Birdman soars to awards double as race for Oscars gathers pace

Michael Keaton’s film Birdman has scooped the top gong at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles. Keaton said winning the best cast in a motion picture award was “very, very exciting - the ultimate team sport”. The win comes just hours after Birdman took the best film award from the Producers Guild Awards, suggesting it may be formidable competition to the perceived front-runner, Boyhood. The last seven Producers Guild Awards winners have also won best picture at the Academy Awards.

All of us actors are supporting actors. Each of us is essential, completely crucial to the story because if there’s one false moment, the train comes off the rails.

Veteran character actor J.K. Simmons, who won for a SAG Awards for his role in “Whiplash”

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) best actor accolade went to  Eddie Redmayne for his portrayal of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything. The British actor dedicated his award to sufferers and victims of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the form of motor neurone disease that Hawking was diagnosed with when he was just 21. Patricia Arquette and J K Simmons confirmed their front-runner status by taking supporting acting honours.

I can’t tell you what this means to me. I’m a fourth-generation actor. My family has been committed to acting for over a century, through feast or famine.

"Boyhood" star Patricia Arquette, who was crowned best supporting actress

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