Forget The Oscars They Got SAGs

While the Oscars Awards is in the grips of a race row crisis, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) proved to be a clear celebration of diversity as the award unveiled the winners list at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Saturday night.

There was a double win for British star Idris Elba, who won Best Supporting Actor for Beasts Of No Nation, about child soldiers in Africa, and Best Actor in a TV Miniseries for Luther.  Elba, in fact, succinctly summed up what was happening when he took the stage for a third time, as a presenter, and said Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to diverse TV! There were also wins for Viola Davis won for her performance in the TV series How To Get Away With Murder and Queen Latifah for her performance in HBO's Bessie.

What made the night's events so interesting was the fact that members of SAG were casting their vote’s right up until the end of the day on Friday which meant that the 160,000 guild members were making their decisions as the lack of diversity row over the Academy Awards was in high gear and talks of a boycott were being bandied about and since actors make up the largest voting bloc in the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences, it's interesting to see them voting firmly in favour of diversity on big and small screens.

 Idris Elba

 Queen Latifah

  Uzo Aduba

Viola Davis

It would be hard not to wonder how much the OscarsSoWhite backlash influenced the way votes were cast for Saturday night's SAGs, anyway below are the full list of winners

Best Cast: Spotlight
Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Best Actress: Brie Larson, Room
Best Supporting Actor: Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation
Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Best Cast (Drama): Downton Abbey
Best Cast (Comedy): Orange is the New Black
Best Actor (Drama): Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
Best Actress (Drama): Viola Davis, How to Get Away with Murder
Best Actor (Comedy): Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent
Best Actress (Comedy): Uzo Aduba, Orange is the New Black
Best Actor (TV Movie or Mini-Series): Idris Elba, Luther
Best Actress (TV Movie or Mini-Series): Queen Latifah, Bessie
Best Stunt Ensemble (Motion Picture): Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Stunt Ensemble (Comedy or Drama Series): Game of Thrones