‘Black Panther’ wins top honor at SAG Awards

“Black Panther” took the top award at Sunday’s 25th Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, giving Ryan Coogler’s superhero sensation its most significant awards-season honor yet and potentially setting up Wakanda for a major role at next month’s Academy Awards.

Before a stage-full of actors, Chadwick Boseman tried to put into context the moment for the trailblazing “Black Panther,” which also won for its stunt performer ensemble. “To be young, gifted and black,” he said, quoting the Nina Simone song.

“We know what it’s like to be told there isn’t a screen for you to be featured on, a stage for you to be featured on... We know what it’s like to be beneath and not above. And that is what we went to work with every day,” said Boseman. “We knew that we could create a world that exemplified a world we wanted to see. We knew that we had something to give.”

The win puts “Black Panther” squarely in contention for best picture at the Academy Awards.

Actors make up the largest percentage of the academy, so their preferences can have an especially large impact on the Oscar race. In the last decade the SAG ensemble winner has gone on to win best picture at the Academy Awards half of the time.

‘Black Panther’ was selected to be the first film to hit theatres in Saudi Arabia on April 18 of last year. The invitation-only screening in Riyadh had drew hundreds of VIP guests, including government ministers and officials, diplomats and various Saudi celebrities.