SAG Award Nominations: '12 Years a Slave' Leads SAG Nominees

The Screen Actors Guild nominations have been announced with "12 Years a Slave" leading the nominees. 

The film was also nominated for Best Actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor, Best Supporting Actor for Michael Fassbender, and Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong'o.

Director Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" was joined by "American Hustle," "August: Osage County," "Dallas Buyers Club" and "Lee Daniel's The Butler."

Ejiofor was joined with by Matthew McConaughey for his role in "Dallas Buyers Club," Tom Hanks for "Captain Phillips, Bruce Dern for "Nebraska" and Forest Whitaker for "Lee Daniel's The Butler."

The Best Actress nominees included Cate Blanchett for her role in "Blue Jasmine," Judi Dench for "Philomena," and Meryl Streep for "August: Osage County." Sandra Bullock and Emma Thompson rounded out the Best actress nominees for their roles in "Gravity," and "Saving Mr. Banks."

The Best Supporting Actor race saw Fassbender joined by front-runner Jared Leto for his role in "Dallas Buyers Club," Barkhad Abdi for "Captain Phillips," Daniel Bruhl for "Rush," and James Gandolfini for "Enough Said."

Nyong'o was joined by Jennifer Lawrence for her performance in "American Hustle," June Squibb for "Nebraska," Julia Roberts for "August: Osage County" and Oprah Winfrey for "Lee Daniel's The Butler" for the Supporting Actress race.

The Stunt Ensensemble nominees were "All is Lost," "Fast and Furious 6," "Lone Survivor," "Rush," and "The Wolverine."

The Screen Actors Guild awards is relevant because most of the voters also vote for the Academy Awards. Additionally, every best picture has been nominated for the Best Cast category since the inception of SAG. If a film is not nominated for this category there is a very low probability of the film winning Best Picture.

A win at SAG puts an individual as the front-runner to win the category. Last year, three of the four actors who won SAG went on to win the Academy Award.

The SAG awards will be held on Jan. 18.