SAG Awards 2022: ‘CODA’, Will Smith and Jessica Chastain Take Top Prizes

Following a tumultuous few months that saw the Golden Globes reduced to live-tweeting and the Critics Choice Awards pushed back to March, the Screen Actors Guild Awards found itself in the unique (and significant) position of being the first televised presentation of the Oscar season on Sunday.

That could be good news for Sunday’s high-profile honorees, who included Troy Kotsur, who was named outstanding supporting actor for “CODA,” Ariana DeBose, who was named best supporting actress for “West Side Story,” and lead-acting winners Will Smith (“King Richard”) and Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”).

Many of the winners were overcome by their guild’s acknowledgment. “I’ve been a member since 2001,” Kotsur added, recalling evenings spent sleeping in his car and dressing room.

When a clip from “King Richard,” in which he plays the father of tennis players Venus and Serena Williams, was shown on the show, Smith, who is considered an Oscar front-runner, started crying. “It might have been one of the finest moments of my career right now,” Smith added, “since my name was called for ‘King Richard,’ who was sitting next to Venus Williams.”

Despite the fact that the SAG Awards are one of the most prominent Oscar precursors, recent winners have occasionally deviated from tradition. Last year’s SAG Award winners, Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis from “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” also lost at the Oscars. Only one category, best actor, matched Oscar’s picks five out of five times this year. The overlap was notably thinner in the supporting categories, with only two of the five SAG nominees receiving Oscar nominations.

Despite this, all four SAG film winners are up for an Oscar, as is “CODA,” a film about a deaf family and their hearing daughter that is up for best picture.