‘Barbie’ And ‘Oppenheimer’ Still Lead The Pack After SAG/DGA Weigh In – Deadline

After the first two major guilds weighed in this morning, it is still very clear, as it has been for some time, that it is a ‘Barbenheimer’ world and we just live in it.

Neither component of the summer blockbuster duo of Barbie and Oppenheimer saw their path to Oscar disrupted in any way due to the nomination announcements of the crucially important SAG and DGA members. Both tied for the lead with four each at SAG including Outstanding Cast, and both Barbie’s Greta Gerwig and Oppenheimer’s Christopher Nolan are on the list of five finalists at the Directors Guild, each guild recently significantly right in lockstep with eventual Oscar winners in acting and directing. It is a must to make these cuts, and the golden pair succeeded. In fact I was not surprised at all by the DGA list which also included the DGA-beloved Martin Scorsese for Killers Of The Flower Moon, Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things, and Alexander Payne for The Holdovers, the latter benefitting from a particularly heavy presence on the Q&A and reception circuit this season and clearly building momentum.

You can probably count on four of these nominees at DGA to also make the cut in the Oscar Best Director category, with the fifth slot going international there (as has been the trend in recent years), perhaps to The Zone Of Interest or Anatomy Of A Fall as the likely benefactors. Missing out also from DGA today was Bradley Cooper for his tour-de force work on Maestro, leaving Gerwig as the only actor to get the directors approval (her second after 2017’s Lady Bird). For his 2018 directorial debut on A Star Is Born, Cooper got a rare two nominations in both DGA film categories including First Time Director. Speaking of that, two other newer names, Cord Jefferson for American Fiction and Celine Song for Past Lives both did get nominated for First Time Feature Director which is certainly some consolation even if they are longer shots to make the Oscar cut, but certainly not out of it.

In fact American Fiction was one of the key success stories of the SAG Film nominations, not only getting its ensemble in the mix for the crucial Outstanding Cast, but as expected lead actor Jeffrey Wright and not quite as expected, but welcome, Sterling K. Brown for Supporting Actor – a very strong showing. On the other hand the bubble burst a little for Poor Things which missed out on the Cast nomination, likely in favor of The Color Purple, thus settling for individual nominations for Emma Stone and actors’ favorite Willem Dafoe who made the final in supporting over co-star Mark Ruffalo. Killers Of The Flower Moon did well by landing individual nominations for Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, however star Leonardo DiCaprio will have to settle for being part of the Outstanding Cast nomination the film received – he was snubbed in the lead actor category.

Like the DGA list, international favorites and Cannes Film Festival sensations Anatomy Of A Fall and The Zone Of Interest were AWOL at SAG, a particular slight for German star Sandra Huller, so great in both of them and whose name has been floated for a potential two acting Oscar nominations. Statistically now she will have to defy the odds and do it without help from SAG (Oscar voting starts tomorrow thru Tuesday). The snub of Netflix’s May December by both DGA for Todd Haynes and especially SAG for its entire cast, notably Julianne Moore and Charles Melton who have been prominent at other precursor events, is a warning sign because the guilds are the groups that actually have voting members most in common with the Academy and these contests are the ones pundits follow most closely in predicting where the Oscar winds may be blowing. Netflix though has to be happy, that in addition to Cooper and co-star Carey Mulligan, their Nyad stars Annette Bening and Jodie Foster won nominations, as did Colman Domingo for Rustin. And NEON has to be pleased that their Ferrari supporting contender Penelope Cruz was recognized by SAG after failing to gain traction in the earlier critics contests, or at Golden Globes and Critics Choice.

Take heart. All is not lost however if you didn’t get the love from SAG today. Although the guild has had a recent stellar track record matching the Academy on eventual winners, it has been more spotty in terms of lining up in nominations in the four acting categories the two share in common. Last year SAG went 12/20, the year before it was 16/20, before that 14/20, and in the years 2018 and 2019 it was 15/20.

Next up among the four major guilds will be the Producers Guild film nominations announcement on Friday (, and then BAFTA comes up on January 18. Oscar nominations are announced on January 23. BTW if you are anxious to see where the Writers Guild stands on all this you will have to wait until February 21st for their nominations, that late date due to the strike which delayed their awards calendar (WGA’s awards ceremony will be held on April 14 (!), more than a month past the Oscars).