Top 10 Times SAG Got It RIGHT! 

I don't know why people always forget this; Julianne Moore was only in Supporting Actress for the Hours because she already had Lead Actress secured with Far From Heaven the same year. It had NOTHING to do with Nicole or screentime or anything else other than a competing role where she was THE LEAD. That's all.

Thank you for selecting Ian McKellen. His Gandalf is a performance for the ages, and it pains me to remember he is still without an Oscar.

Fun Fact: When Denzel won the SAG and lost the Oscar, that actually broke a 12 year streak of the winner of the Best Actor SAG Award winning the Best Actor Oscar.

The SAG winning of Johnny Depp for Pirates of the Caribbean still one of my favorites. His performance in that movie is outstanding!

There really is no right and wrong. Performances are subjective - this year I have more than one "best" in each of the acting categories. Interesting video - thanks for sharing.

Speaking of Kathy Bates, she should have not only been nominated but won for Delores Claiborne.

Thank you for that Ian McKellen mention. I feel like everyone’s performance in LOTR was outstanding but barely anyone was nominated because it was such a huge ensemble.

100% agree with #1!!!!! McKellan was total EPICNESS in LOTR. Now, like you said, if Broadbent had been nominated for and won for Moulin Rouge, that would have aged much better than the forgettable Iris. And the fact that McKellan gave us Gods and Monsters AND LOTR and still has no Oscar to show for it? There must be a conspiracy against him.

Okay. Now do a video for the top 10 times that Oscar got it right and other awards shows got it wrong.

The message I’m taking away from this video is that SAG is just a lot smarter than every other award show

Hillary swank in boys dont cry was so powerful. She deserved that oscar. i was so shocked after watching boys dont cry.

Now that you say it, how DID Sean Astin not get a best supporting actor nom for Return of the King?

Thanks! I've been saying for ages that Russell Crowe should have won for A Beautiful Mind, not Gladiator. So glad someone else feel the same.

Casey Affleck did in fact deserve the Oscar for Manchester by the Sea over Denzel Washington for Fences because Affleck's character had the challenges and difficulties of what his character went through, Washington's perfromance in Fences is a strong one but, it might have been a little too theatrical and a little too much Denzel.

Hoping for the Ian Mckellen and the elusive Oscar video now 🤞

Thank you for the Betty Bacall shoutout! I’m still mad she lost her last shot at an Oscar. Such an amazing actress

Ed Harris and the Elusive Oscar video?

Brian, thanks so much for your excellent commentary. I agree with your choices, especially about Russell Crowe in "A Beautiful Mind," Viola Davis in "The Help" and Ed Harris in "Apollo 13." Keep up your great professional work. You are the gold standard in RU-vid movie critics. No one even comes close to your professionalism, enthusiasm, and demeanor.

Sorry to be so shallow but wow, Russell Crowe looked damn good during his beautiful mind awards season 😂

I will NEVER UNDERSTAND WHY Mark Rylance won that Oscar. He didn't do anything in Bridge of Spies. I wouldn't even call it a subtle performance. There was just nothing there. What did he actually win for?

For me, Glenn Close winning in SAG over Olivia Colman is my favorite. She was indeed impeccable and I think Glenn failed to win Oscar because it was a smaller film unlike The Favorite. To me, Rachel Weisz should be the Lead in that film because and Colman should be supporting. I really think SAG got this right by awarding Glenn Close for The Wife.

You should 100% do a video on the supporting actor race in 2016. I never really understood why Stallone didn't win. Also I don't know how Idris Elba has never been nominated at the Oscars. There is definitely a lot to talk about with this race.

Idris Elba would always be Stringer Bell to me because The Wire was the first thing i have seen him. Was shocked to find later on he's British.

Eddie Murphy was Robbed for his Oscar

Casey Affleck's Best Actor for Manchester by the Sea is by far in the conversation of the most deserving Best Actor Winners we've gotten in the 21st Century. It's right up there with Daniel Day Lewis for There Will Be Blood, Anthony Hopkins for The Father, and Jamie Fox for Ray. Yes, the competition between him and Denzel Washington was one of the tightest Best Actor races we've seen in ages. Washington showcasing a side of him in Fences we don't get to see him play. Creating a stubborn and tragic character who's so irresistible to watch, you can't keep your eyes off the screen. But Washington has had plenty of memorable parts in his career, especially in Malcom X, which was his once in a lifetime part in 1992. So in the year of 2016, that's exactly what happened to Casey Affleck. Winning for a role that was right fit for Affleck's ability as an actor. Delivering a more grounded and subtle performance, delivering an emotionally unstable character that you keep on guessing and guessing whether he's going to be okay or not by the end. Playing a much more tragic character, whose emotional mindset and reactions tell us so much, you're lost for words for the emotional and psychology state he's in.

