Here’s Your Official Voting Guide to the SAG Awards Film Nominees

Screen Actors Guild Awards voting is officially underway, so if you’re a working SAG-AFTRA member, your time is now! Chosen by the SAG Awards Nominating Committees, the 2022 individual film contenders below represent the very best of the silver screen. Backstage is once again here to guide voters with cheat sheets as the Feb. 27 ceremony approaches: which stars are nominated for which films, and why they’re worthy of winning the prize.

Stay tuned for more voting guides, including for the nominees for outstanding performance by a motion picture cast—“Belfast,” “CODA,” “Don’t Look Up,” “House of Gucci,” and “King Richard”—and keep up with our awards coverage here. 

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Jessica Chastain, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”
Chastain puts in as much effort as we’ve ever seen to play famed televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. Her portrayal, however, is in no way a caricature—a risk a lesser performer could have run. Instead, it’s wrenching and altogether humanizing. Between this and her other fall project, HBO’s “Scenes From a Marriage,” Chastain proves she’s one of today’s deftest working actors.

Olivia Colman, “The Lost Daughter”
Colman is following up her Oscar win for “The Favourite” (and her nomination last year for “The Father”) by delivering her best film performance to date. She stars in writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s feature debut, an adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel. As Leda, a middle-aged mother and divorcée who crosses paths with a younger mother (Dakota Johnson) while on vacation, she walks a psychological tightrope and leaves us enraptured.

Jennifer Hudson, “Respect”
Everyone knows that can sing, and she does so to the rafters and beyond as the late Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. But what’s most surprising about this Oscar winner’s return to the ballot is her speaking voice and posture. So calculated and precise is her character work that it will undoubtedly go down as one of the best biopic performances of the last decade.

Nicole Kidman, “Being the Ricardos”
To see Kidman recreating classic sitcom bits while done up in Lucille Ball’s era-defining “I Love Lucy” makeup and costumes is to witness one of the most impressive biopic illusions since Renée Zellweger’s equally iconic Judy Garland. And as with that Oscar-winning performance, Kidman imbues Ball with complexity while dramatizing a performer at a personal and professional crossroads.

Lady Gaga, “House of Gucci”
“Father, son, and House of Gucci.” Gaga is following up her Oscarwinning “A Star Is Born” success by going in a diametrically opposite direction, giving the notorious Patrizia Reggiani (aka Lady Gucci, aka the Black Widow) the much-needed Hollywood biopic treatment. She embodies ’80s extravagance as only a true diva can, making every line and gesture look effortless.

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE 
Javier Bardem, “Being the Ricardos”
As the right-hand man to Kidman’s Lucille Ball, Bardem’s Desi Arnaz is as charismatic and suave as you’d expect; here, the Oscar winner is in his most charming role since “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” He also taps into his character’s trademark lightness and showmanship, countering the dark, brooding roles he’s best known for. It’s in the film’s exploration of Arnaz’s infidelity and high-stakes business savvy, however, that Bardem adds dramatic depth, showing us the slimy underbelly of his character’s likeability.

Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog”
Filmmaker Jane Campion has gotten award-winning lead performances out of her actors before, and she might do it again with Cumberbatch’s turn in “The Power of the Dog.” As the menacing Phil Burbank, a Montana cattle rancher circa 1925, he’s toxic masculinity incarnate, sanctimoniously sneering at anything and anyone he deems unworthy in the unforgiving frontier. We are powerless against him.

Andrew Garfield, “Tick, Tick...Boom!”
At certain points in “Tick, Tick... Boom!” Garfield looks so much like this musical’s central figure, late composer Jonathan Larson, that it’s startling. It’s a testament to how deeply the actor commits to honoring his character’s legacy. In contrast to his other film performance this year as televangelist Jim Bakker in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” Garfield’s innate ability to externalize the internal is on full display here.

Will Smith, “King Richard”
As Richard Williams—father to legendary tennis players Venus and Serena—Smith does some of his greatest screen work to date. The character’s tireless commitment to his daughters moves us to tears, and Smith plays every beat beautifully. He holds Richard’s essence through every emotional high and low, creating a moving portrait of a Black man who will stop at nothing to build his family’s legacy in a white-dominated sport.

Denzel Washington, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”
What a treat to hear Shakespeare’s words coming from Washington’s mouth. That alone is reason enough to see—nay, experience— Joel Coen’s starkly dramatic adaptation of the Scottish Play, in which the masterful actor illuminates the line between ambition and madness brilliantly. To see his Macbeth evolve from the former to the latter, one need only gaze into his deadened eyes as he descends a staircase, muttering, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow....”

