Denzel Washington, Emma Stone and the cast of "Hidden Figures" took the top prizes at Hollywood's Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards Sunday, during a ceremony where many who took the stage protested against US President Donald Trump's immigration ban. Washington won best male lead actor honours for his performance in the screen adaptation of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Fences," which he also directed. Stone won the best female lead actor trophy for her portrayal of a struggling actor in the musical romance "La La Land," a reprise of her win at the Golden Globes on Janaury 8. The cast of civil rights era space-race film "Hidden Figures," led by Taraji P Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae, took the best ensemble award, the SAG's equivalent of the best-picture Oscar. Viola Davis ("Fences") and Mahershela Ali ("Moonlight") took the prizes for best female and male supporting actor. Washington's upset victory over favourites Casey Affleck ("Manchester by the Sea") and Ryan Gosling ("La La Land") seemed to throw a curve ball to the Oscars race for best actor. The best lead acting prizes are considered strong indicators of the Academy Awards for best actor and actress. The winner of the SAG Award for best male actor has gone on to win the Oscar every year since 2003. The awards ceremony at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium also sounded a strong note of political protest, with criticisms of the immigration ban on refugees and citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries as well as calls for tolerance, diversity and resistance. Host Ashton Kutcher opened the television broadcast with greetings to actors in the room, the audience at home and "everyone in airports that belong in my America." "You are a part of the fabric of who we are and we love you and welcome you," he said. Julia Louis-Dreyfus ("Veep"), who won the award for best female actor in a comedy series, led her acceptance speech with a blistering satire of Trump. "Whether the Russians did or did not hack this year's SAG Awards... I'm the winner, the winner is me, landslide," she joked. Invoking her late father, who came to the US as a refugee, Louis-Dreyfus turned serious to denounce the ban. "It is a blemish and it is un-American," she said. Best male supporting actor winner Ali, who is Muslim, spoke of diversity and tolerance, while John Lithgow invoked Meryl Streep's impassioned denouncement of Trump at the Golden Globes, saying she "somehow managed to speak my exact thoughts." Sarah Paulson, awarded for her role in the TV miniseries "The People vs OJ Simpson: American Crime Story," encouraged donations to the American Civil Liberties Union, the rights group leading legal challenges to the ban. The Screen Actors Guild Awards are the only televised awards ceremony to honour actors exclusively, with prizes presented in 13 categories in film and television. In television categories, the guild awarded the casts of "Orange is the New Black" and "Stranger Things," as well as Lithgow and Claire Foy ("The Crown") and William H Macy ("Shameless"). Lily Tomlin was presented with the guild's lifetime achievement award for more than four decades of work including films "Nashville" (1975), "9 to 5" (1980) and "Grandma" (2015) and multiple TV series, from "Laugh-In" (1968-73) to "The West Wing" (1999-2006) and "Grace and Frankie" since 2015. Even she used the occasion to reflect on current affairs. "What a week this has been," she said. Noting that the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists this week moved its "doomsday clock" to its closest time to midnight in 64 years, she quipped, "this award came just in the nick of time."
