Actor Awards winners list: Sinners soars, Catherine O'Hara honoured and remembered

Sinners has received its flowers at today's Actor Awards (formally SAG awards) after spending most of the season being overlooked for Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another.

Director Ryan Coogler's hybrid horror took home the award for Best Ensemble, the Actor equivalent of Best Picture.

"This project is anointed and from that standpoint we are all anointed on this incredible journey by the genius Ryan Coogler," cast member Delroy Lindo said as he accepted the award.

"From the bottom of our hearts thank you so much."

Not only did Sinners secure the biggest award of the night but it also provided the biggest shock as Michael B Jordan got the gong for Best Leading Actor.

All awards season Marty Supreme's Timothée Chalamet has been favoured in the Leading Actor category, with many pundits assuming the multi-Oscar nominee would finally get his golden statue in 2026.

But after Jordan's Actor win the tide may be turning on Chalamet, who also lost Leading Actor to Richard Aramayo at the 2026 BAFTAs.

Earlier in the year Sinners was nominated for 16 Oscars, breaking the record for most Academy Award nominations for a single production.

"We were lucky": O'Hara honoured and remembered

Catherine O'Hara won a posthumous Actor Award for her work on comedy series The Studio.

The 71-year-old actor died unexpectedly in January this year from a pulmonary embolism.

Already a comedy legend in films like Beetlejuice and Best In Show, O'Hara's performance as ousted studio head in Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's Hollywood satire The Studio was universally critically praised.

Rogen was on hand to accept O'Hara's Actor award for Best Female Actor in a Comedy Series.

"I was asked to assume the very sad honour of accepting this award on O'Hara's behalf," Rogen said.

"I have been reflecting on my time working with her and something I've been marvelling at over the past few weeks was her ability to be generous and kind and gracious while never minimising her own talents and her own ability to contribute to the work we were doing,

"She knew she could destroy, she wanted to destroy every day. I haven't said this to the other actors cause I don't want them to get ideas but pretty much every evening before we had a shooting day she would email me and Evan and it was always pretty similar it said 'hello, I hope you consider the following' and then there would be a completely rewritten version of the scene," Rogen said to big laughs from the audience.

"Literally 100 per cent of the time it made not just her character better but the scene and the show as a whole. 

"She showed you could be a genius and be kind and those things don't have to come at the expense of one another."

Rogen concluded his speech by encouraging everybody to watch O'Hara's past work and realise "we were lucky to live in a world where she so generously shared her talents with us".

Rogen won an Actor award earlier in the evening for his performance on The Studio. The show also won Best Ensemble in a Comedy Show.

Michael J Fox lights up opening bits

The Actor award's 'I am an actor' bit has become a running gag that always garners a giggle or two. 

Kristen Wiig opened this year's edition, lamenting her early background work, One Battle After Another's Teyana Taylor reminded the audience that she was seven years old when she saw her on-screen love Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic, and Sinners' Delroy Lindo provided a sweet reminder of the power emerging actors hold.

But it was Hollywood stalwart Michael J Fox who stole the show after a lengthy applause break, sharing a story about his rough transition to LA.

"After a few years of dumpster diving in LA, I ended up on Family Ties, where I received the biggest gift of my career: I met my wife, the actress Tracy Pollan, who played Ellen, my girlfriend, and she gave me four gifts, our four kids."

"Sometimes I like to remind them if it wasn't for acting, they wouldn't be here," he continued, as the camera showed his son Sam Fox.

"By the way, he's not an actor, he's just my date. I'm Michael J Fox, I'm a dad, and I'm an actor!"

Fox has been very open about living with Parkinson's disease and how it's affected his ability to work. The Back to The Future star has been taking on small roles recently, including voice work in Zootopia 2 and a touching cameo role in sitcom Shrinking.

Returning to her hosting gigs from last year, Actor Awards MC Kristen Bell helmed a solid opening song about how more actors should adopt stage names. The Nobody Wants This actor gets in a good jab about the awards changing their name from the SAG awards to the Actor Awards in 2026.

Harrison Ford accepts Life Achievement award

Indiana Jones himself was honoured with the Life Achievement Award at the Actors. Fellow performer Woody Harrelson presented the award to Ford, complete with a joke-heavy introduction speech that highlighted Harrison's environmental work and his wealth of performances.

"Harrison you have more talent in your little finger than I have in … my little finger," Harrelson joked.

"I realise that there is too much of me in this speech but what do you expect, I am an actor."

Ford, 83, enjoyed a long standing ovation upon collecting his award.

"It's a little weird to be getting a lifetime achievement award at the half-point of my career; it's a little early isn't it? I'm still a working actor," Ford, who currently stars in Apple TV sitcom Shrinking, said.

