Sinners has received its flowers at today’s Actor Awards (formally SAG awards) after spending most of the season being overlooked for Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another.
Director Ryan Coogler’s hybrid horror took home the award for Best Ensemble, the Actor equivalent of Best Picture.
The cast of Sinners as they accepted their 2026 Actor Award for Best Ensemble. (Getty: Matt Winkelmeyer)
“This project is anointed and from that standpoint we are all anointed on this incredible journey by the genius Ryan Coogler,” cast member Delroy Lindo said as he accepted the award.
Sinners is an ambitious genre-bending movie with ideas to burn
“From the bottom of our hearts thank you so much.”
Not only did Sinners secure the biggest award of the night but it also provided the biggest shock as Michael B Jordan got the gong for Best Leading Actor.
All awards season Marty Supreme’s Timothée Chalamet has been favoured in the Leading Actor category, with many pundits assuming the multi-Oscar nominee would finally get his golden statue in 2026.
But after Jordan’s Actor win the tide may be turning on Chalamet, who also lost Leading Actor to Richard Aramayo at the 2026 BAFTAs.
Earlier in the year Sinners was nominated for 16 Oscars, breaking the record for most Academy Award nominations for a single production.
“We were lucky”: O’Hara honoured and remembered
Catherine O’Hara won a posthumous Actor Award for her work on comedy series The Studio.
The 71-year-old actor died unexpectedly in January this year from a pulmonary embolism.
Already a comedy legend in films like Beetlejuice and Best In Show, O’Hara’s performance as ousted studio head in Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Hollywood satire The Studio was universally critically praised.
Catherine O’Hara (right), who plays Rogen’s (left) recently ousted mentor, is but one of many A-listers in The Studio. (Supplied: Apple TV+)
Rogen was on hand to accept O’Hara’s Actor award for Best Female Actor in a Comedy Series.
“I was asked to assume the very sad honour of accepting this award on O’Hara’s behalf,” Rogen said.
‘Less light in my world’: Stars pay tribute to Catherine O’Hara’s death
“I have been reflecting on my time working with her and something I’ve been marvelling at over the past few weeks was her ability to be generous and kind and gracious while never minimising her own talents and her own ability to contribute to the work we were doing,
“She knew she could destroy, she wanted to destroy every day. I haven’t said this to the other actors cause I don’t want them to get ideas but pretty much every evening before we had a shooting day she would email me and Evan and it was always pretty similar it said ‘hello, I hope you consider the following’ and then there would be a completely rewritten version of the scene,” Rogen said to big laughs from the audience.
“Literally 100 per cent of the time it made not just her character better but the scene and the show as a whole.Â
“She showed you could be a genius and be kind and those things don’t have to come at the expense of one another.”
Rogen concluded his speech by encouraging everybody to watch O’Hara’s past work and realise “we were lucky to live in a world where she so generously shared her talents with us”.
Rogen won an Actor award earlier in the evening for his performance on The Studio. The show also won Best Ensemble in a Comedy Show.
Michael J Fox lights up opening bits
The Actor award’s ‘I am an actor’ bit has become a running gag that always garners a giggle or two.Â
Kristen Wiig opened this year’s edition, lamenting her early background work, One Battle After Another’s Teyana Taylor reminded the audience that she was seven years old when she saw her on-screen love Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic, and Sinners’ Delroy Lindo provided a sweet reminder of the power emerging actors hold.
But it was Hollywood stalwart Michael J Fox who stole the show after a lengthy applause break, sharing a story about his rough transition to LA.
“After a few years of dumpster diving in LA, I ended up on Family Ties, where I received the biggest gift of my career: I met my wife, the actress Tracy Pollan, who played Ellen, my girlfriend, and she gave me four gifts, our four kids.”
“Sometimes I like to remind them if it wasn’t for acting, they wouldn’t be here,” he continued, as the camera showed his son Sam Fox.
“By the way, he’s not an actor, he’s just my date. I’m Michael J Fox, I’m a dad, and I’m an actor!”
Fox has been very open about living with Parkinson’s disease and how it’s affected his ability to work. The Back to The Future star has been taking on small roles recently, including voice work in Zootopia 2 and a touching cameo role in sitcom Shrinking.
Returning to her hosting gigs from last year, Actor Awards MC Kristen Bell helmed a solid opening song about how more actors should adopt stage names. The Nobody Wants This actor gets in a good jab about the awards changing their name from the SAG awards to the Actor Awards in 2026.
Harrison Ford accepts Life Achievement award
Indiana Jones himself was honoured with the Life Achievement Award at the Actors. Fellow performer Woody Harrelson presented the award to Ford, complete with a joke-heavy introduction speech that highlighted Harrison’s environmental work and his wealth of performances.
“Harrison you have more talent in your little finger than I have in … my little finger,” Harrelson joked.
“I realise that there is too much of me in this speech but what do you expect, I am an actor.”
Harrison Ford accepts the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award onstage during the 32nd Annual Actor Awards. (Getty: Matt Winkelmeyer)
Ford, 83, enjoyed a long standing ovation upon collecting his award.
