Forest Whitaker took home the best actor trophy for his performance in 'The Last King of Scotland.'
The cast of 'The Office' took home the trophy for best TV comedy ensemble.
'Grey's Anatomy' won for best TV drama ensemble.
"Sunshine" is getting hotter.
Fox Searchlight's offbeat family comedy won SAG's top trophy Sunday night, beating "Babel," "Bobby," "The Departed" and "Dreamgirls" for the ensemble prize at the 13th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium.
Victory places "Little Miss Sunshine" at the forefront of the best picture Oscar race, adding to the pic's momentum following its Jan. 20 Producers Guild of America win.
SAG has matched the Oscar best picture five times in 11 years, including last year, when "Crash" took both awards. With actors repping a quarter of voters at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the SAG Awards are a closely watched indicator of Oscar sentiment.
"I'd like to thank the engineers at Volkswagen for making a beautiful vehicle back in 1969 that was comfortable and so safe," said an elated Greg Kinnear in his acceptance speech, referring to the pic's trademark yellow minibus.
It was a great night for Steve Carell, who was part of two winning ensembles: "Sunshine" and NBC's workplace comedy "The Office."
Helen Mirren took two trophies for playing British monarchs, winning the lead actress awards for Miramax's feature "The Queen" and HBO's telepic "Elizabeth I."
"Oh Lord, be still my beating heart," Mirren said in her acceptance for "The Queen."
She told the audience she wept on first seeing the sensible shoes and tweed skirts for the role, but added, "I learned to love the person who chooses to wear those clothes, because I learned to love a person without vanity but with a great sense of discipline that I understand. With a great sense of duty that I understand and with a great deal of courage that I understand."
SAG members also feted Forest Whitaker as feature actor for his portrayal of dictator Idi Amin in Fox Searchlight's "The Last King of Scotland."
Mirren and Whitaker both won Golden Globes and are widely regarded as front-runners for the Oscar.
The "Sunshine" victory underlined the wisdom of studio spending on screeners. Searchlight sent "Sunshine" screeners to all 110,000 SAG members -- at a cost of $5 per disc -- following the successful "Crash" strategy last year. SAG members also received screeners of Warner Bros.' "The Departed" and Miramax's "Venus."
In his acceptance speech, Kinnear singled out "Sunshine's" husband-and-wife directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who weren't nominated for an Oscar. He also stressed that the pic has five producers -- a jab at the Academy, which excluded producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa last week from eligibility in the best picture nomination, in adherence to its rule capping the number of producers for a film at three.
"We had five -- not three, not two, not four -- five great producers on this movie," Kinnear said of the $8 million pic. "I want to thank all of them. Fox Searchlight and Peter Rice, of course, thank you guys for finding a way to get a small voice heard."
"Sunshine" won only the single trophy Sunday. In the supporting categories, Alan Arkin and Abigail Breslin -- who portrayed the grandfather-granddaughter combo in "Sunshine" -- lost out to the "Dreamgirls" duo of Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson, who also won the Golden Globes earlier this month.
The SAG show, telecast live on cablers TBS and TNT, is a far looser affair than the Oscars. Murphy began his acceptance speech in a British accent, then dropped it and explained he admired how smoothly English thesps handle such situations, adding, "And I feel goofy up here because I don't be winning stuff."
Newcomer Hudson gave an emotional acceptance speech, stressing the support of castmates, producer Laurence Mark and director Bill Condon -- "for believing in me when I didn't believe in myself. ... Thank you for noticing little old me."
Whitaker and Mirren will face off against the same thesps at the Feb. 25 Academy Awards. Whitaker topped Leonardo DiCaprio ("Blood Diamond"), Ryan Gosling ("Half Nelson"), Peter O'Toole ("Venus") and Will Smith ("The Pursuit of Happyness"), while Mirren won over Penelope Cruz ("Volver"), Judi Dench ("Notes on a Scandal"), Meryl Streep ("The Devil Wears Prada") and Kate Winslet ("Little Children").
The SAG Awards have offered a reliable read on the top acting categories, with the SAG lead actor matching the Oscar actor in eight of the 12 years, including Philip Seymour Hoffman last year for "Capote." The SAG award and the Oscar for actress have gone to the same thesp in nine of the 12 years, including Reese Witherspoon for "Walk the Line" last year.
Mirren previously won two SAG awards, as supporting actress and as cast member for 2002's "Gosford Park."
Mirren's castmate Jeremy Irons won the male telepic acting trophy for "Elizabeth I" as the pair repeated their Golden Globe wins in the category. "I love this award more than any other award," Mirren told the audience after winning the TV prize.
Backstage, Mirren praised American actors, singling out their "energy and naturalism."
SAG voters opted for NBC's second-year skein "The Office" as top comedy series, while recognizing a pair of new series in the comedy acting categories: Alec Baldwin for NBC's "30 Rock" and America Ferrera for ABC's "Ugly Betty" took trophies.
Baldwin started his thanks by singling out the focus-puller for "shaving six to eight years" in closeups. And Ferrara noted the "common knowledge of struggle and rejection" in her acceptance speech.
ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" took two drama nods, for cast and for Chandra Wilson, while Hugh Laurie of Fox's "House" took the male drama award.
Wilson -- the first African-American to win an individual TV prize -- singled out her 10 castmates in the audience and "the one who's in rehab," a reference to Isaiah Washington.
"It's not so much whether you do good work as whether you get the chance to do good work," Laurie said. "I'm British, which accounts for why I'm so smooth."
Julie Andrews received a lifetime achievement award at the ceremonies and singled out "main squeeze" and spouse Blake Edwards. She evoked big laughs by saying, "I guess I have one tiny complaint: When he directs me in a love scene, he's quite likely to say, 'Well, that was fine, darling, but I know you can do better.'"
Click here for the
Complete Winners List and
Sag Awards: Backstage Notes from the 13th annual SAG Awards.
Contact Dave McNary at
dave.mcnary@variety.com