Screen Actors Guild Awards to get name change

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards is changing its name.

Acting union SAG-AFTRA, who organise the annual ceremony, have announced the show will now be known simply as the Actors Awards, beginning with March 2026’s event because they wanted a title that made “obvious sense” to new viewers following its move to Netflix in 2024.

Jon Brockett, showrunner and executive producer of the award show, and chair of SAG-AFTRA’s Awards Committee JoBeth Williams said in a joint announcement: “We wanted to provide clearer recognition in terms of what the show is about for our domestic and global audiences.

“We honour 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.”

The ceremony’s distinctive logo and statuette has always been known as The Actor so it felt like the right time to “make the alignment official”, but the duo stressed the name change will not impact on the awards ceremony itself.

They stressed: “Only the show name is changing.

“The foundation remains the same. It’s actors honouring actors.”

The change will be gradual, with studios and networks still using Screen Actors Guild Awards in their campaigns for award consideration, but following the nominations announcement in January 2026, the organisation “will be advising everyone to use The Actor Awards.”

Jon and JoBeth added: “Past winners and audiences included will still refer to their award and the show as the SAG Awards, and that’s OK.

“We know it’ll take time to adjust to the change.

“Our goal is, and has always been, to bring greater clarity and global visibility to every performer the union represents, and we’re confident the new name does exactly that.”

Julia Louis-Dreyfus holds the record for the most wins at the ceremony with nine, followed closely by eight-time victors Alec Baldwin and Julianna Marguiles, and Allison Janney, who has taken home seven statuettes.

This year’s ceremony saw FX series Shogun lead the winners with four accolades, including the coveted Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series award, Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series, and individual wins for stars Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada.

Meanwhile, Conclave secured the night’s biggest prize in the movie categories, Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, while the Leading Actor and Actress prizes went to Timothee Chalamet for A Complete Unknown and Demi Moore for The Substance respectively.