture contender since its debut in Venice where it won the Golden Lion—was left off the list. It’s possible the actors didn’t consider Poor Things as reliant on its ensemble as The Color Purple, but this notable snub is worth keeping an eye on as we move forward. —RF

Penelope Cruz Zooms In From Ferrari

It was only two years ago that a strong segment of the awards prediction world convinced themselves that Cruz would be a surprise best actress Oscar winner for Parallel Mothers, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that she’s got a lot of supporters for a film that otherwise hasn’t made much of a splash this awards season. With Da’Vine Joy Randolph virtually sweeping the awards in this category thus far, there’s a lot of room for surprise in who else gets nominated. Hopefuls like Barbie’s America Ferrara and May December’s Julianne Moore, who weren’t nominated today, officially have new competition. —KR

Jury Duty Goes Unserved

Pour one out for the viral little show that could, which revolved around a cast of talented improv and character actors, James Marsden, and one non-actor who thought he was participating in a documentary about serving jury duty. Freevee’s surprise hit gave us yet another reason to appreciate Marsden’s acting range and comedic chops—he seemed to be having a blast playing an exaggerated, narcissistic version of himself—and the series also made an unsuspecting star of real-life good guy Ronald Gladden. Despite the great buzz and industry love for the quirky, feel-good comedy, the cast and Marsden were snubbed by SAG. – Kara Warner

The Gilded Age Is Coming to the Opera

In its first season, Julian Fellowes’s lavishly appointed drama about robber barons and their servants was utterly ignored by major awards-giving bodies, save for one creative arts Emmy for production design. But apparently, SAG-AFTRA started tuning in this year; the show got a surprise nomination for best drama ensemble, no mean feat for a series largely recognized as prestige TV’s best worst show. We’d love to celebrate, as soon as we can return from visiting our new railroad in Pittsburgh. —Hillary Busis

Alex Borstein’s Final Maisel Bow Nudges Out Natasha Lyonne

The category for actress in a comedy series was always going to be packed, and Alex Borstein‘s nomination here makes sense, especially following the series’ final season. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star is beloved in the role and series, and already has several awards for it, including two SAG Awards. But her inclusion seems to have nudged out a favorite new contender, Natasha Lyonne, for her acclaimed performance in Peacock’s crafty whodunit Poker Face, which is up for an Emmy next week. – KW

Emmy-Nominated Actresses Left Out in Limited Series

After a rather paltry summer and fall for buzzy limited series, there was a big open question as to how much voters would look back to the spring to fill out their ballots with these acting categories. Some performers who were Emmy-nominated seemed like especially safe bets, like Daisy Jones & the Six’s Riley Keough and Swarm’s Dominique Fishback, especially given the buzz around their series. But this group surprised with a fresher pick in multi-SAG-Award winner Uzo Aduba, a standout on Netflix’s otherwise forgettable opioid crisis drama Painkiller. It’s the first notable shoutout for that show, and an indication that those Emmy nominees may not be as strong at next week’s show as we may have thought. Also making the cut was Bel Powley, whose excellent A Small Light was overlooked by the Academy. Finally, some deserved industry recognition goes that period piece’s way. —DC

Jeremy Strong Uninvited From the Roy Family Reunion

With Kieran Culkin moving up to lead status for Succession’s final season it was always going to be more crowded for the rest of the Roy family — but most people probably expected Culkin, Brian Cox, and Jeremy Strong to all make it in, as they did at the Emmy nominations. Instead Strong, nominated alongside Cox and Culkin in 2021, will be sitting out, though he’s of course included in the show’s best ensemble nomination. —KR

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