Black Panther wins top prize at SAG awards

Groundbreaking superhero blockbuster "Black Panther" on Sunday won the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards -- a major boost to its campaign for Oscars glory next month.

The film won for best ensemble cast, besting musical romance "A Star Is Born," Spike Lees "BlacKkKlansman," Queen biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" and rom-com "Crazy Rich Asians."

Chadwick Boseman, who plays the title role in what was the top-grossing film in North America in 2018, explained the films significance alongside his co-stars, nearly all of them black.

"We all know what its like to be told that there is not a place for you to be featured, yet you are young, gifted and black," Boseman told the audience at the Shrine Auditorium.

"We knew that we had something special that we wanted to give the world -- that we could be full human beings in the roles that we were playing, that we could create a world that exemplified a world we wanted to see."

"Black Panther" also won for best stunt ensemble.

This year, the SAG Awards come at a key point in the race to next months Academy Awards -- just after the Oscars nominations, and well before voting for the winners begins.

The Screen Actors Guild accounts for a major percentage of the 8,000-odd Oscar voters, so the SAG winners will earn a lot of awards season momentum.

Despite four nominations, "A Star Is Born" -- the latest iteration of the classic Tinseltown story of an aging star and the ingenue he discovers -- went home empty-handed.

So far this awards season, she has also won a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice Award.

For best actor, Rami Maleks star-making turn as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in "Bohemian Rhapsody" was rewarded -- over Christian Bales work in another biopic, as former US vice president Dick Cheney in "Vice."

"I just never in my wildest dreams thought I could be in a category with these men," said Malek, who also won a Golden Globe for the role and is nominated for an Oscar.

Mahershala Ali ("Green Book") continued his march to the Oscars by taking the best supporting actor trophy for his work in civil rights dramedy "Green Book."

Ali -- already a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award winner -- stars as Don Shirley, a black pianist who hires a white Italian-American driver (Viggo Mortensen) to help him on a tour of the segregated American South in the 1960s.

"I am just really grateful to be amongst this fraternity of people, amongst this fraternity of artists who have the good fortune of getting to deal and wrestle with the human condition and trying to do that responsibly," he said.

Emily Blunt meanwhile pulled off a major upset, winning the statuette for best supporting actress for "A Quiet Place," an innovative horror film directed by her husband and co-star, John Krasinski.

"Thank you for giving me the part -- you would have been in major trouble if you hadnt," she quipped at Krasinski. "You are a stunning filmmaker."