'Rings' actors win SAG award for best film cast

4.20pm

LOS ANGELES - The cast of The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King today won the Screen Actors Guild award for best ensemble acting, the highest honour the acting group bestows.

The Screen Actors Guild, or SAG, awards often provide strong clues to the Oscar winners, the US film industry's top honors which will be handed out next Monday (NZ time).

Earlier Charlize Theron won best actress in a film for her performance as a serial killer in "Monster" and Johnny Depp won best actor in a film for his role in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Tim Robbins won the award for best supporting actor in the crime thriller "Mystic River and Renee Zellweger was named best supporting actress for her role in Civil War drama "Cold Mountain", edging out NZ actress Keisha Castle-Hughes who was nominated for her role in the film "Whale Rider".

Acknowledging his actress wife Susan Sarandon, Robbins joked on stage, "Susan's got one of these. I'm going to get them alone in a dark room and see what happens." Among those he thanked was "master" flimmaker Clint Eastwood, who directed "Mystic River."

SAG also gives out awards in television categories, and in that arena, early awards handed out included Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series which went to the cast of "Six Feet Under" and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series which went to Keifer Sutherland for his role in "24". The girls from "Sex and the City" won Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, on the day their final episode airs in the US.

"We will all miss you so much," said 'Sex' star Kristin Davis. Davis, who plays Charlotte on the series about the love lives of four single women in New York, also thanked HBO for being so daring in letting the sexually frank show on the air.

Megan Mullally from "Will and Grace" won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series.

Actors always enjoy the SAG awards because it is their organization handing out awards, and they feel like winning is a strong endorsement from their peers.

"Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me here tonight," Zellweger said onstage. "It's such an honor. I think it's the nicest invitation of the year, to be honest."

Even so, it is the Oscars that are the top prize. Oscar voters at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences pick a best film, but SAG names only winners in acting categories, with the night's top award going to a best ensemble cast. In that group, Oscar front-runner "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" beat other Oscar hopefuls, "Mystic River" and horse racing tale "Seabiscuit."

The two final nominees in that group are independent films "The Station Agent," about a group of social misfits who form an unlikely bond, and "In America," based on Irish director Jim Sheridan's first year living in New York with his young family.

Heading into today's SAG awards "Return of the King," the third film in the epic trilogy about a battle for Middle Earth between hobbits, elves, humans and the evil orcs, has been considered the Oscar front-runner for best movie.

But at least one "Rings" star, Viggo Mortensen, told reporters in an interview for his upcoming "Hidalgo" film that awards are not what motivates him. It is the acting, the roles, and a great story.

"That's not how I get validated," Mortensen said.

The SAG awards are often seen as an Oscar predictor in acting categories because actors make up the largest voting block, some 1,300 members, of the 5,800 voters for the Academy Awards.

* The Screen Actor's Guild Awards wil be shown on Sky Movies 1 at 8.30pm tonight.

WINNERS

FILM:

Ensemble Cast: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Actor: Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Actress: Charlize Theron, Monster

Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins, Mystic River

Supporting Actress: Renee Zellweger, Cold Mountain

TELEVISION:

Ensemble Cast, drama: Six Feet Under

Ensemble Cast, comedy: Sex and the City

Actor, drama: Kiefer Sutherland, 24

Actress, drama: Frances Conroy, Six Feet Under

Actor, comedy: Tony Shalhoub, Monk

Actress, comedy: Megan Mullally, Will & Grace

Actor, movie or miniseries: Al Pacino, Angels in America

Actress, movie or miniseries: Meryl Streep, Angels in America

Lifetime Achievement: Karl Malden

- REUTERS