Harrison Ford honored as SAG-AFTRA rebrands its awards, while “Sinners” leads film winners

Harrison Ford squinted into the stage lights, wrapped both hands around the 12-pound bronze statuette called The Actor and smiled.

“It’s a little weird to get a lifetime achievement award at the half-point of my career,” he said, drawing a standing ovation from the crowd packed into the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

That joke—and the ovation from hundreds of his peers—set the tone for the 32nd Actor Awards on Sunday night: the first time Hollywood’s actors gathered under the ceremony’s new name, and the first full awards season since their union concluded a bruising strike with the major studios and streamers.

Formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the show has been officially rebranded as The Actor Awards Presented by SAG-AFTRA. The ceremony, honoring performances in 2025 film and television, streamed live worldwide on Netflix from the Shrine on March 1.

A familiar show under a changed Hollywood backdrop

The newly named show largely kept its familiar format—short speeches, an emphasis on ensembles and a room full of actors voting on their own—but unfolded against a changed backdrop in Hollywood. It arrived two weeks before the Academy Awards and less than three years after SAG-AFTRA’s 118-day walkout over streaming pay, artificial intelligence and minimum wages.

Film: “Sinners” breaks through as the night’s big winner

On the film side, Ryan Coogler’s 1930s-set vampire thriller “Sinners” emerged as the night’s big winner, taking the top motion picture ensemble prize and lead male acting honors for Michael B. Jordan. Jessie Buckley won the lead female film award for “Hamnet,” continuing a strong run through the season’s major awards.

Jordan, who plays twin brothers trying to open a nightclub for Black patrons in 1932 Mississippi, was named outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role. The film’s ensemble—including Jordan, Delroy Lindo, Hailee Steinfeld and Wunmi Mosaku—also collected the cast award, historically one of the Actor Awards’ strongest indicators for the best picture race.

When presenter Viola Davis opened the envelope and saw Jordan’s name, she shouted it, drawing cheers in the room and underscoring the peer-driven nature of the event. All active, dues-current SAG-AFTRA members are eligible to vote in final balloting.

Buckley won outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role for her portrayal of Agnes (Anne) Shakespeare in “Hamnet,” an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about William Shakespeare’s family and the death of his son.

In the supporting film categories, Sean Penn was honored for “One Battle After Another,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s action drama that entered the night with a record seven Actor Awards nominations, the most for any film in the show’s history. Amy Madigan won supporting female actor for the thriller “Weapons.” The stunt ensemble award for motion pictures went to “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.”

Television: comedy wins, drama and limited series honored

On television, Apple TV+ comedy “The Studio” led the field. The series, set inside a fictional entertainment company, won outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series and both individual comedy acting awards. Seth Rogen took male actor in a comedy series, while Catherine O’Hara was posthumously named female actor in a comedy series, one of the night’s most emotional moments.

O’Hara, who died last year, was long celebrated for her work on “SCTV,” “Home Alone” and “Schitt’s Creek.” Her co-stars accepted on her behalf, and her win marked a rare posthumous acting victory in a peer-voted television category.

In drama, HBO Max’s “The Pitt,” a university hospital and political drama, was named outstanding ensemble in a drama series, with series lead Noah Wyle winning male actor in a drama series. Keri Russell won female actor in a drama series for Netflix’s diplomatic thriller “The Diplomat.”

Limited-series awards went to Owen Cooper, a teenage performer honored for his role in Netflix’s “Adolescence,” and Michelle Williams, who won for FX’s “Dying for Sex.” The television stunt ensemble award went to HBO’s video game adaptation “The Last of Us.”

Ford accepts the union’s top honor

The ceremony’s most prestigious individual honor, the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award, went to Ford, whose six-decade career includes the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” franchises and recent television work in “Shrinking” and “1923.” The award, presented annually since 1962, recognizes “outstanding achievement in fostering the finest ideals of the acting profession.”

Woody Harrelson presented the honor, calling Ford a “timeless American treasure” and recalling their early friendship in Los Angeles. Ford, visibly moved, alternated between humor and reflection.

“I’m quite humbled to be standing here in this room where so many of you are being recognized for your work tonight, while I’m here to receive a prize for being alive,” he said. He thanked his wife, actor Calista Flockhart, describing her as “extraordinary and beautiful,” and acknowledged collaborators including George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and the late casting director Fred Roos.

Ford told the audience he had found “a calling… a life in storytelling. An identity in pretending to be other people,” and said actors share “the privilege of working in the world of ideas, of empathy, of imagination.”

Rebrand, labor context and the streaming era

That language echoed the broader labor context. SAG-AFTRA, formed by the 2012 merger of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, represents about 160,000 performers and media workers. In 2023, the union joined the Writers Guild of America on strike for nearly four months, halting most scripted production in the United States.

The contract that ended the strike, ratified that December, provided a 7% increase in minimum pay rates in the first year, created a roughly $40 million annual streaming “participation bonus” fund tied to viewership metrics and established consent and compensation requirements for the creation and use of digital replicas and AI-generated performances.

The Actor Awards were staged under that contract, with Sean Astin serving his first full awards season as SAG-AFTRA president. While speeches stayed largely focused on personal thanks and craft, presenters and winners repeatedly referenced “our union” and “our members,” and the show’s new name was displayed prominently onstage and in Netflix’s global branding.

Organizers have said the rebrand is meant to align the ceremony with its statuette, The Actor, and to make its purpose clearer for international audiences tuning in on Netflix. Unlike the Oscars, whose nominations are determined by smaller branch committees, the Actor Awards’ final winners are chosen by the full eligible SAG-AFTRA membership, which the guild promotes as the largest voting body of any major entertainment awards show.

The partnership with Netflix, which began streaming the ceremony live in 2024, has given the union’s flagship event global reach at the same time many of its members are pressing for greater transparency from streamers about viewership and residuals. Netflix did not immediately comment on viewership data for Sunday’s broadcast.

Political references during the show were comparatively muted for an election year, limited mostly to brief remarks about workers’ rights and the importance of creative labor. The red carpet leaned into a curated “old Hollywood” look, with several outlets noting 1920s- and 1930s-inspired gowns and tuxedos that echoed periods depicted in contenders such as “Sinners.”

Looking ahead to the Oscars

With the 98th Academy Awards scheduled for March 15, the Actor Awards’ outcomes added new data points to a crowded season. Historically, there has been frequent overlap between the guild’s individual acting winners and Oscar recipients, and its film ensemble award has often lined up with the eventual best picture.

Whether “Sinners” will ultimately convert its Actor Awards momentum and 16 Oscar nominations into Academy Awards victories remains uncertain. For one night at the Shrine, however, the story for many in the room was not only which names were called, but who was doing the calling—a union of actors, under a new banner, testing its voice in a streaming-dominated Hollywood.