AWARDS for diverse films and their actors continued as four top categories in the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards took home gongs at the ceremony.
movies with Tatira Zwinoira
The top gong of the night, Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Theatrical Motion Picture went to the film Hidden Figures which has been performing well at the box office.
As of Wednesday, Hidden Figures had grossed $108,02 million in the United States and for a global total of $110,8 million.
Under Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, veteran Hollywood actor Denzel Washington caused an upset by scooping up the award for Fences. Washington scooped the award from the hot favourite for the Best Actor gong in the upcoming Oscars, Casey Affleck for his role in Manchester by the Sea.
As expected, Viola Davis — who is considered to be the top actress of colour in Hollywood today — took the awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a supporting role for the film Fences.
Mahershala Ali, for his role in Moonlight, scooped the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role award, which was not that much of a surprise considering he is a hot favourite for the Oscars.
This year’s 23rd edition of the SAG Awards was held last Sunday.
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In terms of nominations, out of the 15 categories, films featuring people of colour and its actors featured in 11 categories.
These were in Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Theatrical Motion Picture, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role and Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.
Others included Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Mini-series, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
Lastly, people of colour featured in the Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series for Luke Cage.
With the two wins for Washington and Davis who both starred in the film Fences, it effectively became the top film of colour to have the most wins.
The SAG Awards is an accolade given by the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to recognise outstanding performances in film and primetime television.
Nominations for the awards come from two committees, one for film and one for television, randomly selected each year.
Interestingly enough, SAG Awards nominees are chosen by mainly actors and actresses in the industry who are predominantly white. This means the wins come at a crucial time where race relations are taking front and centre stage in the United States.
So far, the Golden Globes and now the SAG Awards have featured people of colour with a number of nominations set for the upcoming Oscars slated for later this month.
As I mentioned in my previous movie review, this marks a sharp turn from the previous years where zero to very few films featuring people of colour and its actors featured.
Film critics in the United States called this a welcome change from previous years.
The next big film awards will be the British Academy Film Awards hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to honour the best British and international contributions to film industry.
This year’s edition will be held on February 12.
In these upcoming awards, more than 10 categories feature people of colour or the films they acted in.
In box office news, the film Split is making waves for its interesting and twisted story and is currently at the top of the table.
The film’s premise tackles the story behind mental divisions of those with dissociative identity disorder which have long fascinated and eluded science. The film explores the belief that some people can manifest unique physical attributes for each personality, a cognitive and physiological prism within a single being.
This is where the story introduces Kevin played by James McAvoy from the X-Men fame that has 23 personalities and confides in his trusted psychiatrist, Dr Fletcher (Betty Buckley). However, out of his many personalities, there remains one still submerged who is set to materialise and dominate all the others.
Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those personalities contained within him — as well as everyone around him — as the walls between his mental compartments shatter apart.
The film is directed by Manoj “M Night” Shyamalan, a famous Indian-American film director known for tackling twisted films and having one of the best visual movie styles.
Split has a 74% rating on critic website Rotten Tomatoes.
McAvoy is by far the stand out actor who played multiple characters quite convincingly. Also, Taylor-Joy’s performance as the main protagonist was also quite exceptional in her fight for survival against Kevin and his personalities.
What worked well for the film was presenting this new material in a well-structured way where the antagonist and protagonist are used to carry the film’s plot. When presenting a new story, it is the struggles of the two main characters that can make the concept believable or not.
The film was also well-scored as it played the correct background music at each crucial turn in the film’s plot.
Also, Split being a thriller, did well in raising the suspense levels to all-time highs, leaving everything unpredictable from start to finish.
As of Wednesday, Split had grossed $82,6 million in the United States for a global haul of $106,28 million. All this off a budget of $9 million.
