Hollywood's SAG Awards announces it will change its name

The Screen Actors Guild Awards, the marquee awards ceremony honouring actors, is getting a new name.

Known colloquially as the SAG Awards, the awards show will now be dubbed the Actor Awards presented by Sag-Aftra, the labour union representing US film, television and radio actors.

"Since the beginning, our statue has been called 'The Actor' and we're a show that's entirely about actors, so this new name is a perfect next step in the show's evolution," the show's executive producer said on Friday.

The rebrand comes ahead of the 32nd edition of the star-studded ceremony, which is set for 1 March 2026.

The award show's executive producer Jon Brockett told the BBC that the name change - which was announced at a board meeting on Friday - gives viewers in more than 190 countries "an immediate understanding of who we are and what we're about" - a show about actors honouring actors.

"Now that our global audience is really growing, people don't always understand what the union name is," added awards committee chair JoBeth Williams.

"But 'the Actor Awards' they recognize and they know they're going to see their favourite actors when they tune in," Ms Willams said.

The Actor trophy also gives a boon to its winners in the run up to the Academy Awards, better bringing the Oscars race into focus each year.

The Oscars, much like the Emmys, Grammys and Golden Globes, are better known by the monikers derived from their respective trophies instead of the organisations and professional academies that back them.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Aftra) merged in 2012 and represent about 160,000 members. The new show name now allows the organisation to fully recognize that merger and align it with the name of the statuette, the union said.

The name change comes weeks after Sag-Aftra elected The Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin as its new leader.

Astin succeeds The Nanny series star Fran Drescher, who steered the organization through the Hollywood strikes of 2023 during her four-year tenure.