12 Years a Slave, Breaking Bad top SAG nominations

Steve McQueen's historic saga 12 Years a Slave,Jon Wells' dysfunctional family adaptation August: Osage County,Jean-Marc Vallee's AIDS drama Dallas Buyers Cluband the sweeping White House servant tale Lee Daniels' The Butler topped the list of outstanding performances for the 20th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.

12 Years a Slavescored four nominations, while Osage Countyand The Butlerearned three nominations in Wednesday's announcements.

Each of the three films was nominated for overall performance by their casts. Also nominated for best ensemble cast was David O. Russell's 1970s con-artist romp American Hustle.

• 12 Years a Slave paints complex portrait of slavery
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12 Years a Slaveattained individual acting nominations, as well, including male lead for Chiwetel Ejiofor as a displaced free black man, Michael Fassbender for supporting actor as a ruthless slave owner and Lupita Nyong'o for female supporting as a favoured fieldworker.

August: Osage Countyhad individual nominations for Meryl Streep for female lead as the conflicted matriarch in the adaptation of Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning play, and Julia Roberts as the domineering daughter for supporting female actor.

Dallas Buyers Club,directed by Canadian Jean Marc Vallee, also scored nominations for Matthew McConaughey as the HIV-positive rodeo-lover in the best actor category and Jared Leto as a transgender for supporting actor.

Forest Whitaker received the lead actor nomination for his performance as a long-time White House butler in Lee Daniels' The Butler.

Also bringing in a lead actor nominations were Bruce Dern for his performance of an aging dreamer in Alexander Payne's small town dark comedy Nebraskaand Tom Hanks, who plays the title role in the Paul Greengrass Somali pirate story

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Additional best-actress nominees included Cate Blanchett as a fallen socialite in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, Sandra Bullock as a brave astronaut in Alfonso Cuaron's lost-in-space odyssey Gravity,Judi Dench as a woman in search of her son in Philomena and Emma Thompson as author P.L. Travers in the Disney comedy Saving Mr. Banks.

Breaking Bad, Big Bang Theory gather nods

On the TV side, Breaking Badled the field with four nominations. Boardwalk Empire,Game of Thrones,Homeland,30 Rock,The Big Bang Theoryand Modern Familyall grabbed three nodsapiece.

Drama series ensemble nominationswent to Boardwalk Empire,Breaking Bad,Downton Abbey,Game of Thronesand Homeland. Comedy ensemble contenders are 30 Rock, Arrested Development,The Big Bang Theory,Modern Familyand Veep.

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Alec Baldwin was up againfor male actor in a comedy series for 30 Rock, whichhe has won seventimes.

It was Baldwins twentieth SAG nomination.Edie Falco also received her twentiethnomination with actress and cast nods for Nurse Jackie.She nabbed three otherSAG trophies for The Sopranosalong with two ensemble cast trophies.

The SAG Awards will be presented Jan. 18.