In the highest-profile category, best ensemble (which many voters treat as an equivalent of best picture), the nom-com selected the mostly Irish cast of Belfast, the largely deaf cast of CODA, the very diverse cast of King Richard and the overflowing-with-A-listers casts of Don’t Look Up and House of Gucci.

A best ensemble nomination is a nice way of recognizing all of the performers who worked on a film, which might explain why the nom-com then elected to recognize, in its individual acting categories, performers other than the men of Belfast (lead actor Jude Hill and supporting actors Jamie Dornan and Ciaran Hinds), the women of CODA (lead actress Emilia Jones and supporting actress Marlee Matlin), King Richard’s scene-stealing supporting actress Aunjanue Ellis and anyone associated with Don’t Look Up.

Meanwhile, the nom-com excluded from the best ensemble category The Power of the Dog, even though members liked it enough to nominate it in three individual acting categories, for lead actor Benedict Cumberbatch, supporting actor Kodi Smith-McPhee and supporting actress Kirsten Dunst; Being the Ricardos, even though lead actor Javier Bardem and lead actress Nicole Kidman both made the cut; and West Side Story, a large and strong ensemble if ever there was one, nominating only its supporting actress Ariana DeBose.

For years, it seemed like a best ensemble miss was the kiss of death for a film’s prospects of winning a best picture Oscar; indeed, only Braveheart managed to overcome the former to win the latter — until, that is, the last four years, within which three other films (The Shape of Water, Green Book and Nomadland) did the same.

So my main takeaway from the category this morning is that King Richard, CODA, Don’t Look Up and House of Gucci have considerable support and should not be underestimated — we already knew that about Belfast — in a year in which there will be 10 nominees for the best picture Oscar.

The truth is that this morning’s most glaring absence was that of the long-presumed frontrunner for the lead actress award, Spencer’s Kristen Stewart, who finished in her category behind not only Kidman and Gaga, but also The Lost Daughter’s Olivia Colman and two stars of films which came and went from the conversation relatively early — or so it seemed — Respect’s Jennifer Hudson and The Eyes of Tammy Faye’s Jessica Chastain.

But whatever happened, this is a bad blow to her standing — in the 27 years in which the SAG Awards have preceded the Oscars, no performance which wasn’t even nominated for a SAG Award went on to win a best actress Oscar.

Over in the supporting actress category, the usual suspects — Balfe, Dunst, DeBose and Blanchett — were joined by Passing’s Ruth Negga, who, interestingly enough, was not nominated by SAG en route to her best actress Oscar nom for Loving five years ago.

The Korean drama Squid Game, which is the most-watched show in the history of Netflix, is now the first non-English-language show to receive a best ensemble nom — SAG-AFTRA, we should note, was also the first major group to get behind the Korean film Parasite en route to its best picture Oscar win — and was also nominated in each of the individual acting categories (Lee Jung-Jae for male actor and Jung Ho-Yeon for female actor)!