Black Panther wins best movie ensemble at Screen Actors Guild Awards

Black Panther won the award for best movie ensemble at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday.  

The Marvel Comics superhero film also won the best stunt ensemble award before the SAG Awards ceremony began.

Chadwick Boseman thanked his fellow actors and executives who made the film.

The actor, who plays the Black Panther in the groundbreaking superhero flick, said many of the cast understood what it meant to be a black actor on the film and creating "a world we wanted to see."

Separately, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel kicked off the 25th SAG with a trio of honours while Emily Blunt was the upset winner for best supporting actress for her role in A Quiet Place.

Blunt's win was a shocker, particularly for the actress herself. Blunt, also nominated by the guild for her lead performance in Mary Poppins Returns, was visibly surprised. She wasn't among Tuesday's Oscars nominees for either film.

"That truly has blown my slicked hair back," said Blunt, who praised her husband and A Quiet Place director John Krasinski as a "stunning filmmaker."

"Thank you for giving me the part," she said. "You would have been in major trouble if you hadn't."

Best supporting actor in a film went more as expected. Mahershala Ali, who claimed that award two years ago for Moonlight, won for his performance in Peter Farrelly's interracial road trip fim Green Book. Ali thanked his co-star, Viggo Mortensen, and Farrelly.

The Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel won the first three awards handed out Sunday at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

It won best comedy series ensemble, best actress in a comedy series for Rachel Brosnahan, and best actor in a comedy series for Tony Shalhoub, whose win was a surprise in a category that included Bill Hader (Barry) and Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method).

"We cannot thank you enough," said Shalhoub, speaking for the cast. "Stay with us."

Canadian star Sandra Oh and Jason Bateman were the best-actor winners for drama series. Oh added another trophy for her lead role in the BBC America series Killing Eve, while Bateman scored for Netlfix's Ozark. 

Bateman used the win to encourage actors who are out of work, much like he was for years, while Oh thanked a series of actors, including her mentor. She also singled out Alfre Woodard, Lena Waithe and Jamie Foxx for supportive comments they've shared with her over the years.

Among the attendees Sunday was Geoffrey Owens, the Cosby Show actor who caused a stir when he was photographed working at a New Jersey Trader Joe's. He was among the performers who began the show with the SAG Awards' typical "I am an actor" testimony.

The SAG Awards have one thing the Oscars don't: a host. Emcee Megan Mullally kicked off the awards by joking about their role among the many honours leading up to next month's Oscars. She called the SAGs "the greatest honour an actor can receive this weekend."

Tom Hanks was tapped to present the lifetime achievement award to Alan Alda, who in July revealed that he had been living with Parkinson's disease.

The SAG Awards are one of the most reliable bellwethers of the Academy Awards, but several of this year's top Oscar contenders failed to land a best ensemble nomination.

SAG diverges from Oscars

The two leading Oscar nominees — Roma and The Favourite — were bypassed by the actors guild for a field that also includes Crazy Rich Asians, Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star Is Born, which led all films with four nominations.

The Favourite still earned nods for its three lead actresses — Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz — but Roma was shut out entirely. Both films landed 10 Oscar nods Tuesday.

The best picture winner at the Academy Awards has always first been nominated for best ensemble by the SAG Awards except in 1996, when Braveheart won best picture, and last year, when Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water overcame the SAG omission to win best picture. The actors guild instead awarded Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri its top prize.

Actors make up the largest percentage of the academy, so their preferences can have an especially large impact on the Oscar race. In the last decade, the SAG ensemble winner has gone on to win best picture at the Academy Awards half of the time.

Ahead of this year's show, the Screen Actors Guild also took the unusual step of publicly criticizing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for pressuring stars to appear only on the Oscars. The film academy has declined to comment.