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LOS ANGELES - Wilderness drama Into the Wild, directed by Sean Penn and starring Emile Hirsch, has topped a surprising list of Screen Actors Guild nominees with four nods overall, including best ensemble cast.
Absent from the widely watched group of nominations for SAG's top honor, best film cast, were romance Atonement and musical Sweeney Todd, leaving award watchers scratching their heads as they tried to handicap Hollywood's Oscar race.
Hirsch was nominated for best film actor for his portrayal of a college graduate on a journey of self-discovery to Alaska, and veteran actors Hal Holbrook and Catherine Keener earned supporting actor and actress nominations for the same film.
Crime thriller No Country for Old Men and legal drama Michael Clayton pulled down three nominations each. No Country was nominated for best film cast, while co-stars Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones were named in the best supporting actor category.
Clayton snagged a best actor nod for George Clooney, who played the troubled title character, and nominations for co-stars Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton in the supporting categories. But like Atonement and Todd, highly touted Clayton was left off the list for best ensemble cast.
Joining Into the Wild and No Country in that category were three other films: western 3:10 to Yuma, musical Hairspray and crime drama American Gangster.
SAG pulled some major surprises here. This really shakes up the (Oscar) race, said Pete Hammond, a columnist for awards website TheEnvelope.com.
OSCAR WATCH
The Screen Actors Guild Awards, which will be handed out on January 27 in Los Angeles, often indicate who will be nominated for the film industry's top honors, the Oscars, because actors make up the largest group of Academy Award voters.
The Oscars are the world's top film award and are given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in February.
Joining Clooney and Hirsch among SAG's film actor nominees were Daniel Day-Lewis in oil prospecting drama There Will Be Blood, Ryan Gosling for comedy Lars and the Real Girl and Viggo Mortensen for crime thriller Eastern Promises.
Experts said they were surprised that Johnny Depp, who plays a barber on a killing spree in Todd, was left off the best actor list, as he was widely seen as a shoo-in.
Best actress nominations went to four women who figure heavily in award season, including Cate Blanchett in drama Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Julie Christie in Alzheimer's tale Away from Her, French actress Marion Cotillard as singer Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose, Angelina Jolie as the wife of slain journalist Daniel Pearl for A Mighty Heart, and Ellen Page in teen pregnancy comedy, Juno.
British star Keira Knightley, who won praise for playing a lover whose romance is broken apart in Atonement, failed to make the list.
Unlike the Oscars, SAG hands out awards in TV categories. The top award is for best cast in a drama, and those nominees featured familiar shows like The Sopranos, Boston Legal, Grey's Anatomy, The Closer and newcomer Mad Men.
Nominations for best ensemble cast in a TV comedy also featured a list of programs that have been honored for past Hollywood awards, including 30 Rock, Desperate Housewives, Entourage, The Office and Ugly Betty.
While other award shows have been affected by the Hollywood screenwriter strike, SAG President Alan Rosenberg said his guild's show will go on as usual.
- REUTERS
