SAG Award nominations honor some of Hollywood's best

I've already established that I'm a movie awards junkie, and I couldn't be happier that some of the bigger nominations are being announced right now. This week, the Screen Actors Guild Award nominations were released, and while  I'm having a great time formulating some of my own predictions, I'm holding off on making final decisions until I've seen all of the films myself. For now, we'll just take a look at some of the bigger nominees.

The SAG Award nominations were announced on Wednesday, and not surprisingly, one of the best films of the year (in my opinion), 12 Years a Slave, got a lot of recognition. SAG does things a little differently - instead of a best picture category, the Awards recognize Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. The cast of 12 Years a Slave is nominated, along with the casts of American Hustle, August: Osage County, Dallas Buyers Club and Lee Daniels' The Butler. Take a good look, because I will say I believe all of these films will be Best Picture Oscar nominees (and yes, I'm including The Butler).

Outstanding lead actor award nominations include Bruce Dern for Nebraska, Forest Whitaker for The Butler, Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips, Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave and Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club. No surprises here, except for perhaps the abundance of love shown for Lee Daniels' The Butler again.

The SAG Award nominees for best lead actress are Meryl Streep for August: Osage County, Emma Thompson for Saving Mr. Banks, Sandra Bullock for Gravity, Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine (which I still haven't seen! Gah!) and Judi Dench for Philomena. Is anyone else super eager to see August: Osage County? Meryl Streep is nominated, which means look out, everyone else.

And yes, Jennifer Lawrence remains the awards season frontrunner for everything. She's nominated for best actress in a supporting role for American Hustle. I haven't even seen this movie yet but I am almost 100 percent certain I'm going to be on board with the JLaw love again this year.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards will be handed out on Saturday, January 18, 2014.

For the whole list of SAG Award nominees, check here. Stay tuned, because I'll be breaking down the (just announced) Golden Globe nominations soon, too!

Photo courtesy of TVRage.com