Ford then thanked Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas for pulling him out of carpentry to star in his breakthrough role as Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise.

"I am indeed a lucky guy, lucky to have found my people, lucky to have work that challenges me, lucky to still be doing it. I don't take that for granted," Ford concluded through tears.

What does this mean for the Oscars?

The Actor Awards are the last major ceremony of the awards season cycle before we get to the Oscars on March 16 (Australian time).

Both Michael B Jordan's Best Lead Actor win and Sinners pulling down Best Ensemble means the vampire action musical is back in the game, after a season of many, many nominations but fewer wins.

Elsewhere, two of the most contentious categories for this awards season have been Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress with both awards being shared around several nominees throughout various award ceremonies, including Australian Jacob Elordi.

Elordi's hopes at the Oscar for Frankenstein were dealt another dash at the Actor awards, with the statue going to Sean Penn for One Battle After Another. This win, coupled with Penn's BAFTA win, nudges the veteran actor slightly in front of a very competitive pool of nominees.

Amy Madigan's Supporting Actress campaign for Weapons got a boost from her Actor win. Madigan also won the category at the Critics Choice awards earlier in the year.

In more less-than-ideal news for Australian representatives, Jessie Buckley's Best Leading Actress Actor award win has all but squashed Rose Byrne's hopes at holding an Oscar for If I Had Legs I'd Kick You. 

A surprise is not out of the question — last year Demi Moore won all precursor awards for Best Actress only to be pipped at the Oscars by Mikey Madison — but Byrne's chances don't look great.

See the full list of 2026 Actor Award winners below.

Film

Ensemble in a Motion Picture

• Frankenstein
• Hamnet
• Marty Supreme
• One Battle After Another
• Sinners - WINNER

Female Actor in a Leading Role

• Jessie Buckley in Hamnet — WINNER
• Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
• Kate Hudson in Song Sung Blue
• Chase Infiniti in One Battle After Another
• Emma Stone in Bugonia

Male Actor in a Leading Role

• Timothée Chalamet in Marty Supreme
• Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another
• Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon
• Michael B Jordan in Sinners — WINNER
• Jesse Plemons in Bugonia

Female Actor in a Supporting Role

• Odessa A'zion in Marty Supreme
• Ariana Grande in Wicked: For Good
• Amy Madigan in Weapons — WINNER
• Wunmi Mosaku in Sinners
• Teyana Taylor in One Battle After Another

Male Actor in a Supporting Role

• Miles Caton in Sinners
• Benicio Del Toro in One Battle After Another
• Jacob Elordi in Frankenstein
• Paul Mescal in Hamnet
• Sean Penn in One Battle After Another — WINNER

Television

Ensemble in a Drama Series

• The Diplomat
• Landman
• The Pitt — WINNER
• Severance
• The White Lotus

Female Actor in a Drama Series

• Britt Lower in Severance
• Parker Posey in The White Lotus
• Keri Russell in The Diplomat — WINNER
• Rhea Seehorn in Pluribus
• Aimee Lou Wood in The White Lotus

Male Actor in a Drama Series

• Sterling K Brown in Paradise
• Billy Crudup in The Morning Show
• Walton Goggins in The White Lotus
• Gary Oldman in Slow Horses
• Noah Wyle in The Pitt — WINNER

Ensemble in a Comedy Series

• Abbott Elementary
• The Bear
• Hacks
• Only Murders in the Building
• The Studio — WINNER

Female Actor in a Comedy Series

• Kathryn Hahn in The Studio
• Catherine O'Hara in The Studio — WINNER
• Jenna Ortega in Wednesday
• Jean Smart in Hacks
• Kristen Wiig in Palm Royale

Male Actor in a Comedy Series

• Ike Barinholtz in The Studio
• Adam Brody in Nobody Wants This
• Ted Danson in A Man on the Inside
• Seth Rogan in The Studio — WINNER
• Martin Short in Only Murders in the Building

Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series

• Claire Danes in The Beast in Me
• Erin Doherty in Adolescence
• Sarah Snook in All Her Fault
• Christine Tremarco in Adolescence
• Michelle Williams in Dying for Sex — WINNER

Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series

• Jason Bateman in Black Rabbit
• Owen Cooper in Adolescence — WINNER
• Stephen Graham in Adolescence
• Charlie Hunnam in Monster: The Ed Gein Story
• Matthew Rhys in The Beast in Me

Stunts

Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

• F1
• Frankenstein
• Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning — WINNER
• One Battle After Another
• Sinners

Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series

• Andor
• Landman
• The Last of Us — WINNER
• Squid Game
• Stranger Things