Sets are being loaded into the Dolby Theatre, parts of Hollywood Boulevard are already closed and if you’re going to the Oscars and haven’t figured out what you’re wearing (guilty!), it’s time to make some decisions.
But even with the Oscars looming so close, there are still two more awards shows to tackle between now and “I’d like to thank the Academy.” Saturday will bring Film Independent’s Spirit Awards — the 40th edition — happening beachfront in Santa Monica and hosted for the second year in a row by Aidy Bryant, who like Oscars host Conan O’Brien was in the star-studded audience at the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special this past Sunday. This coming Sunday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, hosted by Kristen Bell, will then be the last precursor before the Oscars.
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LIVE AIDY Bryant will host the Spirit Awards for the second time on Saturday. (Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)
The Spirit Awards, which for years went down on the day before the Oscars, don’t always align with the larger awards season race — and can be better for it. Sure, there are some years when indie productions become the Oscar juggernauts, like Nomadland and Everything Everywhere All at Once, and barnstorm through the Spirits as well as the rest of awards season. But in last year’s Barbenheimer-dominated race, Past Lives was the big Spirits winner. In 2021, when Netflix was putting most of its campaign muscle behind Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, the Spirits showered awards on the streamer’s quieter contender, The Lost Daughter, directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Anora, still the presumptive best picture frontrunner following its major guild wins, is nominated in many Spirits categories — Film Independent was the only awards body to throw a nom to Karren Karagulian for his hilarious supporting performance, and for that we salute the org. But The Neon dramedy tied in the nominations tally, at five apiece, with I Saw the TV Glow, the A24 release from director Jane Schoenbrun that’s been a more modestly scaled indie hit.
An affecting trans allegory and tribute to the cult TV shows of the ’90s, I Saw the TV Glow has been highlighted by critics of Emilia Pérez as an example of cinematic trans storytelling that isn’t sensationalistic or offensive. Schoenbrun even cheekily posted on X following the uproar around Karla Sofía Gascón’s racist tweets, “Weird I know one trans film whose creative team is associated with only the most wholesome and gutbusting tweets.”
I maintained for much of this season that I Saw the TV Glow is exactly the kind of thrilling work from an up-and-coming filmmaker that in another era could have earned a screenplay nomination, like The Royal Tenenbaums, Y Tu Mamá También, Lars and the Real Girl, and many others before it. That obviously didn’t happen, but I wonder if the Spirit Awards might take the opportunity to rally behind I Saw the TV Glow, assuming that Anora will have its chance to win elsewhere. The Spirit Awards will stream live on Film Independent’s YouTube channel as well as IMDb’s.
Actors in the Spotlight
BELL OF THE BALL Kristen Bell previously emceed the SAG Awards in 2018, the first year the show had a host. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Whether or not their film triumphs at the Spirit Awards, the Anora crew will be reuniting the following day at the SAG Awards, happening a little further inland at the Shrine Auditorium and streaming live on Netflix Sunday at 5 p.m. PT.
Some years the SAG Awards can play an outsize role in the final days of the Oscar campaign. Consider 2020’s ceremony, held just six days after Oscar nominations were announced, which brought the surprise best ensemble win for Parasite, the best indication to that point that the industry had rallied behind the South Korean hit. (Four of the last five SAG ensemble winners have gone on to take the Academy’s top honor.)
This year, the SAG Awards are happening days after the end of final Oscar voting, which means no matter how good your SAG acceptance speech is (we’re looking at you, Demi Moore), it’s not going to win you any new votes. After the handful of shakeups from the BAFTAs last weekend, though, I’ll be eagerly watching to see if SAG’s winners might reflect any shifts in the race that happened before Oscar voting closed. I’ll also have a close eye on the TV categories — most of the nominees were eligible for Emmys in 2024, but shows like Nobody Wants This, The Day of the Jackal and Matlock may show their strength for the 2025 race.
SAG’s best ensemble category, the actors’ equivalent of best picture, could be particularly fun to watch. Anora is nominated, as is Conclave, which won BAFTA’s top prize, renewing speculation that the well-liked Vatican thriller might be a consensus choice with the Academy too. They’re joined in the top category by, oddly enough, three musical films: A Complete Unknown, Wicked and Emilia Pérez.
