“The United States, after all, is not at war with every nation in the world.” The US Supreme Court has struck down Donald Trump’s use of a national emergency declaration to impose sweeping global tariffs. Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna explains the court’s reasoning.
Published On 20 Feb 202620 Feb 2026
Share
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), shown on a screen in the trading room at Hana Bank in Seoul, topped a record-high 5,800 on Friday. Photo by Yonhap
South Korean stocks topped the 5,800-point mark for the first time Friday to end at a fresh record high amid expectations that upcoming investor-friendly measures will help lift market valuations. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 131.28 points, or 2.31 percent, to close at an all-time high of 5,803.53.
Trade volume was heavy at 1.73 billion shares worth 32.74 trillion won (US$22.64 billion), with winners outnumbering losers 543 to 340.
Institutions scooped up a net 1.61 trillion won worth of shares, while foreign and retail investors sold a net 745.06 billion won and 986.12 billion won worth of shares, respectively, for profit-taking.
After a three-day Lunar New Year holiday break, the index surged Thursday to top the 5,600 level, with experts saying pent-up demand accumulated during the holiday continued to flow into the stock market.
The KOSPI has been on a bull run recently, surpassing the 5,000 mark for the first time ever on Jan. 27 and the 5,500 level on Feb. 12.
“Geopolitical tensions have heightened after U.S. President Donald Trump signaled the possibility of military action against Iran following a 10-day negotiation deadline, and some analysts suggest the risk of a full-scale conflict is not negligible,” Kim Seok-hwan, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities, said.
“But investors have maintained expectations for a series of measures by the government and companies to boost shareholder returns and overall market valuations,” he added.
U.S. shares lost ground Thursday (U.S. time) amid concerns about the U.S.-Iran situation and risks linked to massive investments in artificial intelligence (AI), as the U.S. private market and alternative assets manager Blue Owl Capital announced it is going to tighten investor liquidity.
Most large-cap shares finished higher, with chip and defense shares leading the market advance.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics edged up 0.05 percent to 190,100 won, and chip giant SK hynix surged 6.15 percent to 949,000 won.
Carmakers traded mixed. Top automaker Hyundai Motor went down 0.78 percent to 509,000 won, while its sister affiliate Kia soared 1.06 percent to 171,800 won.
Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution fell 0.5 percent to 401,500 won, but AI investment firm SK Square advanced 2.47 percent to 580,000 won.
Nuclear power plant builder Doosan Enerbility surged 5.18 percent to 103,500 won, and defense giant Hanwha Aerospace spiked 8.09 percent to 1,242,000 won.
Leading shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy jumped 4.88 percent to 602,000 won, and its rival Hanwha Ocean shot up 6.61 percent to 149,900 won.
Pharmaceutical giant Samsung Biologics went up 0.93 percent to 1,736,000 won, while Celltrion dipped 1.02 percent to 242,000 won.
Financials gathered ground. KB Financial added 1.38 percent to 168,800 won, and Shinhan Financial grew 1.69 percent to 102,000 won.
Samsung Life Insurance climbed 4.78 percent to 219,000 won, and Mirae Asset Securities rose 0.57 percent to 70,900 won.
The Korean won was quoted at 1,446.65 won against the U.S. dollar at 3:30 p.m., down 1.15 won from the previous session.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year Treasurys lost 3.5 basis points to 3.143 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds also shed 3.5 basis points to 3.391 percent.
Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.
Home 
News PRESS RELEASE: Global Finance Names The World’s Best Investment Banks 2026
Global Finance has named the 27th annual World’s Best Investment Banks in an exclusive report to be published in the April 2026 print and digital editions, as well as online at GFMag.com.
Goldman Sachs has been chosen as the Best Investment Bank in the World for 2026.
This year, for the first time, Global Finance has chosen Sector Award Winners by Region where outstanding organizations deserved recognition
“The investment banking sector remains resilient with selective deal-making strength and advisory growth, even as it grapples with persistent macroeconomic headwinds, regulatory scrutiny, and evolving market conditions that are reshaping how firms compete and innovate,” said Joseph D. Giarraputo, founder and editorial director of Global Finance. “The 2026 World’s Best Investment Bank honorees are the organizations that best serve their clients by pairing trusted advice and global reach with innovation and disciplined execution, while setting the standard for excellence, resilience, and leadership across the global investment banking landscape.”