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Caitríona Balfe, “Belfast”
Balfe’s screen-siren looks and capacity for heavy emotions have never been put to better use than in Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical tale of the Troubles in 1969 Belfast. As the matriarch of little Buddy’s (Jude Hill) tight-knit family, she avoids the “worrying mother” cliches, instead painting a three-dimensional picture. Her precise delivery of her character’s reckoning with the choice facing her family—to stay or flee?—is what gives this story its power.

Cate Blanchett, “Nightmare Alley”
Ever since 2015’s “Carol,” we’ve been itching to see Blanchett take on another midcentury femme fatale. We’ve gotten our wish with Guillermo del Toro’s 1940s circus thriller “Nightmare Alley” (which reunites Blanchett with Rooney Mara). As Dr. Lillith Ritter, a psychiatrist who seduces Bradley Cooper’s carnival barker, Blanchette oozes her trademark magnetism; she’s the top power player in a noir-tinged world full of them.

Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story”
We’ve certainly seen glimmers of Debose’s talent in her Tony-nominated turn as Donna Summer on Broadway and in Netflix’s splashy adaptation of “The Prom”; but DeBose’s star has finally risen with her performance in Steven Spielberg’s reimagined “West Side Story.” In the role of Anita—which notched original film star Rita Moreno an Oscar—DeBose is the obvious recipient of this season’s award for Most Likely to Become a Household Name.

Kirsten Dunst, “The Power of the Dog”
Though she’s been an adaptive actor for over 30 years, it’s long felt like Dunst hasn’t yet gotten her due. Her only SAG Award recognition, for instance, was as part of a “Hidden Figures” ensemble win. We’re betting that will change with the debut of Jane Campion’s Western “The Power of the Dog.” Dunst plays Rose, a single mother who’s swept into marriage with kind rancher George (Jesse Plemons) only to be tormented by his menacing brother (Cumberbatch).

Ruth Negga, “Passing”
Negga and her character, Claire Kendry, are perfectly matched. She’s a mixed-race woman who passes as white—even to her bigoted husband. Bubbly on the surface but betraying buried caution and self-awareness, she can convey entire monologues with those eyes. Plus, she looks right at home in 1920s garb; there are multiple shots of Negga that simply take your breath away.

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Ben Affleck, “The Tender Bar”
Trading his Boston townie credentials for the Yanks of Long Island, Affleck easily slides into the “Wonder Years” tone of this coming-of-age feature, adapted from the memoir by Pulitzer Prize winner J.R. Moehringer. The film is based on the author’s own fatherless upbringing as he attempts to break free from his working-class roots, setting his sights on Yale University. George Clooney’s film centers Affleck’s world-weary Uncle Charlie as its wise (and wisecracking) heart.

Bradley Cooper, “Licorice Pizza”
It’s been too long since we’ve seen Cooper put his leading man chops on the back burner to play a capital-C Character and supporting scene stealer. His take on film producer (and former hairdresser) Jon Peters is a return to over-the-top comedic form for the maestro behind “A Star Is Born.” The fact that he portrays a Barbra Streisand lover is winkingly played for laughs.

Troy Kotsur, “CODA”
There’s a moment in “CODA” between deaf father Frank (Kotsur) and his hearing daughter Ruby (Emilia Jones) that we wouldn’t dare spoil here; but it features some of the most beautiful acting in recent memory. That Kotsur delivers one of the year’s most revelatory, touching, funny acting performances wordlessly is a shining example of both his skill and the world of possibilities that opens up when storytelling becomes more inclusive.

Jared Leto, “House of Gucci”
Leto has frequently been celebrated for his physical transformations onscreen, in films like “Dallas Buyers Club” and “The Little Things.” He loses himself once again in Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci.” Just try to recognize him as Paolo Gucci in this long-awaited crime saga, disguised as he is by prosthetics, extra weight, facial hair, and a bald cap. It helps that he’s got the crisp technique and actorly bona fides to match.

Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog”
In his 1967 book “The Power of the Dog,” Thomas Savage wrote of his character Peter that “no one could close a door more quietly than he.” In Jane Campion’s Netflix adaptation, Smit-McPhee uses this telling description as his guiding light. Gentle and mousey, with a looming air of cunning, he never lays all of Peter’s cards on the table—which is what keeps us in the game until the end.