Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, The Help
The Screen Actors Guild will announce its nominees in a few hours. Here are a few last-minute predictions in the following motion picture categories: Best Cast, Best Actor, Best Actress (or Best Female Actor), Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.
For Best Cast — which isn’t really an equivalent to Best Picture regardless of what some people say — the most likely contenders in our view are the following:
- Alexander Payne’s The Descendants (George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Robert Forster, Judy Greer)
- Michel Hazanavicius‘ The Artist (Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle, James Cromwell)
- Tate Taylor’s The Help (Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Sissy Spacek, Jessica Chastain, Bryce Dallas Howard, Cicely Tyson, Mary Steenburgen)
- Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jude Law)
- J.C. Chandor’s Margin Call (Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Paul Bettany, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Stanley Tucci)
Other strong possibilities include Bennett Miller’s Moneyball (Brad Pitt, Robin Wright, Jonah Hill), Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks), Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Sean Penn), and Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Max von Sydow).
Also, Steven Spielberg’s War Horse (Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullan, Tom Hiddleston), Simon Curtis‘ My Week with Marilyn (Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne), Mike Mills‘ Beginners (Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent), and Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids (Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy).
In addition to Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard), Roman Polanski’s Carnage (Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz, John C. Reilly), Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar (Leonardo DiCaprio, Judi Dench, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer), and even David Yates‘ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Daniel Radcliffe, Ralph Fiennes, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint).
The Help photo: Dale Robinette / DreamWorks / Disney Enterprises