'Babel,' 'Dreamgirls' and 'Little Miss Sunshine' to Duke It Out at SAG Awards

LOS ANGELES – There's only one last big awards show before the Oscars (thank goodness).

The ensemble drama "Babel," the musical "Dreamgirls" and the road-trip tale "Little Miss Sunshine" were the front-runners heading into the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which air Sunday at 8 p.m. EST on TNT and TBS.

"Babel" and "Dreamgirls" are also the two most nominated films at this year's Oscars.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Oscar-favorite Helen Mirren both had two nominations. Mirren was nominated for playing both of England's two Queen Elizabeths, as Best Actress in a Film as the current monarch in "The Queen" and as Best Actress in a TV Movie or Miniseries for playing her predecessor and mother in "Elizabeth I." She won Golden Globes for both performances earlier this month.

List: Nominees for the 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

DiCaprio had a lead-actor film nomination as a mercenary hunting a rare gem in the African adventure "Blood Diamond" and a supporting-actor nomination as a cop undercover in a Boston crime gang in "The Departed."

"Dreamgirls" grabbed supporting nominations for Golden Globe winners Eddie Murphy as a soul singer and Jennifer Hudson as a vocal powerhouse booted out of a Supremes-like trio.

The film also had a slot in the guild's category for best overall acting ensemble, which includes Jamie Foxx and Beyonce Knowles, who were shut out in the lead-acting nominations.

The other ensemble nominees were "Babel," the Robert Kennedy drama "Bobby," "The Departed" and "Little Miss Sunshine."

Key cast members from some of those films — among them Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon of "The Departed," Brad Pitt of "Babel," and Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Steve Carell of "Little Miss Sunshine" — were overlooked for nominations.

Carell did score a TV nomination as best actor in a comedy series for "The Office," which also was among nominees for best comedy ensemble.

Another notable snub was Sacha Baron Cohen, who won the Golden Globe for Best Actor for a Comedy or Musical for the hit comedy "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

Along with Mirren, other likely Oscar favorites and nominees dominated the guild choices, including Golden Globe winner Forest Whitaker as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland" and Oscar nominee Peter O'Toole as a lecherous aging actor who falls in love with a much younger woman in "Venus."

Child actor and Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin was nominated for supporting actress as a 7-year-old obsessed with competing in beauty pageants in "Little Miss Sunshine."

Will Smith, another Oscar nominee, rounded out the lead-actor field as a homeless dad in "The Pursuit of Happyness."

Joining Mirren for lead-actress nominations were Oscar nominee Penelope Cruz as a woman with bizarre family crises in "Volver"; Oscar nominee Judi Dench as a scheming teacher in "Notes on a Scandal"; Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee Meryl Streep as the boss from hell in "The Devil Wears Prada"; and Oscar nominee Kate Winslet as a woman having an affair with a neighbor in "Little Children."

"Babel" also had supporting-actress nominations for Oscar nominees Adriana Barraza as a nanny in peril and Rinko Kikuchi as a deaf schoolgirl. "Little Miss Sunshine" earned a nomination for Oscar nominee Alan Arkin as a foul-mouthed, heroin-snorting grandfather.

Film and TV nominees were chosen by two groups of 2,100 people randomly chosen from the guild's 120,000 members. The guild's full membership is eligible to vote for winners.

Actors guild winners often win Oscars, including three SAG winners from last year: lead performers Philip Seymour Hoffman for "Capote" and Reese Witherspoon for "Walk the Line," and supporting actress Rachel Weisz for "The Constant Gardener."

Last year's winner for the guild's prize for the overall acting ensemble, "Crash," also went on to win the Best Picture Oscar.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.