Among Anora’s many strengths is the ensemble cast that surrounds star Mikey Madison — a win in SAG’s top category would be both well-deserved and practically a guarantee of an Oscar best picture triumph. But I can’t help wondering if Wicked might pull off a SAG Awards ensemble win a la Hidden Figures in 2017: another Oscar best picture nominee that was not competitive to take the Academy’s top prize, but was so well-liked — and so celebrated for its dynamic cast — that the actors’ guild was eager to embrace it.
In the individual acting races I expect the four frontrunners of the season to continue their streaks, despite Madison’s BAFTA win — which prompted rumblings that Demi Moore might face stiffer Oscar competition than expected. Personally I’m already picturing the traditional photo of all four acting Oscar winners, with Moore, Adrien Brody, Zoe Saldaña and Kieran Culkin clinking their statuettes in a starry toast.
SHOW MAN Joe Brockett has worked on the SAG Awards show for more than 20 years, four as executive producer. (Monica Schipper/Getty Images)
But after talking to SAG Awards executive producers Jon Brockett and Linda Gierahn last week, I’ll also be watching for some of the behind-the-scenes logistics that make this show possible. How does the camera get exactly where it needs to be for the perfect reaction shot? How can the SAG Awards, which had to cancel their nominations livestream as the wildfires raged in January, recapture a spirit of celebration? As a true awards nerd, I was thrilled to get the chance to ask Brockett and Gierahn all of it.
SAG Awards ‘Full Speed Ahead’
PATH TO VICTORY Oppenheimer’s ensemble win at the 2024 SAG Awards solidified its frontrunner status for Oscar’s best picture. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
Anyone who’s ever put together a live production knows the week before can be intense, but for the team behind the SAG Awards, set for this coming Sunday, it’s “crunch time times a thousand,” says Brockett, who’s marking his fourth year as the show’s executive producer. With the Los Angeles wildfires having put their planning process on hold for several weeks, the SAG Awards team has essentially had about a month to assemble the last major pre-Oscar awards show of the season.
“We joke that we get a week’s worth of work done in one day,” adds Gierahn. “Every day is just full speed ahead.” Gierahn and her Silent House Productions colleagues Baz Halpin and Mark Bracco joined the SAG Awards as EPs in 2024.
SILENT PARTNERS From left, Baz Halpin, Mark Bracco, and Linda Gierahn of Silent House Productions are doing their second stint as SAG Awards EPs. (Photo by Alberto Rodriguez/Variety via Getty Images)
Both Brockett and Gierahn are live TV veterans, well aware of how many people it takes to pull these shows off — and of how many jobs they create. So when it came time to reach out to the presenters and nominees for the SAG Awards, they sensed that people were ready not only to have something to celebrate, but also to support the Los Angeles film community in the process.
“There were such sensitivities around the fires for obvious reasons,” says Brockett. “And what we found was a real response, but it seemed to be based on the community — people wanting to come together.” Proceeds from the SAG Awards have always benefited the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, but with the foundation currently operating a disaster-relief fund, the evening’s role as a fundraiser will be even more prominent, says Brockett. “We have talked through that approach with talent too, and about their willingness to be a part of something special that is also giving back.”
The evening will also have an “escapism” element, as Brockett puts it, and few awards show traditions better capture that than the “I Am An Actor” introductions that have begun each show in recent years.
The SAG Awards team won’t reveal to me who’ll be participating this year, but Gierahn admits it’s a “coveted” role among the A-listers who attend. “We love getting into the room and seeing not only the actors giving the ‘I Am An Actor’ speech, but all the actors around them,” adds Brockett. “It is just a sea of celebrities in that room.”
A sea of celebrities who have seen it all — but few are immune to the power of the moment if they actually win, and that’s what keeps Gierahn coming back to the job year after year, no matter how much crunch time it requires.
“You have those moments during the show where you literally well up with tears because someone is so excited or just having this incredible moment in their life — and we’re a part of that.”
