"The Help" took away a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture on Sunday, beating out such competition as "The Artist" and "Bridesmaids."
Viola Davis also won a SAG Award for Outstanding Female Actress at Sunday's ceremony. Jean Dujardin took the honors for Outstanding Male Actor in a film.
"The Help" hasn't needed much assistance awards-wise — the DreamWorks/Touchstone adaptation of the Kathryn Stockett novel, which explores racism in the 1960s, as seen through the eyes of African-American maids in Mississippi, received a Golden Globe for supporting actress Octavia Spencer (who was competing against her co-star and fellow nominee Jessica Chastain in the category). It's also poised to clean up at the Academy Awards, with four nominations, including for Best Picture.
Also read: Complete List of SAG Award Winners
The Weinstein Company's left-field offering "The Artist" — it is in black and white and mostly silent, after all — has clearly become a favorite of awards season, with 10 Academy Awards nominations, including Best Actor for Jean Dujardin and Best Supporting Actress for Berenice Bejo. The film, which revolves around Hollywood's transition from silent films to talkies, also won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award for Dujardin.
With its jokes about intestinal distress and other unseemly topics, "Bridesmaids" single-handedly spearheaded a new genre: The female gross-out comedy. The film, which was produced by crude-humor maestro Judd Apatow and was written by and stars "Saturday Night Live" funny lady Kristen Wiig, is also up for two Academy Awards — for Melissa McCarthy's supporting role and for Wiig's screenplay.
Fox Searchlight Pictures' "The Descendants," which stars George Clooney as a lawyer in Honolulu who's compelled to confront a host of family issues after his wife is rendered comatose following an accident, has already nabbed a Golden Globe and Critics' Choice Award for Clooney's performance, and another Golden Globe for Best Picture — Drama. The picture is up for five Academy Awards, including — yep — a Best Actor nod for Clooney.
A critical favorite that's been lauded as a return to form for writer and director Woody Allen, the Sony Pictures Classics romantic comedy, already racking up four Golden Globe nominations (and a win for Allen's screenplay). Four Academy Award nominations are also on the board, including for Best Picture and a Best Director nod for Allen.