Witherspoon, Hoffman take top honours at SAG Awards

Reese Witherspoon. Picture / Reuters

Phillip Seymour Hoffman won the best actor award for his performance as writer Truman Capote in Capote, and Reese Witherspoon won best actress honours for her portrayal of June Carter in Walk the Line at the Screen Actors Guild awards today.

The prizes bolster their chances of winning an Oscar when the Academy Awards are presented in March.

Crash won the top cast honour, in an upset victory for the film about the racial tension simmering in Los Angeles.

Director Ang Lee's gay cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain went into the awards as the odds-on favourite, having swept other major awards in the run-up to the March 5 Academy Awards.

ABC's hit series Lost and Desperate Housewives won top acting honours for television.

The Lost cast won the best ensemble performance award for a dramatic television series while Desperate Housewives received the ensemble award for best comedy series.

Paul Giamatti won the best supporting actor award for his role as manager Joe Gould in the boxing film Cinderella Man, about the life of Depression-era boxer James J. Braddock.

British actress Rachel Weisz won best supporting actress for her role as the doomed activist wife of a British diplomat in The Constant Gardener, a film based on a thriller by spy novelist John Le Carre.

It was the first nomination and win for Lost, a castaway thriller that has helped reinvigorate ABC's prime-time schedule.

Felicity Huffman was named best actress in a comedy series for her work as one of the Desperate Housewives. She was also a contender for best actress for her work in the film Transamerica, in which she plays a man on the verge of completing a sex change operation, but lost out in the end to Witherspoon.

Sandra Oh was named best actress in a television drama for her work as a fledgling doctor in Grey's Anatomy on ABC while Kiefer Sutherland was named best actor in a dramatic series for his work as a US agent out to foil terrorist plots in 24 on Fox.

Breathless and in tears, Oh, who also won a Golden Globe for her role, thanked her fellow Asian American actors. She said, "I share this with you ... be encouraged and keep shining."

Backstage, Oh said it was important that three actors of Korean descent had been honored by SAG. The other two were ensemble members of Lost, Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim. She added: "That's quite an advance and I am proud to be part of it."

Sean Hayes, named best actor for his role in the gay-themed NBC comedy Will & Grace, joked about the anticipation building around Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain as he accepted his award.

"First of all, I would like to thank Ang Lee for taking a chance on me," he said. "I know everyone in Hollywood knows it's such a risk to play a gay character."

* The following is a list of the winners at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, presented on Sunday at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

The awards are closely watched as an indicator of potential success at the Academy Awards, Hollywood's top honours, which will be presented in March.

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
-- Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
-- Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
-- Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
-- Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
-- Crash

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
-- S. Epatha Merkerson, Lackawanna Blue

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
-- Paul Newman, Empire Falls

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
-- Kiefer Sutherland, 24

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
-- Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
-- Sean Hayes, Will & Grace

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
-- Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
-- Lost

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
-- Desperate Housewives

- REUTERS