SAG Awards: Demi Moore, Timothée Chalamet and Conclave win gongs

Conclave was the big winner at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards on Sunday, leaving the Oscars race too close to call with one week to go.

The Pope selection drama won the ceremony’s top prize, best ensemble cast, continuing its late-season momentum after taking best film at last week’s Baftas.

Other winners included Demi Moore and Timothée Chalamet, both of whom head into Sunday’s Academy Awards with their chances boosted.

British actor Ralph Fiennes accepted Conclave’s prize, thanking director Edward Berger for his “perception, insight and care”.

Earlier in the ceremony, his co-star Isabella Rossellini said the film’s cast “want to wish Pope Francis a quick recovery” after he was diagnosed with pneumonia.

The SAG winners are voted for by fellow actors. In a night peppered with celebrations of the actors’ union, Fiennes said: “We do recognise the supreme importance of community in our work and in the world.”

Conclave, which focuses on a group of gossipy and scheming cardinals in Rome, failed to win any other awards, but its victory in the top category leaves it in a strong position ahead of the Academy Awards on 2 March.

The best picture race has been wide open this year, with The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez winning at the Golden Globes, Conclave at Baftas and now SAG, and Anora at a string of industry guilds including those voted by producers, writers and directors.

Moore’s win for body horror The Substance is the latest twist in a tight best actress race – the category is seen as a dead heat between her and Mikey Madison, who won the Bafta.

“This is extraordinary, and so deeply meaningful,” Moore said as she collected her SAG trophy.

She recalled getting her first SAG card aged 15 “changed my life because it gave me meaning, it gave me purpose, and it gave me direction”.

“I was a kid on my own who had no blueprint for life, and I certainly knew nothing about acting. But I watched, and I listened and I learned from all of you.

“You have all been my greatest teachers, and I am so grateful that I have continued over these so many years that to be able to try, and sometimes succeed and sometimes fail, but to be able to keep going.”

The film sees Moore play an ageing aerobics instructor who takes a black market drug to create a younger and more beautiful version of herself.

Elsewhere, Chalamet was a surprise winner in best actor thanks to his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, beating Adrien Brody who has been winning the category throughout awards season.

“I know the classiest thing would be to downplay the effort that went into this role and how much this means to me,” Chalamet said in his speech.

“But the truth is, this was five and a half years of my life, I poured everything I have into playing this incomparable artist, Mr Bob Dylan, an American hero, and it was the honour of a lifetime playing him.”

He concluded: “The truth is, I’m really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats, I’m inspired by the greats.

“This doesn’t signify that, but it’s a little more fuel, a little more ammo to keep going.”

A Real Pain star Kieran Culkin was named best supporting actor for his performance as one of two cousins travelling across Poland in remembrance of their grandmother.

“Thank you Sag-Aftra for this incredibly heavy award,” he joked as he was handed his trophy on stage.

He described the award as a “huge honour”, and thanked the sister of his director Jesse Eisenberg for suggesting him for the role.

“He cast me in this movie without auditioning me, or seeing my work in anything… but he cast me because his sister told him to, so yes thank you for Jesse for putting me in this movie, but I want to take a moment to thank your sister Hallie.

“Thank you Hallie for thinking of me and putting my name in your stupid brother’s ear.”

Zoe Saldaña continued her dominance of the supporting actress category for her performance in Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez, about a Mexican drug lord who changes gender.

“I’m proud to be part of a union that allows me to be who I am,” Saldaña said.

“I believe everyone has the right to be who we are, and Emilia Perez is about truth and it’s about love.

“Actors now more than ever before have to tell stories that are beautiful and thought provoking and live within the spectrum of artistic freedom.”

Wicked went home empty handed from SAG despite having the most nominations, while best picture frontrunner Anora also failed to repeat any of its recent wins.

Elsewhere, Jamie Lee Curtis announced the winner of best actor in a limited series by saying: “And the award goes to the man who gave me Covid at the Golden Globes… Colin Farrell.”

“Guilty as charged,” joked Farrell as he took to the stage, “but Brendon Gleeson gave it to me, so I was just spreading the love.”

Accepting his trophy for The Penguin, Farrell said being an actor meant “you don’t get to fully grow up, you get to keep the dream of a child alive to try to figure out what it is to be human.

“It sounds cheesy to say, but we’re all supporting actors. I get it, the big parts go to leads, smaller parts go to day players and extras, but we all support each other.”

British winners included Jessica Gunning, who was recognised for playing a stalker named Martha in Baby Reindeer, one of the biggest TV hits of last year.

“I feel like such a lucky bunny to be in this room, let alone be nominated,” Gunning said.

She recalled working in an office when she was starting out as an actress, and creating a vision board using power point which featured inspirational people she wanted to work with.

“Cate Blanchett, Kathy Bates and Jodie Foster were on that vision board,” she noted, referring to her fellow nominees.

“And so to be listed alongside them today, really means more to me than I can ever express.”

She concluded: “Thank you to everybody involved in Baby Reindeer for changing my life, and thank you to [writer and creator] Richard Gadd for making my dreams come true.”

Elsewhere, Shogun swept the TV drama categories, with individual prizes for its stars Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai.

“I’m very happy, but also kind of sad, because this is probably the last time I’m able to celebrate the work with you guys,” Sawai told her co-stars from the stage.

Accepting the TV drama ensemble award, Sanada said: “It was a great journey, and 70% Japanese with the subtitles, it must have been a big gamble.

“But Shogun and this award showing us that acting is a universal language.”

Best comedy series went to Only Murders In The Building, with its star Selena Gomez appearing shocked to have won as she accepted the award.

“We never win, this is so weird,” she said. “I am so grateful, the writers, everyone deserves this, I’m bringing this back to New York for season five.”

The ceremony was hosted by Nobody Wants This star Kristen Bell, who opened the ceremony by welcoming Los Angeles firefighters in the audience.

The Los Angeles Fire Department workers were invited to the event in recognition of their service during the city’s recent wildfires which left 29 people dead and thousands of homes destroyed.

Jane Fonda was this year’s recipient of the lifetime achievement prize, the acting union’s highest honour.

“I love acting, we get to open people’s minds to new ideas, take them beyond what they understand of the world, and help them laugh when things are rough,” she said.

“And for a woman like me, who grew up in the 40s and 50s when women weren’t supposed to have opinions and get angry, acting gave me a chance to play angry women with opinions, which as you know is a stretch for me,” she joked.

“I’m a big believer in unions, they have our backs, they bring us into community, and they give us power. This is really important right now when workers’ power is being attacked and community is being weakened.”

In an impassioned speech which indirectly referenced political turmoil, Fonda concluded: “We mustn’t kid ourselves about what is happening.

“We must not isolate, we must stay in community, help the vulnerable, we must find a way to project an inspiring vision of the future.”