‘Argo,’ ‘Lincoln’ big winners at SAG awards

Iran hostage drama Argo won the top prize in the film categories at the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) on Sunday, while Daniel Day-Lewis and Jennifer Lawrence took acting honours, as Hollywood celebrated its own and helped sharpen the race for Oscar glory in February.

The SAG ceremony is among the most-watched during Hollywood’s awards season because actors make up the largest voting group in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which chooses the Oscar winners. The SAG honours are selected by about 100,000 actors working in the United States.

SAG prizes acting over directing, screenplay writing and other skills that usually factor into the Oscar best picture choice.

Sunday’s best ensemble cast win for Argo was the film’s second award in two days. The win boosts the thriller’s chances of winning a best picture Oscar in a race that is considered wide open.

On Saturday, Argo won the Producers Guild Award in Los Angeles on Saturday, beating Lincoln, Les Miserables, and Silver Linings Playbook, which are all Academy Award best picture contenders.

Argo, directed and starring Ben Affleck, is the true story of the rescue of U.S. diplomats stranded in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In his acceptance speech, Affleck thanked the diverse, multilingual cast of actors of Argo for the film’s success.

“We had more than a hundred and fifty actors. They spoke in English, they spoke in Farsi, and the one thing that they had in common was that they came to work every single day, whether they had a line or a look to somebody,or two lines or 10 lines, or a bunch of stuff I couldn’t understand in Farsi, and they wanted to ‘kill’ it to make the movie better,” said Affleck.

British-born Day-Lewis, who has picked up a slew of awards for his intense portrayal of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln, confirmed his status as front-runner for what would be his record third best actor Oscar on Feb.24.

“It was an actor that murdered Abraham Lincoln and therefore it is sometimes only fitting that now and then an actor tries to bring him back to life again,” Day-Lewis said, accepting his award.

In one of the most closely contested categories, Lawrence, 22, was chosen best lead actress for playing an outspoken young widow in Silver Linings Playbook over Jessica Chastain’s determined CIA agent in Osama bin Laden thriller Zero Dark Thirty.

In her acceptance speech, Lawrence gave a touching tribute to Silver Linings Playbook director David O.Russell, whose son Matthew Antonio Grillo Russell, is bipolar and an inspiration for the film.

“And I want to thank David. You made a movie for your son, so that he wouldn’t feel alone and so that he could feel understood. And I think I can speak on behalf of most of us in saying that you helped more than your son. You’ve helped so many sons and daughters and cousins, wives, everybody,” said Jennifer Lawrence.

Tommy Lee Jones, 66, won the best supporting actor trophy for his turn as radical Congressman Thaddeus Stevens in Lincoln, beating strong competition from Robert De Niro, who played a gruff father in Silver LiningsPlaybook.  Jones was not in attendance at the ceremony.

Anne Hathaway, 30, won her first SAG award for her supporting role as the tragic Fontine in musical Les Miserables.

“I have loved every single minute of my life as an actor, and I have been the recipient of so much kindness and support from actors in this room and out of it. Thank you for nominating alongside incredible women and incredible performances. Thank you for this award,” said Hathaway.

Lincoln, Les Miserables, and comedy Silver Linings Playbook went into Sunday’s show with four nominations apiece.

Argo had two nominations, along with British comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel about a group of seniors who retire to a ramshackle hotel in India.

Click here for the full list of winners.

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