SAG Awards 2025: Chalamet and Conclave score shock wins
At the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards, Timothée Chalamet and Edward Berger’s Vatican thriller delivered surprise victories, upending the predictions for Best Actor and Best Ensemble.
The Screen Actors Guild Awards have done precisely nothing to make the Oscars’ Best Film race any easier to predict.
Having already bagged the Directors Guild and Producers Guild Awards — prizes that, in most years, all but guarantee an Oscar win — Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning stripper tragicomedy Anora lost Best Ensemble to Edward Berger’s Conclave.
The papal thriller, about the election of a new pope, dominated the BAFTAs earlier this month.
“I’ve been delegated to speak on behalf of our Conclave, our ensemble,” announced Ralph Fiennes. “We had a blessed time with Edward, whose intelligence and perception and insight have given us the gift of community.”
Isabella Rossellini, who plays the nun Sister Agnes, used her stage time to wish Pope Francis, who is battling double pneumonia, a speedy recovery.
Then there was the truly shocking win: Timothée Chalamet, who nabbed Best Actor for his wired and warbling Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown.
“I wasn’t expecting this at all … truly,” Chalamet said. His win disrupted Adrien Brody’s near-total awards season sweep, which included the Golden Globe (Drama), Critics Choice Award, and BAFTA.
In his speech, Chalamet called Dylan a “true American hero” and said it was “the honour of a lifetime” to play him.
Elsewhere, things went as expected.
Demi Moore won Best Actress for her go-for-broke turn in Coralie Fargeat’s body horror The Substance, while Zoe Saldana took home Best Supporting Actress for Emilia Perez.
Emilia Perez, once heralded as the season’s frontrunner with a staggering 13 Oscar nominations, saw its momentum implode spectacularly following a scandal involving star Karla Sofía Gascón.
The Spanish actor — who made history as the first openly trans nominee in Academy history — fell from grace after journalist Sarah Hagi unearthed years-old posts on X in which Gascón disparaged Muslims (“a hotbed of infection for humanity”), called George Floyd a “drug-addicted con artist,” and complained that the 2021 Oscars looked like “an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8-M”.
Kieran Culkin, who has now won at every major ceremony for his supporting actor turn in A Real Pain, predictably won once more. In the film, Culkin and director Jesse Eisenberg play cousins on a Holocaust tour in Poland to honour their late grandmother.
“It’s hard to be sincere,” quipped Culkin. “But it’s actually a huge honour.”
In his speech, Culkin thanked Eisenberg, who cast him in the film without auditioning him or seeing his work. “Which he thinks is normal. And I can’t even get into how annoyingly wrong he is.”
Australia walked home empty-handed. Cate Blanchett, our sole hope, was up for Best Female Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie. But it was the last hurrah for Baby Reindeer, with Jessica Gunning winning for her unforgettable, deeply unnerving portrayal of Stalker Martha.
“I feel like a bloody lucky bunny to be in this room,” she said, beaming. She then regaled the audience with a story from her early acting days, when she juggled an office job and stared daily at a “positive thinking vision board” PowerPoint presentation. On the board? Her fellow nominees: Blanchett, Jodie Foster, and Kathy Bates.
Shōgun bulldozed through the competition, sweeping every category it was nominated in: Best Ensemble, Best Actor (Hiroyuki Sanada), Best Actress (Anna Sawai), and Best Stunt Ensemble.
Accepting her Life Achievement Award, Jane Fonda took aim at Donald Trump without naming him, giving a knowing nod to The Apprentice star Sebastian Stan, who plays the former president in an upcoming film.
“Empathy is not weak or woke. By the way, ‘woke’ just means you give a damn about other peopleâ€
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) February 24, 2025
—Jane Fonda accepting her SAG Lifetime Achievement Award
See the full winners list: https://t.co/1H9Qsgq4hwpic.twitter.com/MzhLgEjdT5
At 87, with two Oscars, seven Golden Globes, and an Emmy, Fonda recalled Hollywood’s resistance to McCarthyism and suggested the stakes today are just as high. “We are in our documentary moment, and it’s not a rehearsal,” she warned.
She urged actors to “stay in community” and fight for the vulnerable. “Empathy is not weak or woke. By the way, woke just means you give a damn about other people.”
The Screen Actors Guild Awards mark the final major ceremony before the Oscars on March 4.
SAG Awards 2025 — winners list
Best Female Actor in a Drama Series
- WINNER: Anna Sawai, Shōgun
- Kathy Bates, Matlock
- Nicola Coughlan, Bridgerton
- Allison Janney, The Diplomat
- Keri Russell, The Diplomat
Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role, Motion Picture
- WINNER: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
- Jonathan Bailey, Wicked
- Yura Borisov, Anora
- Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
- Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice
Best Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a TV Series
- WINNER: Shōgun
- The Boys
- Fallout
- House of the Dragon
- The Penguin
Best Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
- WINNER: The Fall Guy
- Deadpool & Wolverine
- Dune: Part Two
- Gladiator II
- Wicked
Best Motion Picture Ensemble
- A Complete Unknown
- Anora
- WINNER: Conclave
- Emilia Pérez
- Wicked
Best Male Actor in a Leading Role, Motion Picture
- Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
- WINNER: Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
- Daniel Craig, Queer
- Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
- Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Best Female Actor in a Leading Role, Motion Picture
- Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
- Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
- Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
- Mikey Madison, Anora
- WINNER: Demi Moore, The Substance
Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role, Motion Picture
- Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
- Jamie Lee Curtis, The Last Showgirl
- Danielle Deadwyler, The Piano Lesson
- Ariana Grande, Wicked
- WINNER: Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez
Best Ensemble in a Drama Series
- Bridgerton
- The Day of the Jackal
- The Diplomat
- WINNER: Shōgun
- Slow Horses
Best Male Actor in a Drama Series
- WINNER: Tadanobu Asano, Shōgun
- Jeff Bridges, The Old Man
- Gary Oldman, Slow Horses
- Eddie Redmayne, The Day of the Jackal
- Hiroyuki Sanada, Shōgun
Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series
- Abbott Elementary
- The Bear
- Hacks
- WINNER: Only Murders in the Building
- Shrinking
Best Male Actor in a Comedy Series
- Adam Brody, Nobody Wants This
- Ted Danson, A Man on the Inside
- Harrison Ford, Shrinking
- WINNER: Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building
- Jeremy Allen White, The Bear
Best Female Actor in a Comedy Series
- Kristen Bell, Nobody Wants This
- Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary
- Liza Colón-Zayas, The Bear
- Ayo Edebiri, The Bear
- WINNER: Jean Smart, Hacks
Best Male Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie
- Javier Bardem, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
- WINNER: Colin Farrell, The Penguin
- Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer
- Kevin Kline, Disclaimer
- Andrew Scott, Ripley
Best Female Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie
- Kathy Bates, The Great Lillian Hall
- Cate Blanchett, Disclaimer
- Jodie Foster, True Detective: Night Country
- Lily Gladstone, Under the Bridge
- WINNER: Jessica Gunning, Baby Reindeer
- Cristin Milioti, The Penguin
The red carpet
