Brokeback Mountain, the tale of two gay cowboys tormented by lifelong love, on Thursday picked up more steam on its way to the Oscars with four nominations from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).
Brokeback already racked up popularity with the coveted Venice film festival Golden Lion award and has bagged seven nominations for the Golden Globes, which will be announced on January 17.
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association last month voted Brokeback Mountain best picture and its Chinese-American director Ang Lee as best director for 2005.
The SAG Awards, especially important because its members make up the largest part of Academy Award voters, will be presented on January 29.
Brokeback star Heath Ledger was tapped by his guild colleagues for a best-actor nomination, and his co-star, Jake Gyllenhaal, was nominated for best supporting actor.
The story portrays the lifelong passions that tear Ledger’s character in two — his love for Gyllenhaal’s character, whom he meets as a young cowboy herding sheep on Brokeback mountain, and his love and commitment to his wife, played by Michelle Williams, and two children.
Williams was nominated for best supporting actress.
The SAG nominations for best ensemble — equivalent to best-picture Oscar nominations — pits Brokeback against Capote, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck and Hustle & Flow.
The high-cost films King Kong and Steven Spielberg’s Munich went begging for any nominations, with more emphasis by the SAG on acting rather than special effects.
In the best-film-actor category, Ledger was nominated along with Russell Crowe (Cinderella Man), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote), Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line) and David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck).
Nominees for best actress in a film are Judi Dench (Mrs Henderson Presents), Felicity Huffman (Transamerica), Charlize Theron (North Country), Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) and Ziyi Zhang (Memoirs of a Geisha).
In addition to Gyllenhaal’s nomination for best supporting actor, nods went to Don Cheadle (Crash), George Clooney (Syriana), Matt Dillon (Crash) and Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man).
In addition to Williams’s nomination for best supporting actress in a film, nods went to Amy Adams (Junebug), Catherine Keener (Capote), Frances McDormand (North Country) and Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener).
In the field of television, SAG nominated Boston Legal for best comedy ensemble and Grey’s Anatomy for best drama, actor and actress. — Sapa-DPA