Each of the eight films up for Best Picture at the Oscars can claim bragging rights to winning at least one guild award. This makes it even more surprising that none of these top picks of the academy was able to win over the Writers Guild of America, which opted to honor “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and “Eighth Grade” instead on February 17.
The former won the adapted screenplay WGA Award over, among others, three Best Picture contenders (“Black Panther,” “BlacKkKlansman” and “A Star Is Born”). That race was rounded out by “If Beale Street Could Talk.” The latter, which was snubbed by the Oscars, won the original screenplay award from the guild. Among those it bested were Best Picture nominees “Green Book,” “Roma” and “Vice.” The fifth WGA nominee was “A Quiet Place” while the Oscars went with “The Favourite,” which had been ineligible for consideration here.
Among the eight Best Picture nominees, the best performing in terms of number of wins with the 12 guilds heard from to date — the costume designers chime in hours after Oscar voting ends on Feb. 19 — is “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It won with the actors (lead Rami Malek), film editors (John Ottman on the drama side), sound editors and sound mixers (dialogue & ADR, feature musical).
“Green Book” has won over three guilds, taking the Best Picture award from the producers who use the same preferential ballot as the academy, as well as a supporting actor win for Mahershala Ali at SAG and the big budget comedy casting award.
“Roma,” which is the Oscar frontrunner for Best Picture, has only had success with two guilds, but one was a biggie as Alfonso Cuaron prevailed with the DGA. The other win came from the sound editors in the foreign-language film category.
Likewise for “Black Panther,” which claimed both the ensemble and stunt ensemble awards from SAG and the fantasy category from the art directors.
“The Favourite” won over the art directors in the period category and the film editors on the comedy side (Yorgos Mavropsaridis).
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“Vice” was a winner with the casting directors (big budget drama) and twice with the makeup artists and hairstylists (period/character makeup, special makeup effects).
While “A Star is Born” reaped bids from all the guilds except the Visual Effects Society, it has only won for its contemporary makeup.
And “BlacKkKlansman” numbers just one win as well from the casting directors, who awarded it the studio/independent drama prize.
Be sure to check out how our experts rank this year’s Oscar contenders. Then take a look at the most up-to-date combined odds before you make your own 2019 Oscar predictions. Don’t be afraid to jump in now since you can keep changing your predictions until just before winners are announced on February 24.
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