America’s Screen Actors Guild has handed out its annual awards for achievement in film and television acting.
The film categories are seen as the most reliable indicators of who will win the corresponding Oscars, because the cohort of voters is largely the same.
Melissa Leo and Christian Bale took the supporting awards — both for The Fighter. Bale was surprised on stage by the real-life Dicky Eklund, whose life he portrayed in the film.
Colin Firth and Natalie Portman repeated their Golden Globes success in the leading actor categories, for The King’s Speech and Black Swan.
The King’s Speech also won the Best Ensemble Cast award – SAG’s equivalent to the Best Picture.
The award was accepted by Geoffrey Rush, who missed out to Bale in the supporting actor category. He joked that he’d been asked to speak, because the film’s original title had been “The King’s Speech Therapist.”
With all four awards matching the Golden Globe winners and all nominated for the Oscars too, the group will be hopeful of success at the end of next month. Leo, though, is out of luck when it comes to the BAFTAs – despite her awards success to date, she failed to secure a nomination from the British Film Academy.