17TH ANNUAL SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

Still from The Fighter

Nominees for the Screen Actors Guild Awards have just been announced and perhaps this is a better indication of what's to come for the Oscars than the randomness of Monday's Golden Globe nominees.  Honouring the v. best performances in Television and Film, the SAGs will air Sunday, January 30, 2011 on TBS.

The Fighter ties The King's Speech in leading all nominees with four nods each. Surprisingly, The Social Network only earned two nominations this time - Oustanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture and Oustanding Performance by an Actor in Leading Role in a Motion Picture.

Both Robert Duvall for Get Low and Jeff Bridges for True Grit finally get some recognition this Awards season in the category of Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role alongside favourites Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network, Colin Firth for The King's Speech and James Franco for 127 Hours.

Hilary Swank also gets some love too for her compelling work in Conviction along with Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right, Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole, Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone and current favourite Natalie Portman for Black Swan.

The Casts of Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right, The King's Speech and The Social Network all get well-deseved recognition for their work in the category of Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

In Television, You Don't Know Jack, a movie based on the work of pro-Euthanasia Doctor Jack Kevorkian, gets three nominations with Al Pacino being most likely to get Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries.

Temple Grandin, based on the true story of that Autistic Animal Rights Activist and Writer, garners three nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries with Emmy winner Claire Danes leading the way with co-stars Catherine O'Hara and Julia Ormond. Interestingly, Winona Ryder gets a nomination too in this category for When Love is Not Enough: The Loise Wilson Story, her second nomination this year,  She also is in the Ensemble Cast of Black Swan.  Now, who said her career is over?

Mad Men also earns three nominations for Outstsanding Perfomance by an Ensemble in Drama Series, up against Boardwalk Empire, The Closer, Dexter and The Good Wife. No surprises here, although it was expected AMC's Walk of the Dead would've been in contention.

Also for Comedy Series, 30 Rock, Modern Family and Glee all garner three nominations a piece. Intersting is that Ty Burrell and Ed O'Neill are up against one another for Oustanding Perforamce by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series.

For a full list of Nominees, click here.

(Photo credit: Alliance Films)