“Wicked” topped nominations to the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards on Wednesday, landing a leading five nominations including best ensemble, and individual nods for Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey.
Out-of-control wildfires that swept across Los Angeles and Southern California on Tuesday night forced the Screen Actors Guild to cancel its plans to announce the nominations live Wednesday morning. The nominations were instead issued by press release by SAG, which last year began a multiyear deal with Netflix to stream the awards.
The smash hit musical “Wicked” saw its Oscar chances rise with the nominations to the SAG Awards, one of the most predictive Academy Awards bellwethers. The movie's big morning — it even scored a nod for stunt ensemble — came after a celebratory night, too. The film was honored by the National Board of Review Awards in New York on Tuesday.
The other nominees for best ensemble are “Anora,” “Conclave,” “Emilia Pérez” and “A Complete Unknown.”
It was an especially strong showing for the Bob Dylan drama “A Complete Unknown.” It came away with four nominations, including Timothée Chalamet for best male actor, and supporting nods for both Edward Norton and Monica Barbaro.
The best male lead nominees were largely as expected: Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”), Daniel Craig (“Queer”), Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”), Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) and Chalamet.
Coming off her rousing victory at the Golden Globes, Demi Moore was among the nominees for best female actor in a leading role for “The Substance.” She was joined by Erivo, “Emilia Pérez” breakout Karla Sofía Gascón, Mikey Madison of “Anora” and Pamela Anderson for “The Last Showgirl.”
That surprisingly left out some big names. Angelina Jolie (“Maria”) missed out, as did Nicole Kidman (“Babygirl”). A few of the most acclaimed female actors of the year, Marianne Jean-Baptiste (“Hard Truths”) and Globe winner Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”), also were overlooked.
“The Last Showgirl” had more to celebrate, too, with an unexpected nomination for Jamie Lee Curtis in supporting female actor. Her fellow nominees are Barbaro, Grande, Danielle Deadwyler (“The Piano Lesson”) and Zoe Saldaña (“Emilia Perez”).
Jeremy Strong was nominated for his supporting performance as Roy Cohn in the Donald Trump film “The Apprentice,” but his co-star, Sebastian Stan, went unnominated for both “The Apprentice” and his Golden Globe-winning role in “A Different Man.” The other nominees for best supporting male actor were Bailey, Norton, Yura Borisov (“Anora”) and the category frontrunner, Kieran Culkin (“A Real Pain”).
A few widely forecast supporting performances were snubbed there, too, including Denzel Washington (“Gladiator II”) and Guy Pearce (“The Brutalist”).
The SAG Awards are arguably the most telling Oscar forecast there is. Their picks don’t always align exactly with those of the film academy, but they often come very close to mirroring them.
The last three best ensemble winners — “Oppenheimer,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “CODA” — all went on to win best picture at the Academy Awards. All but one of the SAG acting winners of the last three years has also won at the Oscars. The sole exception was Lily Gladstone, who won SAG’s award for female actor last year for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” but the Oscar trophy went to Emma Stone (“Poor Things”).
In all likelihood, the Oscar field will look a lot like the SAG nominees. While some overlooked performances might still land an Oscar nomination, any eventual Academy Award winner, including the best picture recipient, is almost surely coming from those nominated Wednesday.
That's bad news for Brady Corbet's “The Brutalist,” which triumphed at the Globes but missed out on a SAG ensemble nomination. Best picture contender “Sing Sing” also came away with a single SAG nod.
In nominations also announced Wednesday, the Directors Guild favored most of the same films. For outstanding directorial achievement, it nominated Sean Baker (“Anora”), Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Pérez”), Edward Berger (“Conclave”), James Mangold (“A Complete Unknown”) and Corbet (“The Brutalist”). That left out “Wicked” filmmaker Jon M. Chu, as well as “Dune: Part Two” director Denis Villeneuve. The guild also failed to nominate a female filmmaker, like “The Substance” director Coralie Fargeat.
Those nominations only further muddied the waters in a hard-to-predict best picture race. Rarely does a film win the Academy Awards' top prize without a DGA nomination. The only exceptions in recent history are “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989) and “CODA” (2022). That means that as well as “Wicked” did with the screen actors, it still can't be called an Oscar favorite.
Coming off sweeps at the Emmys and the Golden Globes, FX's “Shōgun” continued to run roughshod through the competition, landing a leading five nominations Wednesday, including best ensemble and individual nods for Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai and Tadanobu Asano.
Also faring well were “The Bear” (nominations for Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Liza Colón-Zayas), “Hacks” (Jean Smart) and “The Diplomat” (Keri Russell, Allison Janney).
The Screen Actors Guild Awards will be held Feb. 23 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The ceremony, hosted by Kristen Bell, will be streamed live on Netflix. In addition to the competitive awards, Jane Fonda will be presented with the guild’s Life Achievement Award.
