'Ma Rainey,' 'Minari' and Boseman lead SAG nominations

Chadwick Boseman received two posthumous nominations from the 27th Screen Actors Guild Awards on Feb. 4, while the Korean American family drama "Minari" and Spike Lee's Vietnam veteran drama "Da 5 Bloods" were among the nominees for best ensemble.

The nominees, announced on Instagram Live, differed notably from the Golden Globe nominations announced the day before. While the Hollywood Foreign Press Association spurned films with largely non-white casts in its tops awards, the actors guild nominated a strikingly more diverse slate of nominees for its top award, best ensemble.

Up for best ensemble are Regina King's "One Night in Miami," about a 1964 meeting of four Black icons; the August Wilson adaptation "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"; Lee Isaac Chung's "Minari"; Lee's "Da 5 Bloods" and Aaron Sorkin's 1960s courtroom drama "The Trial of the Chicago 7."

All of those films, except Sorkin's, were overlooked Wednesday by the Globes in its top award, best dramatic film. "Minari," set in Arkansas but with largely Korean dialogue, was even ruled ineligible for the category by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

But the SAG Awards, presented by SAG-AFTRA, are considered a far better barometer for the Academy Awards, where actors account for the largest percentage of the academy. Usually, the eventual Oscar best picture winner is first nominated for best ensemble by the SAG Awards, though "Green Book" and "The Shape of Water" were two recent exceptions. Last year, Bong Joon Ho's "Parasite" won the SAG's top honor (and became the first non-English film to do so) before triumphing at the Oscars.

The Screen Actors Guild's field of ensemble nominees left out a pair of frontrunners in David Fincher's golden-age Hollywood drama "Mank" (which...