SAG Awards 2024: Don’t overlook ‘American Fiction’ for Best Film Ensemble
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With the SAG-AFTRA strike officially in the rearview mirror, the Screen Actors Guild Awards are set to take take place on February 24, 2024. Last year, all four acting winners went on to prevail at the Academy Awards and the Best Film Ensemble champ, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” won Best Picture. Our current odds at Gold Derby have casts from “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Poor Things” and “The Color Purple” predicted to fill out this year’s ensemble lineup, but I’m here to make a case for another likely nominee you may not see coming: Cord Jefferson‘s “American Fiction.”
“American Fiction” is based on the 2001 novel, “Erasure,” by Percival Everett and showcases an overlooked author’s frustration with the entertainment industry’s exploitation of Black artists. The film slated for a December 15 release has received widespread acclaim for its masterful way of satirizing this issue without compromising the integrity of its message. By assuming a pseudonym and crafting a work composed largely of deep racial stereotyping, the central character, known colloquially as Monk (Jeffrey Wright), achieves broader attention than before, illustrating both the character’s and Jefferson’s point here: voices from marginalized groups often have to pander to the masses’ perception of them in order to achieve success. Winning the Toronto International Film Festival’s audience award, “American Fiction” is in position to be a big hit as awards bodies make their selections. One major stepping stone within its reach is landing a nomination for Best Film Ensemble at the SAG Awards.
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Over the past decade, every TIFF audience award recipient that starred more than a pair of well-known actors has nabbed a nomination for its ensemble at the SAG Awards. The only exceptions were the predominantly two-hander films “Room,” “La La Land,” and “Green Book,” as well as “Nomadland,” which featured many real life non-actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves. Those snubs are easy to explain away because the movies didn’t have large casts that the category is made to represent. The films nominated after winning in Toronto – “Silver Linings Playbook,” “12 Years A Slave,” “The Imitation Game,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Belfast,” and “The Fabelmans,” – represent a lauded list of movies that all had success at major awards stateside, putting “American Fiction” in excellent company.
Furthermore, the cast of “American Fiction” includes stars that are held in high regard by the guild. Wright has been nominated twice before – once individually for his performance in 2004’s “Angels in America” and again as part of “Westworld’s” ensemble (2017). Tracee Ellis Ross was the leading lady for the twice-nominated ensemble of ABC’s “Blackish” (2017, 2018). Sterling K. Brown was nominated for nine SAG awards over five years, winning four – one individual prize and two ensemble wins for his performance in the NBC drama “This Is Us” (2018, 2019) and a third cast victory for the film “Black Panther” (2019). The gravitas that these individuals have with the guild will pique members’ interests in “American Fiction” and further propel its visibility. Once enough eyes are on this film, its awards profile will soar.
Other cast members who haven’t had prior luck with the SAG Awards, but still bring name recognition are eight-time Emmy nominee Issa Rae (“Insecure,” “A Black Lady Sketch Show”), Erika Alexander (“Living Single”) and Adam Brody (“Fleishman is In Trouble”).
With stellar reviews and this stacked, diverse cast, “American Fiction” is not only a possibility to show up at the SAG Awards, but a likelihood. It currently sits in sixth place in Gold Derby’s odds for Best Film Ensemble, which is surprising given recent awards history. I’d go so far as to say that it won’t only be nominated, it could pull off the win.
PREDICT the 2024 SAG Award nominations through January 10
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