Musical romantic drama 'A Star Is Born' leads SAG Awards film nominations

Musical romantic drama "A Star Is Born" led the film nominations for the 25th annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards announced Wednesday.

"A Star Is Born" topped all the film nominees with a total of four, including best ensemble, best actor for Bradley Cooper, best actress for Lady Gaga and best supporting actor for Sam Elliott as the Screen Actor Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) released its official nominations Wednesday morning at the Pacific Design Center's SilverScreen Theater in West Hollywood in the western US state of California.

The 25th annual SAG Awards, one of the awards season's premier events, will honor outstanding performances from 2018 in five film categories and eight television categories, including the distinctive ensemble awards in both media.

Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and directed by Cooper in his directorial debut, "A Star Is Born" is the remake of the 1937 film of the same name. The film stars Cooper and pop singer Lady Gaga, among others. The plot follows a hard-drinking musician who discovers and falls in love with a young singer, Lady Gaga's first lead role on the big screen.

With a production budget of $36 million, "A Star Is Born" has grossed over $197.3 million in North America for a global total of $370.8 million as of Monday, according to the studio figures collected by Box Office Mojo. It was chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the Top 10 Films of 2018 and received five Golden Globes nominations last week.

Focus Features' biographical crime film "BlacKkKlansman" and Fox Searchlight Pictures' historical period comedy "The Favourite" racked up three nominations each, followed by Disney's superhero film "Black Panther," Twentieth Century Fox's biographical film "Bohemian Rhapsody," Fox Searchlight Pictures' biographical comedy drama "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" Universal Pictures' comedy "Green Book" and Annapurna Pictures' biographical comedy "Vice" with two nods each.

"A Star Is Born" will compete for best ensemble along with "BlacKkKlansman," "Black Panther," "Bohemian Rhapsody," and Warner Bros.' Asian-centric film "Crazy Rich Asians".

Cooper and Christian Bale both got nods for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for their superlative work in "A Star Is Born" and "Vice" respectively, along with Rami Malek for "Bohemian Rhapsody," Viggo Mortensen for "Green Book" and John David Washington for "BlacKkKlansman".

Lady Gaga won the nods for "A Star Is Born" for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, so did Emily Blunt for "Mary Poppins Returns," Glenn Close for "The Wife," Olivia Colman for "The Favourite" and Melissa McCarthy for "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"

In the television field, Netflix dominated with 15 total nominations. Netflix's "Ozark" and Amazon's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" led all TV series with four nominations each, followed by HBO's "Barry," Netflix's "GLOW", Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale" and Netflix's "The Kominsky Method" with three nominations each.

The 25th Annual SAG Awards recipients will be announced at the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center during a live simulcast on TNT and TBS on Jan 27, 2019.

SAG-AFTRA is an American labor union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors, journalists, radio personalities, recording artists, singers, voice actors, and other media professionals worldwide.