Jeff Goldblum, from left, Michelle Yeoh, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Marc Platt, and Jon M. Chu pose with the award for cinematic and box office achievement for "Wicked" in the press room during the 82nd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
FILE - A general view of the carpet at the 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, Feb. 24, 2024, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A crack in a damaged chemical tank in Southern California has eliminated the risk of a catastrophic explosion but it's still not safe enough for the remaining 16,000 residents living closest to the aerospace plant to go home, officials said Tuesday.
Crews were spraying water to keep cooling the tank that overheated last week, prompting the evacuation of 50,000 people in the Orange County city of Garden Grove. Most returned home after a crack formed over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, relieving pressure inside.
The evacuation zone remained the same on Tuesday morning, said Orange County Fire Capt. Brian Yau.
Crews worked overnight to ensure two other nearby tanks were neutralized and would not be affected by the compromised tank, he said, adding that material from one of these two tanks was transferred to another that has a neutralizing agent.
“They are moving material over to ensure that all threats have been eliminated,” Yau said.
Those threats include the risk of a very small explosion and potential spill, officials said.
Exposure to methyl methacrylate — a highly flammable chemical used to make plastics — can cause serious respiratory problems, neurological problems and irritation to the skin, eyes and throat, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The tank at the GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems plant contains 6,000 to 7,000 gallons (22,700 to 26,500 liters) of the chemical.
The interior cooled to 93 degrees F (33.9 degrees C), the county's fire division chief Craig Covey said Monday, down from 100 degrees (37.7 degrees C) a day earlier. The company said its technical specialists and the county fire authority have removed insulation from the tank to help cool it.
Health officials sought to reassure people who are returning to homes near the plant.
“There was no contamination. There were no fumes,” Orange County Health Director Regina Chinsio-Kwong said at Monday's news conference. “There was not a leak. So it should be, you should feel comfortable going home even if you’re across the street from that new zone line.”
The South Coast Air Quality Management District will monitor the air for several months and the EPA will be checking sewer and storm drains for spills, Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen said.
Garden Grove Unified School District said last week it was shutting a dozen schools through what was supposed to be the last day of the school year on Wednesday but later said only three would remain closed Tuesday. It was unclear if they would reopen before the school year ends this week.
At a parking lot at a large park in Fountain Valley, just southwest of Garden Grove, people sought refuge in an ad hoc shelter there or pitched tents outside. Other people gathered in the park to enjoy Memorial Day.
Kim Yen, a retiree who was still evacuated from her home two blocks from the plant, welcomed news that the worst was not expected.
“I am happy and many of us are happy,” she said Monday.
She said she's ready to go back but wants to be sure it’s safe first. She's also been worrying about the emergency workers, who she called “our heroes.”
As the tank heated up, the chemical converted from liquid to gas, ramping up the pressure and explosion risk, said Andrew Whelton, a Purdue University engineering professor who has studied environmental contamination. Some of the methyl methacrylate may already have hardened into a stable plastic similar to plexiglass, reducing the danger, he said.
The tank could eventually cool enough for crews to safely stabilize and drain the remaining material without triggering a spark or ignition, Whelton said.
However, he said there is still a risk of an explosion while the chemical remains hot and reactive. Temperatures need to fall closer to 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 to 21.1 degrees C) before conditions are considered significantly safer, he said.
GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems makes cockpit windows, canopies and windshields for military and commercial aircraft. It employs about 16,000 people across 32 manufacturing sites in 12 countries, according to the company website.
“We apologize for the ongoing disruption this incident is causing and our priority remains its safe resolution, so that residents can return to their homes as quickly as possible,” the company said.
GKN Aerospace agreed in 2025 to pay state regulators more than $900,000 to settle violations involving recordkeeping, permitting issues and nitrogen oxide emissions, according to a report on the South Coast Air Quality Management District website.
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This story has been corrected to attribute a quote to TJ McGovern, interim fire chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, not to division chief Craig Covey.
Willingham reported from Boston. Contributing were Associated Press journalists Jamie Stengle in Dallas; Ethan Swope in Garden Grove, California; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.
Two evacuees sit in their pickup truck at a gas station within the evacuation zone in Stanton, Calif., Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
An aerial view shows a police checkpoint enforcing a road closure at the evacuation zone boundary in Anaheim, Calif., Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Jan De Jonge and fiancé Sher Stuckman set up a tent with their belonging and pet outside the Elks Lodge in Garden Grove, Calif., on Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
An evacuation map is displayed at the incident command post at the Los Alamitos Race Course in Cypress, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Water is sprayed on a damaged tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026, after the tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
People walk outside Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., on Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
An American Red Cross volunteer walks outside Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif.,on Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
People tend to their pets outside Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., on Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
