18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® Nominating Committees to be Selected on Friday, April 1

SAG Awards® will be Simulcast on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012

LOS ANGELES (March 31, 2011) – The 4,200 Screen Actors Guild members who will determine the nominees for the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® for this year’s outstanding performances in film and primetime television will be drawn by random sample this Friday, April 1, 2011, SAG Awards® Committee Chair JoBeth Williams announced today.

The SAG Awards’ separate film and television nominating committees, each consisting of 2,100 SAG members from around the country, are randomly selected anew each year. To be eligible to serve on one of this year’s nominating committees, SAG members may not have served on the same nominating committee in the past five years and must have paid their November 2010 membership dues by March 18, 2011.    

Submissions for nomination consideration for the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will open on Monday, July 11, 2011, at www.sagawards.org/submissions. With the actor’s permission, producers, studios/networks, agents, managers, or publicists may submit a performance from 2011 for consideration in a category of the actor’s choosing. Actors may also submit their own performances.

Nominations for the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be announced on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011, at the Pacific Design Center’s SilverScreen Theater in West Hollywood, carried live on TNT, tnt.tv and tbs.com. Once nominees are selected, all active members of Screen Actors Guild may cast votes to determine who will receive the coveted Actor® statuettes for this year’s outstanding performances.

TNT and TBS will simulcast the annual presentation of the Screen Actors Guild Awards live from the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, at 8 p.m.(ET) 7 p.m. (CT), 6 p.m. (MT) and 5 p.m. (PT).

Of the top industry honors presented to performers, only the SAG Awards are selected entirely by actors’ peers in the Screen Actors Guild. The SAG Awards was the first televised awards show to acknowledge the work of union members and the first to present ensemble and cast awards. This past year’s simulcast of the 17th Screen Actors Guild Awards, on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011 on TBS and TNT was the evening’s top-rated basic cable program.

Upcoming key deadlines and events leading to the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards are:

Friday, March 18, 2011
Deadline for SAG members to pay November 2010 dues to be eligible for random sample drawings for SAG Awards Nominating Committees

Friday, April 1, 2011
Nominating Committees Drawn by Random Sample

Monday, July 11. 2011
Submissions Open

Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Deadline for Nominating Committee Members to Make Address Changes

Monday, October 3, 2011
Media Nomination Announcement and Ceremony Credential Applications Open
Publicists Nomination Announcement Credential Applications Open

Monday, October 3, 2011
Period to Request Paper Final Ballots in Lieu of Online Voting Begins

Thursday, October 27, 2011
Submissions Close (Due at SAG by 5 p.m. PT)

Monday, October 31, 2011
Media Nomination Announcement and Ceremony Credential Applications Close

Friday, November 4, 2011
Publicists Nomination Announcement Credential Applications Close

Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Nominations Ballots Mailed
                          
Monday December 12, 2011
Nomination Ballots Due at the Elections Firm by 5 p.m. PT

Thursday, December 15, 2011
Nominations Announced

Friday, December 16, 2011
Publicists Ceremony Credential Applications Open

Friday, December 16, 2011
Deadline for Paying November 2011 Dues and/or Changing Address with SAG to be Eligible for Final Balloting

Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Records Pulled for Final Balloting

Monday, January 2, 2012
Final Balloting Instructions Mailed to Members

Thursday, January 5, 2012
Publicists Ceremony Credential Applications Close

Monday, January 16, 2012
Final Day to Request Paper Final Ballots in Lieu of Online Voting

Friday, January 27, 2012
Final Votes Must be Cast Online or Ballots Received by the Elections Firm by 12 Noon PT

Sunday, January 29, 2012
18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®

The 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be produced by Jeff Margolis Productions in association with Screen Actors Guild Awards®, LLC.  For more information about the SAG Awards, SAG, TNT and TBS, visit http://sagawards.org/about.