“It’s a little weird to be getting a lifetime achievement award at the half-point of my career; it’s a little early isn’t it? I’m still a working actor,” Ford, who currently stars in Apple TV sitcom Shrinking, said.
Ford then thanked Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas for pulling him out of carpentry to star in his breakthrough role as Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise.
“I am indeed a lucky guy, lucky to have found my people, lucky to have work that challenges me, lucky to still be doing it. I don’t take that for granted,” Ford concluded through tears.
What does this mean for the Oscars?
The Actor Awards are the last major ceremony of the awards season cycle before we get to the Oscars on March 16 (Australian time).
Both Michael B Jordan’s Best Lead Actor win and Sinners pulling down Best Ensemble means the vampire action musical is back in the game, after a season of many, many nominations but fewer wins.
Michael B Jordan smoulders as Smoke and Stack in Sinners. (Supplied)
Elsewhere, two of the most contentious categories for this awards season have been Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress with both awards being shared around several nominees throughout various award ceremonies, including Australian Jacob Elordi.
Elordi’s hopes at the Oscar for Frankenstein were dealt another dash at the Actor awards, with the statue going to Sean Penn for One Battle After Another. This win, coupled with Penn’s BAFTA win, nudges the veteran actor slightly in front of a very competitive pool of nominees.
Amy Madigan’s Supporting Actress campaign for Weapons got a boost from her Actor win. Madigan also won the category at the Critics Choice awards earlier in the year.
Amy Madigan as Aunt Gladys in Zach Cregger’s Weapons. (Supplied: Warner Bros)
In more less-than-ideal news for Australian representatives, Jessie Buckley’s Best Leading Actress Actor award win has all but squashed Rose Byrne’s hopes at holding an Oscar for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.Â
A surprise is not out of the question — last year Demi Moore won all precursor awards for Best Actress only to be pipped at the Oscars by Mikey Madison — but Byrne’s chances don’t look great.
Rose Bryne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. (Supplied: VVS Films)
See the full list of 2026 Actor Award winners below.
FilmEnsemble in a Motion PictureFrankensteinHamnetMarty SupremeOne Battle After AnotherSinners – WINNERFemale Actor in a Leading RoleJessie Buckley in Hamnet — WINNERRose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick YouKate Hudson in Song Sung BlueChase Infiniti in One Battle After AnotherEmma Stone in BugoniaMale Actor in a Leading RoleTimothée Chalamet in Marty SupremeLeonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After AnotherEthan Hawke in Blue MoonMichael B Jordan in Sinners — WINNERJesse Plemons in BugoniaFemale Actor in a Supporting RoleOdessa A’zion in Marty SupremeAriana Grande in Wicked: For GoodAmy Madigan in Weapons — WINNERWunmi Mosaku in SinnersTeyana Taylor in One Battle After AnotherMale Actor in a Supporting RoleMiles Caton in SinnersBenicio Del Toro in One Battle After AnotherJacob Elordi in FrankensteinPaul Mescal in HamnetSean Penn in One Battle After Another — WINNERTelevisionEnsemble in a Drama SeriesThe DiplomatLandmanThe Pitt — WINNERSeveranceThe White LotusFemale Actor in a Drama SeriesBritt Lower in SeveranceParker Posey in The White LotusKeri Russell in The Diplomat — WINNERRhea Seehorn in PluribusAimee Lou Wood in The White LotusMale Actor in a Drama SeriesSterling K Brown in ParadiseBilly Crudup in The Morning ShowWalton Goggins in The White LotusGary Oldman in Slow HorsesNoah Wyle in The Pitt — WINNEREnsemble in a Comedy SeriesAbbott ElementaryThe BearHacksOnly Murders in the BuildingThe Studio — WINNERFemale Actor in a Comedy SeriesKathryn Hahn in The StudioCatherine O’Hara in The Studio — WINNERJenna Ortega in WednesdayJean Smart in HacksKristen Wiig in Palm RoyaleMale Actor in a Comedy SeriesIke Barinholtz in The StudioAdam Brody in Nobody Wants ThisTed Danson in A Man on the InsideSeth Rogan in The Studio — WINNERMartin Short in Only Murders in the BuildingFemale Actor in a Television Movie or Limited SeriesClaire Danes in The Beast in MeErin Doherty in AdolescenceSarah Snook in All Her FaultChristine Tremarco in AdolescenceMichelle Williams in Dying for Sex — WINNERMale Actor in a Television Movie or Limited SeriesJason Bateman in Black RabbitOwen Cooper in Adolescence — WINNERStephen Graham in AdolescenceCharlie Hunnam in Monster: The Ed Gein StoryMatthew Rhys in The Beast in MeStuntsStunt Ensemble in a Motion PictureF1FrankensteinMission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning — WINNEROne Battle After AnotherSinnersStunt Ensemble in a Television SeriesAndorLandmanThe Last of Us — WINNERSquid GameStranger Things