Da'Vine Joy Randolph wins at 30th SAG Awards streaming on Netflix

Da'Vine Joy Randolph has won best supporting female actor at the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards, solidifying her status as Oscar favourite.

Randolph's performance in Alexander Payne's The Holdovers has been a breakthrough role for the 37-year-old actor. Now, she appears poised to win the Academy Award.

"To every actor out there still waiting in the wings for their chance, let me tell you: Your life can change in a day," Randolph said. "It's not a question of if but when. Keep going.

The 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards, streaming for the first time live on Netflix, got underway Saturday with Oscar momentum up for grabs for lead nominees Oppenheimer and Barbie." The host-less ceremony kicked off at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles.

 

Personally, I can't wait to get home and have Netflix recommend this show to me based on all the other stuff that I watch myself in, joked Idris Elba, kicking off the show.

After more than two decades airing on TNT and TBS to dwindling viewership, Netflix acquired telecast rights to the SAG Awards in early 2023. That meant some different rules, including no ads and permitted bad language. Elba, who kicked off the show on stage, suggested a delicate dance.

Don't say anything you wouldn't say in front of Oprah, said Elba, who promptly added an expletive.

This year's SAG Awards follows a grueling months-long strike in which the SAG-AFTRA union fought a bitter battle over a number of issues. Much of the work stoppage was prompted over changes in the film and TV industry brought on by streaming and a sea change led by Netflix.

It didn't take long for the night's hosts to nab an award of their own. Ali Wong, who sported one of the most eye-catching looks on the red carpet, won best female actor in a TV movie or limited series for the Netflix series Beef. Later, her co-star Steven Yeun also won.

"The Bear likewise continued its awards run, winning best comedy series, and awards for Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri.

The new streaming platform was sure to put even more of a spotlight on one of the most closely-watched predictors of the Academy Awards. Oscar voting wraps Tuesday. The lack of ad breaks meant some notable tweaks. Shortly after winning, many winners were interviewed backstage sometimes charmingly, sometimes awkwardly by red-carpet co-host Tan France.

Pedro Pascal, looking very surprised, won best male actor in a drama series for "This Is Us."

"This is wrong for a number of reasons," said Pascal. I'm a little bit drunk. I thought I could get drunk.

Two awards for stunt ensemble were announced during the red carpet. Those went to the stunt performers of Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One, in the film category, and for The Last of Us in television.

The SAG Life Achievement Award is to be given to Barbra Streisand.

Saturday's show was one of Netflix's most significant forays yet into live streaming events. Netflix has previously hosted a live Chris Rock comedy special, a celebrity golf tournament and a live reunion Love Is Blind episode that was marred by technical difficulties. But Netflix is gearing up for more. On March 3, it will stream a live tennis event.

Oppenheimer continued to steamroll through Hollywood's awards season on Saturday, winning the top prize, for outstanding cast, along with awards for Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr., at the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards.

As the Academy Awards draw closer, Christopher Nolan's blockbuster biopic already a winner at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs has increasingly looked like the run-away favorite. The SAG Awards, one of the most telling Oscar predictors, will only add to the momentum for Oppenheimer, the lead Academy Awards nominee with 13 nods.

The night's most thrilling win went to Lily Gladstone for female actor in a leading role in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon. No category has been more hotly contested, with analysts evenly split between Gladstone and Emma Stone for Poor Things.

But Gladstone won Saturday and the crowd erupted. Stone, too, stood and vigorously applauded. More is riding on Gladstone than perhaps any other Oscar contender this year. Her win would be a first for Native Americans.

We bring empathy into a world that so much needs it, said Gladstone.

It's so easy to distance ourselves. It's so easy to close off, to stop feeling. And we all bravely keep feeling. And that humanizes people. That brings people out of the shadows. It brings visibility.

Murphy and Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) have also been seen as in a neck-and-neck contest. But Murphy has now won at the SAGs, the BAFTAs and Globes, suggesting he has the clear edge heading into the Academy Awards.

Downey Jr. and Da'Vine Joy Randolph each won for their supporting performances, likewise solidifying their status as Oscar favorites.

Why me? Why now? Why do things seem to be going my way? said Downey Jr., accepting his first SAG Award for a film performance. "Unlike my fellow nominees, I will never grow tired from the sound of my own voice."

The SAG Awards don't always signify Oscar success. Two of the last five winners from the guild (The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Black Panther) lost at the Academy Awards. But in the past two years, all five of the top SAG prizes best ensemble and the four acting winners have corresponded with the eventual Oscar winners, including the ensembles for Everything Everywhere All at Once and CODA.

That could mean the SAGs offered an Oscar preview in two of the closest contests: best actor and best actress.