A month before the Oscars comes what’s usually one of the more reliable predictors of Acadamy Award success, when America’s main acting union, SAG-AFTRA, hands out its annual honours to its members’ peers.

With the Academy’s increasingly diverse membership still having actors as the largest branch, for the acting Oscars in particular, this huge body of thousands of actors generally votes for the same nominees at both events.

But in two of the key Oscar categories, SAG has sewn seeds of confusion. The top prize honours the best ensemble cast and it’s seen as SAG’s equivalent to the Academy’s Best Picture. This award went to the much-heralded box office behemoth Black Panther, which, last week, became the first superhero film to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination, over The Favourite and A Star Is Born, which were the front-runners, earlier in the awards season, but collected no honours here.

But without any other nominations in the acting or directing categories, it seems unlikely that Black Panther will go on, in the same year, to become the first superhero film to win.

In SAG’s equivalent of best supporting actress, it was the British actress Emily Blunt who was honoured by her peers for A Quiet Place, but the Academy overlooked her for an Oscar nomination.

SAG’s other three winners are all in the running for next month’s Oscars, so receiving the Actor trophy will offer them a degree of confidence, if not certainty, of taking home the Academy’s own statuette.

In the leading actress category, The Wife star Glenn Close repeated her Golden Globe success, as did Green Book’s Mahershala Ali, in the supporting actor category.

The more difficult one to predict is the best actor, in which the Golden Globe winners Rami Malek (for drama in Bohemian Rhapsody) and Christian Bale (for comedy in Vice) are the front-runners, but securing recognition from his peers in SAG will give Malek the edge.

Like the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild also recognises achievement in TV – or more accurately, with so many awards going to streaming services such as Prime or Netflix, the small screen.

The biggest winner in these categories was The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, which was named best ensemble cast in a comedy series, with individual awards going to Rachel Brosnahan and Tony Shalhoub.

This Is Us won the cast prize for best drama series, with Ozark’s Jason Bateman and Killing Eve’s Sandra Oh picking up the individual honours.

In the TV movie or miniseries categories, the awards went to Patricia Arquette for Escape at Dannemora and Darren Criss for The Assassination of Gianni Versace.

Here is the full list of winners of this year’s SAG Awards:

FILM CATEGORIES

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

RAMI MALEK / Freddie Mercury – “BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY” (20th Century Fox)

 

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

GLENN CLOSE / Joan Castleman – “THE WIFE” (Sony Pictures Classics)

 

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

MAHERSHALA ALI / Dr. Donald Shirley – “GREEN BOOK” (Universal Pictures)

 

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

EMILY BLUNT / Evelyn Abbott – “A QUIET PLACE” (Paramount Pictures)

 

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

BLACK PANTHER (Marvel Studios)

ANGELA BASSETT / Ramonda

CHADWICK BOSEMAN / T’Challa/Black Panther

STERLING K. BROWN / N’Jobu

WINSTON DUKE / M’Baku

MARTIN FREEMAN / Everett K. Ross

DANAI GURIRA / Okoye

MICHAEL B. JORDAN / Erik Killmonger

DANIEL KALUUYA / W’Kabi

LUPITA NYONG’O / Nakia

ANDY SERKIS / Ulysses Klaue

FOREST WHITAKER / Zuri

LETITIA WRIGHT / Shuri

 

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

BLACK PANTHER (Marvel Studios)

 

TELEVISION CATEGORIES

 

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series

DARREN CRISS / Andrew Cunanan – “THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE:

AMERICAN CRIME STORY” (FX Networks)

 

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series

PATRICIA ARQUETTE / Tilly Mitchell – “ESCAPE AT DANNEMORA” (Showtime)

 

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series

JASON BATEMAN / Martin “Marty” Byrde – “OZARK” (Netflix)

 

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series

SANDRA OH / Eve Polastri – “KILLING EVE” (BBC America)

 

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series

TONY SHALHOUB / Abe Weissman – “THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL” (Prime Video)

 

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series

RACHEL BROSNAHAN / Miriam “Midge” Maisel – “THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL” (Prime Video)

 

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series

THIS IS US(NBC)

ERIS BAKER / Tess Pearson

STERLING K. BROWN / Randall Pearson

NILES FITCH / Teenage Randall

MACKENZIE HANCSICSAK / Young Kate

JUSTIN HARTLEY / Kevin Pearson

FAITHE HERMAN / Annie Pearson

JON HUERTAS / Miguel Rivas

MELANIE LIBURD / Zoe

CHRISSY METZ / Kate Pearson

MANDY MOORE / Rebecca Pearson

LYRIC ROSS / Déjà

CHRIS SULLIVAN / Toby Damon

MILO VENTIMIGLIA / Jack Pearson

SUSAN KELECHI WATSON / Beth Pearson

HANNAH ZEILE / Teenage Kate

 

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL (Prime Video)

CAROLINE AARON / Shirley Maisel

ALEX BORSTEIN / Susie Myerson

RACHEL BROSNAHAN / Miriam “Midge” Maisel

MARIN HINKLE / Rose Weissman

ZACHARY LEVI / Benjamin

KEVIN POLLAK / Moishe Maisel

TONY SHALHOUB / Abe Weissman

BRIAN TARANTINA / Jackie

MICHAEL ZEGEN / Joel Maisel

 

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series

GLOW (Netflix)

 

The 55th Annual SAG Life Achievement Award

ALAN ALDA