16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® Nominating Committees Selected Today

SAG Awards® will be Simulcast on TNT and TBS on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010

LOS ANGELES (April 22, 2009) -– The 4,200 Screen Actors Guild members who will determine the nominees for the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® for this year’s outstanding performances in film and primetime television were drawn by random sample today, announced SAG Awards® Committee Chair JoBeth Williams.

The SAG Awards’ separate film and television nominating committees, each consisting of 2,100 SAG members from around the country, are randomly selected anew each year. To be eligible to serve on one of this year’s nominating committees, SAG members may not have served on the same nominating committee in the past three years and must have paid their November 2008 membership dues by April 10, 2009. 

Submissions for nominations consideration for the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will open on Monday, July 13, 2009, at www.sagawards.org/submissions. With the actor’s permission, producers, studios/networks, agents, managers, or publicists may submit a performance from 2009 for consideration in a category of the actor’s choosing. Actors may also submit their own performances.

Nominations for the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be announced on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009. Once nominees are selected, all active members of Screen Actors Guild will receive ballots to determine who will receive the coveted Actor® statuettes for this year’s outstanding performances.

TNT and TBS will simulcast the annual presentation of the Screen Actors Guild Awards from the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, 7 p.m. Central and 6 p.m. MT.

Of the top accolades presented to performers, only the Actors® are conferred solely by members of Screen Actors Guild. The SAG Awards was the first televised awards show to acknowledge the work of union members and the first to present ensemble and cast awards

Remaining key deadlines and events leading to the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards are:

Monday, July 13, 2009
Submissions Open

Friday, September 11, 2009
Deadline for Nominating Committee Members to Make Address Changes

Thursday, October 1, 2009
Media Nomination Announcement & Telecast Credential Applications Open
Publicists Nomination Announcement Credential Applications Open

Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Submissions Close (Due at SAG by 5 p.m. PT)

Friday, October 30, 2009
Media Nomination Announcement & Telecast Credential Applications Close
Publicists Nomination Announcement Credential Applications Close

Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Nominations Ballots Mailed

Monday December 14, 2009
Nomination Ballots Due at the Elections Firm by 5 p.m. PT

Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Deadline for Paying November 2009 Dues and/or Changing Address with SAG to be Eligible for Final Balloting

Thursday, December 17, 2009
Nominations Announced

Thursday, December 17, 2009
Records Pulled for Final Balloting

Thursday, December 17, 2009
Publicists Telecast Credential Applications Open

Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Final Ballots Mailed to Members

Friday, January 8, 2010
Publicists Telecast Credential Applications Close

Thursday, January 21, 2010
Final Ballots Due at the Elections Firm by 12 Noon PT

Saturday, January 23, 2010
16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®

The 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be produced by Jeff Margolis Productions in association with Screen Actors Guild Awards®, LLC. Jeff Margolis is the executive producer and director. Kathy Connell is the producer. JoBeth Williams, Daryl Anderson, Scott Bakula, Shelley Fabares and Paul Napier are producers for SAG. Gloria Fujita O’Brien and Mick McCullough are supervising producers. Benn Fleishman is executive in charge of production.  More information is available online at www.sagawards.org.

Screen Actors Guild is the nation’s largest labor union representing working actors. Established in 1933, SAG has a rich history in the American labor movement, from standing up to studios to break long-term engagement contracts in the 1940s to fighting for artists’ rights amid the digital revolution sweeping the entertainment industry in the 21st century. With 20 branches nationwide, SAG represents more than 120,000 actors who work in film, television, industrials, commercials, video games, music videos and other new media formats. The Guild exists to enhance actors’ working conditions, compensation and benefits and to be a powerful, unified voice on behalf of artists’ rights. Headquartered in Los Angeles, SAG is a proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO. More information is available online at www.sag.org.

TBS, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., is television's top-rated comedy network.  It serves as home to such original comedy series as "My Boys," "The Bill Engvall Show," “10 Items or Less,” Tyler Perry's “House of Payne" and “Meet the Browns;” the eagerly anticipated late-night series starring George Lopez; hot contemporary comedies like "The Office," "My Name is Earl," "Sex and the City," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Family Guy," "King of Queens," "Seinfeld" and "Friends"; specials like "Funniest Commercials of the Year"; special events, such as "TBS Presents: a ‘Very Funny’ Festival: Just For Laughs” event in Chicago in June; blockbuster movies; and hosted movie showcases.

Turner Network Television (TNT), one of cable's top-rated networks, is television's destination for drama and home to such original series as the acclaimed and highly popular detective drama "The Closer," starring Kyra Sedgwick; "Saving Grace," starring Holly Hunter; "Raising the Bar," with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Gloria Reuben and Jane Kaczmarek; "Leverage," starring Timothy Hutton; “HawthoRNe,” with Jada Pinkett Smith; and “Dark Blue” starring Dylan McDermott. TNT also presents such powerful dramas, such as "Bones," "Cold Case," "Law & Order," "Without a Trace," "ER" and "Charmed"; broadcast premiere movies; compelling primetime specials, such as the “Screen Actors Guild Awards®”; and championship sports coverage, including NASCAR and the NBA.  TNT is available in high-definition.

Contact: Rosalind Jarrett
publicity@sagawards.org
(323) 549-6612