The SAG Awards Will Only Feature Female Presenters This Year

The SAG Awards announced their nominations this morning, and we were already happy to see their acknowledgment of some of the people and projects ignored by the Golden Globes. Get Out, Lady Bird, The Bick Sick, Mudbound–all of these were recognized among the nominees. (All four of those films were also nominated for best ensemble, a category I love that SAG includes in their awards.) You can check out the full list of nominations at Variety while giving side-eye to the Golden Globes.

But then the Screen Actors Guild went and one-upped themselves by announcing they would only be having women present this year’s awards. Typically, a man and a woman are paired to present each award, but this year, they’re switching that up. According to SAG Awards executive producer Kathy Connell (via The Hollywood Reporter), “This is a unifying salute to women who have been very brave and speaking up.”

She went on to say, “How many times has a woman walked into a room of predominately men? We thought, maybe for one night, it’ll be more than 50/50 [onstage]. We don’t want to slight the men who have given great performances this year — knowing our membership, I’m sure our men will embrace the opportunity to honor women.”

And men might not be left out entirely. They might still be included in presenting clips from that best ensemble category. But close enough, I guess.

“It’s still an awards show and a celebration — we’re not here to preach to anybody,” Connell said. “To me, just having some of these fabulous women onstage sends its own message.”

SAG has also chosen Kristen Bell to serve as host for the event, which will be a first. Normally, the SAG Awards don’t have any sort of host or emcee, just presenters. (Still no Good Place love in the nominations, damn it! Why are all the awards sleeping on this show?)

This is an awesome move for the SAG Awards. But–and I wish this didn’t need to be said but, well, awards show precedents make it necessary–it will be utterly disappointing if when including women, the organization doesn’t work to include all women. Women of color, trans women–all women need to be recognized for this to really be a win. While the overall nomination list has some great inclusivity, the female actor categories are overwhelmingly white cis women. There’s an opportunity here to at least bring more diversity onto their stage. Let’s hope they take it.

(image: Shutterstock)

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