The SAG Awards have previewed nine of the last 10 Supporting Actress Oscar winners. And since the guild started giving out prizes in 1995, it has foreseen 69% of the eventual Oscar champs in this category. The nominees are often just as similarly aligned.
The 2021 SAG nominees for Best Supporting Actress are Maria Bakalova (“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”), Glenn Close (“Hillbilly Elegy”), Olivia Colman (“The Father”), Yuh-jung Youn (“Minari”), and Helena Zengel (“News of the World”). Our odds currently have Close (37/10) favored to win the award, followed in order by Colman (39/10), Youn (39/10), Bakalova (4/1), and Zengel (9/2).
Close and Colman are the only previous SAG nominees. The two of them vied for the Best Actress award in 2019, with Close (“The Wife”) emerging victorious over Colman (“The Favourite”). Colman is a triple nominee this year, having also earned individual and ensemble bids for her work on the season 4 of the drama series “The Crown.” She shared in the Best TV Drama Ensemble win for season 3 of the show last year.
The 2021 Best Supporting Actress lineup is the first in six years to be entirely made up of first-time contenders in the category. Youn is the only of the five who is also up for this year’s Best Ensemble prize. At 73, she is the second oldest actress to compete in both categories for the same film after 78-year-old Maggie Smith (“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) did so in 2013.
At 74, Close is the oldest of this year’s bunch. Besides Smith, only four older actresses have ever earned bids in the category: Gloria Stuart (87, “Titanic,” 1998), Ruby Dee (85, “American Gangster,” 2008), June Squibb (84, “Nebraska,” 2014), and Cloris Leachman (79, “Spanglish,” 2006). Close or Youn would become the third oldest Best Supporting Actress winner, after Stuart and Dee.
At age 12, Zengel has a shot at becoming the youngest winner in the history of the category. The record is currently held by Kate Winslet, who was 20 when she won for “Sense and Sensibility” in 1996. Zengel is the fifth child to vie for this award after Dakota Fanning (“I Am Sam,” 2002), Keisha Castle-Hughes (“Whale Rider,” 2004), Abigail Breslin (“Little Miss Sunshine,” 2007), and Hailee Steinfeld (“True Grit,” 2011). Bakalova, 24, would be the third youngest supporting female champion, after Winslet and Angelina Jolie (24, “Girl, Interrupted,” 2000).
The most recent Best Supporting Actress champs are Laura Dern (“Marriage Story,” 2020), Emily Blunt (“A Quiet Place,” 2019), Allison Janney (“I, Tonya,” 2018), and Viola Davis (“Fences,” 2017). This year’s winner will be revealed during the 27th SAG awards ceremony, airing April 4 on TBS and TNT.
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