Slightly more than 4,000 of the Screen Actors Guild's 100,000-plus members are about to become the key players for next year's SAG Awards.
On Friday, a random drawing will be held to pick the 4,200 members who will serve as the nominating committee for the 19th SAG Awards on Jan. 27, 2013. Half of those will nominate film performances, and remaining half will nominate primetime television performances.
The entire Screen Actors Guild numbers around 120,000, and all members whose dues are current (a number that generally reduces the pool to between 90,000 and 100,000) are eligible to vote for the winners at the SAG Awards. But to make the nominating process more manageable, particularly for studios and networks that want to send screeners to the voters, smaller committees handle the nominations.
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The selection of committee members is made randomly, under the supervision of SAG Awards committee chair JoBeth Williams. Members who have served on the same nominating committee at any time during the past eight years are disqualified. (That requirement has been tightened this year; previously, those who'd served in the last five years weren't eligible.)
SAG does not publicly announce the names of those selected, and does not provide their names to studios or networks; instead, screeners can be sent to committee members through a blind system administered by SAG.
Members chosen for the two committees will be notified by mail on April 2.
Along with the announcement that nominating committees will be selected on Friday, SAG also announced the key dates for its awards. Submissions for nomination consideration can be made beginning on July 9 and ending on Oct. 25; for the first time, those submissions can only be made online.
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Actors are allowed to submit their own performances for consideration, or can give permission to producers, studios, networks, agents, managers or publicists to submit on their behalf.
Nominating ballots will be mailed on Nov. 21 and will be due by Dec. 10, two days before the nominations announcement on Dec. 12.
Final ballot information will be mailed to members on Dec. 31; voting will be done online, except for members who request paper ballots between Oct. 1 and Jan. 14.
Final votes must be cast by Friday, Jan. 25, and the SAG Awards will take place on Jan. 27.