A Major Awards Show Just Changed Its Name

The Screen Actors Guild Awards, commonly referred to as the SAG Awards, are no more.

The awards, presented by SAG-AFTRA since 1995, are now known as the Actor Awards. The next award ceremony will take place on March 1, 2026.

Each year, the Actor Awards are a major part of the Oscar race, as the ceremony occurs just before the Academy Awards and are usually a bellwether for who or what will take home the top prizes at the Oscars.

SAG-AFTRA explained the name change on the guild’s website.

“Since the show started over 30 years ago, our iconic statuette has always been called The Actor, and simply evolving the show’s name to align with the award itself made obvious sense,” the union wrote. “We wanted to provide clearer recognition in terms of what the show is about for our domestic and global audiences – we honor actors in film and television.”

In addition, JoBeth Williams (chair of the guild’s awards committee) and Jon Brockett (producer of the awards broadcast) shared a statement about the name change.

“We wanted to provide clearer recognition in terms of what the show is about for our domestic and global audiences,” the two said in a joint statement. “We honor actors in film and television. Laser-focusing the name on those two things became the clearest and most straightforward path for this new chapter of the show.”