SAG Awards Returns to the Stage

After last year’s remote ceremony, the SAG Awards confidently took the stage once again for a live show honoring the best performances in film and television. The 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, which took place at the historic Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, brought together some of the highest-profile members of the acting profession for the actors’ party in the actors’ house.

The show featured some historic firsts. Troy Kotsur became the first deaf actor to win an individual SAG Award, which he received for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for CODA, a film that also took the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Squid Game received the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series award, the first non-English language television series to do so. Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae and Jung Ho-yeon took home the male and female honors for outstanding performance in a drama series.  

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher began her remarks with hope for peace in Ukraine. Reflecting the night’s diverse honorees, she spoke of the importance of inclusion, as well as the many ways the union is using its influence to help to build a better world. She called out the formation of the Green Council, which includes other unions, NGOs and environmentalists; a National Sexual Harassment Committee; and the Senior Financial Crisis Fund, which was created in partnership with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation.

“Let unity and inclusion be our credo, and always celebrate the many diverse threads that make up the fabric of the human experience,” she said. “This industry is the greatest influencer on the planet. We must always leverage that for the greater good.”

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. On television, the ensemble awards went to Succession in the drama category and Ted Lasso in the comedy category. View all the honorees at sagawards.org.

A particularly special moment in the program was when the SAG Life Achievement Award was presented to Helen Mirren.

“Actors, you’re a magnificent tribe, stretching across culture, history and time,” she said as she reached for the award statuette. “This is for the actors.”

Mirren’s previous honors have included an Oscar, multiple SAG Awards, three Emmys, numerous BAFTA Awards, a Tony Award, a BAFTA Fellowship Award, an Olivier Award, The Film Society at Lincoln Center’s Chaplin Award, and she was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2003. To date, Mirren is the most decorated SAG Life Achievement recipient with a total of 13 SAG Awards nominations and five SAG Award Actor wins.

The SAG Awards were simulcast live on TNT and TBS and will be viewable tomorrow on HBO Max.