Blanchett on track for Oscar, SAG awards
AAP
Peter Mitchell December 12, 2013, 9:58 am<object id="flashObj" classid="clsid
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Cate Blanchett has been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in Blue Jasmine. EPA
Cate Blanchett has been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, but the news was not so good for Hugh Jackman, Geoffrey Rush, Chris Hemsworth and former Neighbours starlet Margot Robbie.
Blanchett's SAG nomination for her performance in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine confirms her status as favourite to win the best actress Oscar at the Academy Awards ceremony on March 2.
The SAG Awards are considered the first big test for Oscar hopefuls.
Blanchett, however, still has plenty of A-List competition for the SAG and Oscar trophies.
The four other SAG nominees for best actress are all past Oscar winners and regarded as the finest actresses of recent decades: Meryl Streep (August: Osage County); Judi Dench (Philomena); Sandra Bullock (Gravity); and Emma Thompson (Saving Mr Banks).
Blanchett won the supporting actress SAG in 2005 for playing another screen great, Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, before going on to win the Oscar.
Jackman, Rush, Hemsworth and Robbie might not have long to wait to get their Oscar campaigns back on track.
The nominations for the other major pre-Oscar awards, the Golden Globes, will be released on Thursday (1am Friday AEDT).
Jackman, for the thriller Prisoners, and Hemsworth, for his portrayal of 1970s British Formula One racer and playboy James Hunt in Rush, were considered outside chances for best actor SAG nominations.
The SAG nominees in the category are: Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips); Bruce Dern (Nebraska); Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave); Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club); and Forest Whitaker (The Butler).
The biggest snub was for Idris Elba, who plays Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Rush, no stranger to SAG and Oscar nominations, was bypassed in the SAG supporting acting category for The Book Thief.
Jared Leto, for Dallas Buyers Club, is the favourite for the SAG, while the late James Gandolfini for Enough Said will be the sentimental challenger.
Robbie, who left Ramsay St in 2011, was an outside chance of a supporting actress nomination for The Wolf of Wall Street.
Robbie's Wolf co-stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill, were also snubbed for the Martin Scorsese-directed film.
Robbie was pushed out by more A-List actresses, with Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle), Julia Roberts (August: Osage County) and Oprah Winfrey (The Butler) picking up supporting SAG nominations.
In the SAG nominations for TV, the star of Jane Campion's Top of the Lake, Elisabeth Moss, was nominated for outstanding actress in a TV mini-series.
Aussie duo Isla Fisher and Portia de Rossi, for TV series reboot Arrested Development, scored SAG nominations with their cast mates for outstanding ensemble in a TV comedy series.
The 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be held on January 18.
The Oscar nominations will be announced on January 16.
