Screen Actors Guild Awards changes name from SAG to The Actor Awards
The Screen Actors Guild Awards, the awards ceremony honoring actors, is changing its name.
Known colloquially as the SAG Awards, the awards ceremony will now be dubbed the Actor Awards presented by Sag-Aftra, the union representing American film, television and radio actors.
“Since the beginning, our statue has been called ‘The Actor’ and we are a show all about the actors, so this new name is a perfect next step in the evolution of the show,” the show’s executive producer said Friday.
The name change comes ahead of the 32nd edition of the star-studded ceremony, scheduled for March 1, 2026.
The show’s executive producer, Jon Brockett, told the BBC that the name change – which was announced at a board meeting on Friday – gives viewers in more than 190 countries “an immediate understanding of who we are and what we do” – a show about actors honoring actors.
“Now that our global audience is really growing, people don’t always understand what the name of the union is,” added JoBeth Williams, chair of the awards committee.
“But they recognize the ‘Actor Awards’ and they know they will see their favorite actors when they tune in,” Ms Willams said.
The Actor’s Trophy is also a boon for its winners in the run-up to the Oscars, putting a better spotlight on the Oscar race each year.
The Oscars, like the Emmys, Grammys and Golden Globes, are better known by the nicknames derived from their respective trophies rather than by the professional organizations and academies that support them.
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Aftra) merged in 2012 and represent approximately 160,000 members. The new name of the show now allows the organization to fully recognize this merger and align it with the name of the statuette, the union said.
The name change comes weeks after Sag-Aftra elected Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin as its new leader.
Astin succeeds The Nanny star Fran Drescher, who led the organization through the 2023 Hollywood strikes during her four-year tenure.
