LOS ANGELES – What had looked like a predictable Academy Awards season grew more intriguing with a few surprise winners at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
The ensemble drama “Crash” beat out Oscar best-picture front-runner “Brokeback Mountain” Sunday for the overall cast honor, the guild’s equivalent of a best-film prize.
Reese Witherspoon as singer June Carter in “Walk the Line” won best actress over her fellow Golden Globe winner and presumed Oscar favorite Felicity Huffman of the road-trip tale “Transamerica.”
And Paul Giamatti of the boxing drama “Cinderella Man” earned the guild’s supporting-actor honor over George Clooney of the oil-industry thriller “Syriana.”
Clooney had won the Golden Globe and, coupled with the goodwill of his directing achievement on the Edward R. Murrow tale “Good Night, and Good Luck,” he has had the look of a mega-star destined for Oscar triumph.
Even Sandra Bullock – whose co-stars in “Crash” include Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Thandie Newton, Terrence Howard and Jennifer Esposito – expressed mild wonder backstage about the outcome.
“I’m still a little surprised. Not that they won,” Bullock said, referring to her co-stars, “but that I was part of the group that won.”
“Crash” follows the lives of a far-flung cast of characters over a chaotic 36-hour period in Los Angeles.
The guild’s other film prizes were more predictable. Philip Seymour Hoffman took the best-actor prize for his role as author Truman Capote in “Capote,” and Rachel Weisz earned the supporting-actress honor for the murder thriller “The Constant Gardener,” in which she plays a rabble-rousing humanitarian-aid worker.
Hoffman said backstage that awards are nice but pale next to the thrill of landing those first parts and simply putting in a good day’s work.
He and Weisz, who also won Golden Globes for their roles, have now established themselves as the actors to beat at this year’s Academy Awards. Oscar nominees will be announced today, with the awards presented March 5.
“Brokeback Mountain” has been considered the Oscar front-runner. Its loss to “Crash” could prove a speed-bump on the film’s path toward becoming the first explicitly gay-themed movie to win a best picture Oscar, but it has dominated earlier Hollywood honors, so it likely remains the favorite.
Last year, “Sideways” won SAG’s ensemble prize, but “Million Dollar Baby” went on to take the best-picture Oscar.
Directed by Ang Lee, who won the Directors Guild of America honor Saturday, “Brokeback Mountain” stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as sheep-herding buddies whose summer of love turns into a lifelong affair they conceal from their wives.
“Brokeback Mountain” earned the Golden Globe for best drama, but it was shut out at the actors guild honors, where Ledger, Gyllenhaal and co-star Michelle Williams all had been nominated.
Associated Press
Cast members from “Crash” Sandra Bullock (left), Thandie Newton, Matt Dillon and Jennifer Esposito pose with their SAG award Sunday night.
SAG winners
Movies
Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Capote.”
Actress: Reese Witherspoon, “Walk the Line.”
Supporting actor: Paul Giamatti, “Cinderella Man.”
Supporting actress: Rachel Weisz, “The Constant Gardener.”
Ensemble cast: “Crash.”
Television
Actor in a TV movie or miniseries: Paul Newman, “Empire Falls.”
Actress in a TV movie or miniseries: S. Epatha Merkerson, “Lackawanna Blues.”
Actor in a drama series: Kiefer Sutherland, “24.”
Actress in a drama series: Sandra Oh, “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Actor in a comedy series: Sean Hayes, “Will &Grace.”
Actress in a comedy series: Felicity Huffman, “Desperate Housewives.”
Drama ensemble: “Lost.”
Comedy ensemble: “Desperate Housewives.”
Lifetime achievement
Shirley Temple Black.
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