I’m still sooo sad about Stallone. My heart broke for him in that moment. I remember feeling like that was his last shot. But maybe it won’t be 🤷🏾‍♂️

YES YES YES SIR IAN McKELLEN I know you would do it. LOVE YOU BRIAN!!!!!!!

Denzel is my favorite actor of aot but casey affleck in manchester by the sea is the better perfomance by FAR

Ian McKellen definitely should have won the Oscar such an incredible performance. What a miss

Casey absolutely deserved that Oscar. He should have won SAG too because his performance in Manchester by the Sea is amazing. I'm conflicted on Bening vs Swank Round 1. I really like both of Swank's Oscar wins but it is so sad that Annette Bening doesn't have an Oscar by now. So in hindsight maybe it would have been good if she won for American Beauty. Taking Swank's first Oscar away though sucks since that role was so transformative and groundbreaking for its time considering the subject matter. Maybe Annette could have won in Bening vs Swank Round 2. I've never seen Being Julia but Million Dollar Baby is amazing and of course won a lot of Oscars that year (including Best Picture) so it would be hard to deny her since she was the only lead performance. Whereas when Annette lost for American Beauty they gave Spacey Best Actor among a ton of other Oscars like Best Director and Best Picture. I agree with your top choice for sure btw.

Russell Crowe should have got the Oscars - the best performance of year by far - was totally political. He was acting bratty in lead up and that with reluctance to give back 2 back, was enough to skew it to Washington. He messed it up for himself unfortunately.

Johnny Depp is so good in Pirates, yet I don't think it's even a top 3 performance of his. Goes to show how talented the man is.

I think you are right all around, and Ed Harris still without an Oscar, do you believe me if I tell you I think about it every time I see Ed Harris in a movie. This video was truly enjoyable and enlightening. Thank you so much for it.

Gienn Close winning the SAG for The Wife should have won The Oscar over Olivia Coleman in 2019

I thought you gonna pick Glenn Close in 2019’s at the number 1, Brian. 🤣

I think Denzel winning for Fences was in part giving him an award when he never got a SAG award. Casey Affleck deserved the Oscar for Manchester by the Sea and I think should have swept the entire award season and got the SAG award as well. That’s not to say Denzel was bad in Fences, because he wasn’t, but I do think him not having a SAG award was a factor in him winning that year over Affleck, who was dominating the award season with his incredible performance.

The year Meryl won at SAG for Doubt but lost to Winslet for The Reader at the Oscars (Winslet was nominated for Revolutionary Road at SAG) stands out to me. I think Meryl was fantastic (is she ever not?) as Sister Beauvier.

Please cover that 2016 best supporting actor race, I would love to see that!

Just missing Johnny Depp for Pirates of the Caribbean 1. But great list as always.

18:05 I’d love to see you covering the 2016 Best Supporting Actor race!

I don’t know, Denzel’s win for Training Day is one of the most out-of-the-box, downright coolest wins in the Lead Actor category in my opinion. No one else could bring the charisma and sense of false bravado he brings to that iconic performance of Alonzo.

Russell Crowe ruined his chances of a win with his behaviour backstage at BAFTA. Washington was the solid, less problematic choice

The academy didn't like netflix movies back in the day. Beast of no nation was such a shocking film. So raw and original

I always thought Kidman was Best Actress in The Hours because she's the central figure, like Brando in The Godfather. I agree about Bening in American Beauty except for the impact of the Boys Don't Cry win for L+ reasons. I remember feeling when she won for that that the L+ community had been legitimized in a way like never before

I was so thrilled seeing Ian as your #1.

Can u do a vid where the sags got it right & the oscars too ?

Thank you so much for shining light on Sean Astin in Return of the King! No one ever talks about how emotionally powerful he was in that film and he definitely deserved a nomination as well as Serkis for The Two Towers.

TOTALLY agree with you on Annette Benning in American Beauty. I thought she did a better job than Kevin Spacey. And I think I'm in a minority, but I didn't care for Casey Affleck in MbtS. He was moody. Every scene was him brooding. Ugh.

You can never make me hate Dench in SIL. Everyone reduces it to screentime and never really acknowledge what she did with her eight minutes. In both of her major scenes, she nearly erases everyone else in the room. Beyond commanding. She fully deserved.

I think Gillian Anderson did a much better job portraying Margret Thatcher in The Crown than Merrel Streep's performance in The Iron Lady.

