‘Sinners’ wins top Actor Award, boosting chances at the Oscars

Vampire thriller “Sinners” has claimed the Actor Award for best movie cast on Sunday, a major win for the Segregation-era tale on Hollywood’s road to the Oscars.

Sinners triumphed over One Battle After Another, a movie that had been considered a frontrunner after earlier wins during the film awards season.

Actor Delroy Lindo accepted the award with fellow Sinners cast members standing behind him on stage in Los Angeles.

“Every single day we brought ourselves, we brought our hearts, we brought our souls, we brought our spirits to this endeavor,” Lindo said. “To be recognized by you all, thank you does not even begin to encompass the gratitude that we feel.”

The Actor Awards, previously called the SAG Awards, are handed out by members of the SAG-AFTRA actors union. Winners are closely watched because actors make up the biggest group of voters for the Academy Awards on March 15.

In television awards, actors celebrated the late Catherine O’Hara as the best female in a television comedy for her role as a movie producer in the Hollywood satire The Studio.

Seth Rogen, the writer and star of The Studio, accepted the trophy on her behalf. He said O’Hara frequently sent polite e-mails suggesting rewrites of her scenes, and her ideas always made them better.

“It showed you can be a genius and can be kind, and one of those things does not have to come at the expense of the other,” Rogen said at the ceremony, which was streamed live on Netflix.

The Studio won the Actor Award for best cast in a TV comedy, and The Pitt earned best cast in a TV drama.