Yahoo News Actors Expected To Hit Awards Circuit In Force As SAG-AFTRA & Studios Reach Tentative Deal To End Strike
With SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP having reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, it appears that the long-stalled beginning of Oscar campaign season for the many actors, forbidden from participating in any form of promotion for movies distributed and made by struck studios and streamers, finally can join the party. Until now, the FYC campaigns largely have been fronted by directors, craftspeople and, more recently with the end of the WGA strike, writers. For many voters, however, it is the lure of the stars that fills seats at FYC screening events and gets tune-in to the late-night talk shows and other promotional outlets so often used during the season to bring attention to a contender.
Since the July start of the strike, stars of presumed top-tier contenders from Bradley Cooper to Cillian Murphy to Annette Bening to Margot Robbie to Leonardo DiCaprio have been AWOL on the circuit, absent from the all-important fall festivals and unable to promote anywhere including for film openings, even to the ridiculous SAG Halloween costume ban. Now you can bet the stars will be everywhere in pursuit of that shiny golden statuette known as Oscar and at all stops in between until the Academy Awards finally take place on Sunday, March 10.
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There is likely to be an immediate noticeable difference on the circuit. For instance, Warner Bros.’ big Christmas Day release, The Color Purple, will have its big unveiling on November 16 at the Motion Picture Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theatre. Invites only mention its director Blitz Bazawule as participating in the post-screening Q&A but tease there could be others. Now I would guess you can probably expect the cast including Fantasia, Danielle Brooks and Taraji P. Henson and producer Oprah Winfrey to be there, just as they all were at CinemaCon in April before any strike happened. Actors are likely to added to various FYC events all over town.
Deadline’s The Contenders event November 18 at the DGA already has a strong lineup, but more actors, unleashed and free to promote, now are expected. With the holidays fast approaching, critics groups voting and Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards nominations are just weeks away, and with January jam-packed with various awards ceremonies including the Globes (still waiting to announced a TV deal possibly as soon as the strike ends), Critics Choice and the Palm Springs Film Festival Gala, not to mention the strike-delayed Emmys and Governors Awards (where contenders also freely shake hands with Oscar voters), you can expect those thesps with a shot at glory to be very visible from now on. Announcements of honorees at such important awards season stops as Palm Springs and Santa Barbara film fests can be expected to come quickly. One top strategist told me Monday that their (very A-list) contenders are telling them their bags are packed and they are ready to hit the circuit as soon as SAG gives the green light.
Front and center will be attention geared toward the SAG Awards, a key Oscar harbinger that in recent years has had nearly a 100% track record in predicting where the Oscars will head (last year, SAG correctly predicted eventual Academy Awards for Michelle Yeoh, Brendan Fraser, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan, and Everything Everywhere All at Once). Each spring, the Screen Actors Guild randomly selects two sets of 2,500 members to serve on the Movie and TV selection committees. While we have been told those committees are in place, they largely have been stuck in time. One veteran campaigner told us that the members are known and once the strike is over, the “send” button will be activated and those SAG Nom Comm members will be inundated with invites, screeners, and all the perks.
Nomination voting closes on January 7, with nominations being announced on January 10. The 30th annual SAG Awards is scheduled to air on Saturday, February 24. Ironically, this is set to be the first year in a new broadcast deal in which the awards will air live on Netflix, one of the key struck companies that has been subjected to relentless picketing for the past four months. In fact, it was only in early October that the guild finally actually got around to putting out guidelines regarding this year’s SAG awards, thus allowing the submission process to take place at all. That began on October 4, with a deadline that ended Monday at 5 p.m. PT, about two weeks later than originally planned pre-strike.
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SAG deemed that submissions by themselves were not considered “promotional” under the strike order and that submission fees would be deferred until the end of the strike. FYC Events, e-blasts and screeners for SAG Awards consideration has remained on pause, however. SAG did emphasize that productions covered by their interim agreements are not struck and therefore not affected in any way, with actors in those free to go any promotional duties including FYC events.
Among those actors have been Helen Mirren (Golda), who appeared at a Tuesday night Q&A at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theatre as well as being guest of honor at a lunch Bleecker Street organized for the film on Wednesday. Others include Sandra Huller (The Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall), Venice Best Actor winner Peter Sarsgaard and Jessica Chastain (Memory), Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz (Ferrari), Greta Lee (Past Lives), Glenn Howerton (BlackBerry), Juliette Binoche (The Taste of Things), and Venice Best Actress winner Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi (Priscilla), among others. Whether the head start for them provides an unusual advantage this season remains to be seen. Bookings for various podcasts and my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side and Behind the Lens have been robust despite the strike, but now the floodgates are opening.
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Already the normal flow of awards season has been changed significantly, most recently last week with the announcement that the WGA Awards will be held April 14, a month later than the Oscars, due to what the guild said were logistical problems related to its five-month strike. Whether SAG holds to its announced schedule and airdate on Netflix also remains to be seen, but the fact it has maintained the submission process even while picketing indicates the union has been hopeful of keeping the schedule intact.
In terms of television and the awards shows that also honors actors in that medium, there has been some internal talk among groups like Critics Choice about eligibility since many shows that might be contenders like Abbott Elementary have yet to start new seasons due to the widespread delay on the networks of the fall TV season. Would hanging episodes from the spring make shows like that still eligible at the Globes, Critics Choice and SAG, all of which all operate on a traditional calendar year, rather than the Emmys, whose eligibility is June-to-May and which — though that ceremony was delayed until early 2024 — had voting completed on schedule in August, unaffected by the strikes? In the end, it probably is best to stick with the status quo and hope for the best.
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Of course, the late-night talk shows have been back in force, but there have been few actors with major studio movies to promote available for appearances. Saturday Night Live has gotten clever with bookings including Timothée Chalamet set for this week, followed by Jason Momoa on November 18. Both happen to have major holiday Warner Bros releases — Wonka and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, respectively — but even if the tentative agreement hadn’t been reached, SNL could tout that they were booked for other promotions (Chalamet has a Chanel gig, Momoa a fashion connection). Warners no doubt is planning ad buys to run during both appearances, not an uncommon thing strike or no strike, but maybe the show itself might have some Wonka and/or Aquaman-related references.
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Now that the strike is behind us (pending ratification from the SAG/AFTRA members), the awards season that has been collateral damage due to the work stoppage looks to be saved in the nick of time — and you can bet it is full speed ahead.
Fasten your seatbelts.
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