Kathy Bates was amazing in Primary Colors - Meryl Streep should have won for "Bridges of Madison County", "Doubt", or "The Devil Wears Prada", and not "The Queen"

The Help is so problematic, I'm sure Viola Davis is relieved she didn't win for that movie.

Definitely agree on idris Elba SAG win that 2016 race were the Oscars did everything in their power to avoid giving POC actors/actresses/filmmakers like not only idris but the cast of straight outta Compton, Michael b Jordan for creed, Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and mya Taylor for Tangerine, Abraham Attah for beasts of no nation, and will smith in concussion

My least favorite Oscar win is Nicole Kidman for The Hours. Renee Zellewegger should have won for Chicago.

Disagree with Benning. Swank was better i thought she better win the Oscar when i watched the film. I liked American Beauty when it first came out, then on a re-watch. i thought this movie wasn't as good.

Love the videos, man. Keep it up!!!

Now do “Top 10 Times the DGA got it right”

I agree about Crowe , Harris, Bening , Elba and Davis. My favorite the year Kidman won would be Salma Hayek. Not really a fan though of The Usual Suspects. I definitely don’t have a problem with Swank in Boys Don’t Cry but loved Bening’s performance in American Beauty. Streep in any number of roles would have made for a better win than The Iron Lady. Davis is more iconic in The Help . My favorite performances in The Hours are actually Streep and Harris.

Like Polls, a win can be a snapshot of the temperature of the voting body. Sure, in retrospect it is easy to judge performances because they exist in a vacuum - of film. What we tend to forget are the campaigns - both positive and negative that influence. The momentum or fatigue attached to frontrunners. The prevailing zeitgeist, or political climate. The particular headspace of the Academy during a specific Oscar race.

Great top 10, Brian! It's still criminal that Ian McKellen never won for Gods & Monsters or in Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring. And yes for Viola Davis! She should have won for both The Help & Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (which she also won the SAG for. I was rooting for her or Carey Mulligan to win in 2021 instead of Frances). And Idris Elba was incredible for Beasts Of No Nation, he should have at least gotten the Oscar nomination. Also agree on Denzel Washington, I thought his work in Fences was much more powerful than Casey Affleck in Manchester By The Sea and it would have been great to see him win the Oscar that year.

Crowe should've won for ABM. Denzel should've won best actor for Malcom X. Heck yes where is Ed Harris' oscar?

No one liked that Cold Mountain win. Still don't understand what she thought she was doing

Kathy bates nomination for Richard jewell was very left field. The academy didn't just want to nominate jlo for hustlers.

Nicole Kidman did not deserve the Oscar for The Hours. That should have gone to either Renée Zellweger for Chicago or Julianne Moore for Far from Heaven.

Mark Rylance is one of my favorite performances of all time and I love Bridge of Spies. So I'm all about that win at the Oscars. I feel Denzel's performance in Fences was not incredibly unique compared to what Casey Affleck was tasked with pulling off. Though I think both Washington and Affleck were arguably upstaged by their female co-star. Viola Davis and Michelle Williams, respectively. Oh and I'm also not a fan of The Usual Suspects. But most Oscar nominated performances are for movies I don't care for.

I agree with you crowe should've won the oscar

I would've loved a Stallone win! 😊❤

Meryl Streep in the Iron Lady was still the most deserving to attain the Oscar trophy IMO. Her performance was absolutely terrific. It is unfair to discredit her just because the film itself wasn't as good. Viola on the other hand, gave largely the same kind of performances in Doubt, The Help, Fences...

Glenn Close for The Wife.

Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction

My Oscars Sophie’s Choice will always be Swank vs Bening’s first round. Should have been a tie imho.

The SAGs got it right on awarding Ian McKellen for the first Lord of the Rings Movie. The BAFTAs got a couple of categories right when it comes to that movie unlike the Oscars. The BAFTAs awarded Peter Jackson Best Director for the first Lord of the Rings movie and awarded the first Lord of the Rings film Best Picture. A Beautiful Mind won Best Picture and Best Director instead which are very safe choices. I think Apollo 13 is the Ron Howard movie more deserving of winning Best Picture and Best Director than A Beautiful Mind.

I thought you weren’t mentioning people like Ibris Elba since he didn’t get the Oscar’s nomination.

I completely disagree with you on Juliette Binoche/Lauren Bacall situation. Binoche’s win is actually one of the all timers Oscar win for me. So much well deserved, so shocking. Her performance was one of the things that kept me coming back and thinking about the English Patient. What a heartbreaking and courageous performance! That Binoche/Bacall should’ve been in your « when Academy Awards got it right » video 😉.

Casey Affleck's Manchester by the sea is one of the best pieces of acting I've ever seen, an absolutely devastating performance

This year, it’s going to be Paul Giamatti for best actor in “The Holdovers”.

