Jan. 7, 2026Updated Jan. 8, 2026, 12:44 a.m. ET
The Oscar race is finally coming into focus.
After courting voters at extravagant parties and film festivals over the last months 2025, a slew of starry contenders were snubbed on Jan. 7 for nominations at the 2026 Actor Awards, including Joel Edgerton (“Train Dreams”), Tessa Thompson (“Hedda”), Julia Roberts (“After the Hunt”), Sydney Sweeney (“Christy”) and Andrew Scott (“Blue Moon”).
The Actor Awards, renamed from the Screen Actors Guild Awards, are reliable predictors of how the Oscars will shake out, given that actors make up the largest branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But SAG also isn’t afraid to take some big swings and have a little fun, with surprise nods for Pamela Anderson (“The Last Showgirl”) and Jonathan Bailey (“Wicked”) last year.
Here’s who else will be sitting out this season’s Actor Awards, which will stream live on Netflix March 1 (8 p.m. ET/5 PT):
Jennifer Lawrence
The Oscar winner has dutifully hit every roundtable and red carpet touting “Die My Love,” a dark exploration of motherhood and toxic relationships. But the polarizing film may have been too off-putting for some SAG voters, who failed to recognize Lawrence’s audacious, arresting work.
‘Wicked: For Good’
The bubble has popped for the movie musical sequel, which overperformed at last year’s SAG Awards with nominations for best ensemble, best actress (Cynthia Erivo), best supporting actress (Ariana Grande) and best supporting actor (Jonathan Bailey). Grande earned the lone SAG nod this season for her complex and emotional turn as Glinda, the Good Witch of Oz.
Amanda Seyfried
Seyfried gives two of the most memorable performances of the winter in pulpy thriller “The Housemaid” and hypnotic movie musical “The Testament of Ann Lee,” portraying the founder of the Shakers religious movement. Sadly, “Ann Lee” has had a rough time getting eyes on it, and Seyfried was egregiously missing from this season’s SAG nominations.
‘Jay Kelly’
Conventional wisdom would tell us that Hollywood loves nothing more than a movie about itself. But Noah Baumbach’s showbiz traumedy, about an aging A-lister (George Clooney) forced to reckon with his paternal shortcomings, was blanked by SAG in best ensemble, best actor and best supporting actor (Adam Sandler).
Jeremy Allen White
At the start of the season, “The Bear” actor was considered all but locked for his first Oscar nomination for biopic “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.” But the brooding drama, about the creation of Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” album, was a box-office disappointment, and White has lost major awards momentum after snubs from SAG and Critics Choice.
‘The Smashing Machine’
The true-life MMA drama has had mixed fortunes all season long: declared an Oscar frontrunner in its Venice Film Festival premiere in September, only to drop out of the conversation when the movie bombed at the box office. Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt appeared to bounce back with Golden Globe nominations last month, but have taken another hit with the SAG snubs.
‘Sentimental Value’
SAG has famously overlooked countless actors for foreign-language films, recently snubbing Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”) and Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”) for performances that went on to be Oscar-nominated. Still, it stings to see Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning all left out of this year’s nominations for their tremendous work in “Sentimental Value,” as was expected supporting actor nominee Stellan Skarsgård for the gutting Norwegian drama.
Wagner Moura
The Brazilian heartthrob has been a critics’ favorite this past year for “The Secret Agent,” garnering scores of critics’ prizes since winning best actor at Cannes Film Festival last spring. But much like the cast of “Sentimental Value,” Moura was always going to be a long shot for recognition from the internationally adverse Screen Actors Guild, despite receiving nominations from the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards.