The 30th SAG Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Enduring Legacy of the Acting Profession

The 30th SAG Awards represented a milestone achievement for the awards, the union and the acting profession. Returning to the Shrine Auditorium, where the ceremony had previously been held from 1998–2020, this year’s SAG Awards, which were broadcast live on Netflix, heralded a resurrection of glitz and glamour following SAG-AFTRA’s historic 118-day strike.

As hosts of the SAG Awards Official Pre-Show, Tan France and Elaine Welteroth interviewed nominees and highlighted the many impressive fashions worn by the arrivals. They also announced the winners of the Outstanding Stunt Ensemble awards, with the stunt team of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One winnning for Outstanding Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture and the stunt team of The Last of Us winning Outstanding Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series. 

The night was a celebration of both exceptional performances as well as the union’s hard-won contract. In remarks made to attendees at the Shrine Auditorium, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland acknowledged the volunteer strike captains whose commitment to their union was an inspiration to all SAG-AFTRA members. “[They] organized, rallied and kept our focus where it needed to be,” he said, adding, “This room, right now, is a living metaphor for the unity and solidarity that brought us through the past year to this moment.”

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher praised union members for their resolve: “Your solidarity ignited workers around the world, triggering what forever will be remembered as the ‘Hot Labor Summer.’”

Making history as the first Native American woman to win a SAG Award, Lily Gladstone took home the Actor for Outstanding Female Actor in a Leading Role for Killers of the Flower Moon. Outstanding Male Actor in a Leading Role went to Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer. 

The cast of The Bear dominated the television categories, with Jeremy Allen White winning for Outstanding Male Actor in a Comedy Series, Ayo Edebiri winning for Outstanding Female Actor in a Comedy Series, and the rest of the cast, including Abby Elliott, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Liza Colón-Zayas, and Jose Cervantes Jr. for Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series. 

The SAG Awards is the only televised awards ceremony to exclusively honor performers, and it gives SAG-AFTRA union members the opportunity to recognize their peers on the big and small screens. In the other television categories, Pedro Pascal won for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series for The Last of Us and Elizabeth Debicki won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for The Crown. Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series went to Succession. View all the honorees at sagawards.org.

Jennifer Aniston and Bradley Cooper presented the 59th SAG Life Achievement Award to stage, screen and television icon Barbra Streisand. In her acceptance speech, Streisand reflected on her six-decade career. “It’s really a privilege to be a part of this profession,” she said.

Streisand’s numerous honors include two Academy Awards; 10 Grammys, including the Grammy Legend and Lifetime Achievement Awards; five Emmy Awards; three Peabody Awards; a Tony Award; and others. Also committed to advocacy and philanthropy, Streisand lends her star power to various charitable efforts. She established the Streisand Foundation in 1986, which provides funding for a number of impactful organizations, including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Center for American Progress, Mother Jones, ProPublica, Friends of the Earth and ACLU Southern California, among others.

In 2021, Streisand endowed the Barbra Streisand Institute at UCLA to examine the critical issues related to art, truth, gender equity and climate change.

Idris Elba opened the ceremony. Also presenting were Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt — the three leads in the iconic 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada. Also presenting were Erika Alexander (American Fiction), Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple), Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction), Michael Cera (Barbie), Jessica Chastain (Mothers’ Instinct), Colman Domingo (Rustin, The Color Purple), Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer), SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, Phil Dunster (Ted Lasso), Billie Eilish (Swarm), America Ferrera (Barbie), Brendan Fraser (Killers of the Flower Moon), Taraji P. Henson (The Color Purple), Troy Kotsur (CODA), Greta Lee (The Morning Show), Melissa McCarthy (Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story), Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), Glen Powell (Hit Man), Issa Rae (American Fiction, Barbie), Storm Reid (Euphoria), Margot Robbie (Barbie), Tracee Ellis Ross (American Fiction), Alexander Skarsgård (Succession), Omar Sy (Lupin), Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso), Naomi Watts (Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans), and Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction).

All photos by Shutterstock. 

The SAG Awards will continue to be available on Netflix for 30 days.