Brother please, as much as i love ed harris in the truman show, no one deserved the win over coburn for affliction. That is one of the best supporting performances in the last 30 years

Casey Affleck winning over Denzel is insane. His nomination should have been his win

Meryl deserves to have a 3rd oscar but not for the iron lady. She should have won for doubt instead

Kidman VS Zellwegger video, please!

Wait. Why does Idris Elba count for this list? You say that Blunt was ineligible, but Elba wasn't even nominated at the Oscars.

Washington definitely should have won for Fences.

Completely disagree with Bening. Swank in Boys Don't Cry is an all timer performance.

SAG Awards are just better than the oscars #FACT

Nominating Evan Rachel Wood for 13 they got it right

Still to these days I don't understand how on earth Russell Crowe didn't win for A beautiful mind

YES THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING IAN MCKELLAN FOR NO1!!!!!

I will admit that I was disappointed in the editing and screenplay for ‘The Iron Lady,’ but Meryl was being awarded for Best Actress, not Film Editing or Screenplay so I can’t blame Meryl or take away that win. She did her job in that film and she did it spectacularly! I think that win has aged well! If I had any say at the Oscars, she would’ve beat Katharine Hepburn’s record of four Best Actresses by now. As much as I love Kate Hepburn, I do think Meryl is the better actress. For Ian McKellan, I still think he got robbed for ‘Gods and Monsters’ as well. It was nice to see Lynn Redgrave pick up the Golden Globe for that film, but McKellan didn’t get squat and he should have. He was great in that movie! Kathy Bates losing for ‘Primary Colors’ was indeed sad. SAG definitely got that one right. Another time SAG got it right was awarding Best Actress to Glenn Close for ‘The Wife’ over Olivia Colman. That’s another Oscar win that hasn’t aged well. But, for me, the best example of SAG getting it right and the Oscar’s blowing it was when the late, great Lauren Bacall got screwed over for Best Supporting Actress for ‘The Mirror Has Two Faces.’ She deserved the SAG award, but she also deserved Oscar. Like Annette Benning, Glenn Close and Gena Rowlands, Lauren Bacall was cheated by Oscar. There’s still an outside chance for Benning and Close, but sadly it’s more apt to be a Supporting Actress rather than lead. Yes, the Oscars did give Rowlands and Bacall an Honorary Award when it was too late, but it doesn’t take away from the fact they were cheated during their careers!

I've been meaning to watch Richard Jewell for years

I completely disagree with your reasoning when it comes to Viola Davis vs Meryl Streep. I don't think that a performance should be judged in the context of the film itself. Actors should be judged on their performance, not how great the film itself is. The Iron Lady is a terrible film but Meryl Streep rises above all that to give an incredible performance. The Help is a very good film and frankly I don't think Viola Davis's contribution to that is any more than the rest of the cast. Her character doesn't really do much or have any big emotional moments (she herself has said this) and frankly there are several actors who could have pulled that part off. All that to say, constantly highlighting that Help was an overall better movie does not mean that Viola gave the superior performance. She didn't.

Also always thought that Broadbent should have been nominated für "Moulin Rouge" instead of "Iris". Nicole Kidman however should have gotten her (Oscar-)nomination for "The Others" instead of "Moulin Rouge"

Please cover the 2015 Best Supporting Actor race! I have always been curious about that one!

The Academy just loves to give the award to someone who plays a historical figure or just a living person as in Julia Roberts playing Erin Brokavich.

Lynne R should have won. Just like Cate B should have won vs Gwenyth at Oscars. This was all lobbying and $$ pushed by Harvey W. Seems 😂All the Oscars for Shakespeare in Love were undeserving: Film, Actress, Supporting Actress. They were all good but there were clearly better choices.

Ugh Hillary Swank did not deserve any of her Oscars

Great video

The way you said JIM BROADBENT lmao.

I highly disagree with your number one pick. First, I highly recommend you rewatching Iris. Everyone nominated at for that film is highly deserved, and personally would’ve given Winslet the supporting actress Oscar (even though Connelly was locked in as the frontrunner & winner in that race.) Not only is Broadbent amazing in Iris - he gives a heartbreaking performance with Dench that is much better than Away From Her & The Notebook combined, but as you mentioned, he gave two great performances that year. Much like Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, and Jennifer Lawrence, their acting awards were boosted by two great performances in the same year. And I think Broadbent was the same way and deserved to win that year for either supporting actor performance he gave (though I think Iris was the correct choice.)

O comeon, Casey Affleck was the best actor of the lot

You know, performances can be fantastic, but that doesn't make a movie