Winners will be honored at Global Finance’s 2026 Investment Bank and Sustainable Finance Awards Ceremony on April 21st in London at Landing 42.
Global Finance editors, with input from industry experts, used a series of criteria to score and select winners, based on a proprietary algorithm. These criteria include: entries from banks, market share, number and size of deals, service and advice, structuring capabilities, distribution network, efforts to address market conditions, innovation, pricing, after-market performance of underwritings, and market reputation. Deals announced or completed in 2025 were considered.
For editorial information please contact: Andrea Fiano, editor, email: afiano@gfmag.com
###
About Global Finance
Global Finance, founded in 1987, has a circulation of 50,000 readers in 185 countries, territories and districts. Global Finance’s audience includes senior corporate and financial officers responsible for making investment and strategic decisions at multinational companies and financial institutions. Its website — GFMag.com — offers analysis and articles that are the legacy of 38 years of experience in international financial markets. Global Finance is headquartered in New York, with offices around the world. Global Finance regularly selects the top performers among banks and other providers of financial services. These awards have become a trusted standard of excellence for the global financial community.
Logo Use Rights
To obtain rights to use the Global Finance Investment Bank Awards 2026 logo or any other Global Finance logos, please contact Chris Giarraputo at: chris@gfmag.com. The unauthorized use of Global Finance logos is strictly prohibited.
Climate Central’s researchers found in a new analysis that heat threatens coffee harvests and coincides with recent record highs in prices. File Photo by Fully Handoko/EPA
Feb. 18 (UPI) — An analysis by Climate Central found that the world’s five largest coffee-producing countries, which account for 75% of global supply, are experiencing an average of 57 additional days of extreme heat per year due to climate change.
Its researchers found that heat threatens coffee harvests and coincides with recent record highs in prices.
Climate Central, based in Princeton, N.J., is an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts about climate change and how it affects people’s lives.
The analysis, released Wednesday, examined daily temperatures between 2021 and 2025 in 25 countries that represent 97% of global production. The report concluded that all of them recorded more days of harmful heat as a result of environmental warming attributed to greenhouse gas emissions.
The two main varieties that supply the global market are arabica and robusta.
Arabica accounts for between 60% and 70% of global supply and is grown mainly in mountainous regions of Latin America and Africa, where moderate temperatures have historically prevailed.
Robusta, which is more heat-tolerant but has a stronger flavor, is produced largely in Southeast Asian countriesm such as Vietnam and Indonesia.
Coffee is cultivated in a tropical belt stretching across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, where it requires specific temperature ranges and consistent rainfall.
Temperatures above 86 degrees F are considered extremely harmful for arabica and suboptimal for robusta, as they reduce yields and can affect bean quality.
The analysis was published after a period in which the planet recorded the warmest years since modern measurements began, with episodes of extreme heat in Latin America.
According to Climate Central, this warming increased the frequency of days exceeding the critical 86-degree threshold in coffee-growing regions.
Brazil, the world’s largest producer and responsible for nearly 37% of global supply, experienced an average of 70 additional days per year with temperatures above 86 degrees. In Minas Gerais, its main coffee-producing state, 67 of these extra days were recorded.
Colombia, the world’s third-largest producer and one of the leading exporters of arabica coffee, recorded 48 additional days per year above the critical threshold. The increase threatens productivity and bean quality, the foundation of its international competitiveness.
Some of the sharpest increases were observed in Central America. El Salvador recorded 99 additional days of extreme heat per year and Nicaragua 77, according to the report.
“Nearly all major producing countries are now experiencing more days of extreme heat that can damage plants, reduce yields and affect quality,” said Kristina Dahl, vice president for science at Climate Central.
“Over time, these impacts can extend from farms to consumers, directly affecting the quality and cost of their daily coffee.”
According to the World Bank, its beverage price index rose 58% in 2024 and in December remained approximately 91% higher than a year earlier, driven by increases in coffee and cocoa amid supply concerns.
In December, the price of arabica coffee rose 13% compared with the previous month and more than 60% year over year, while robusta more than doubled compared with the same period the previous year.
Guatemala announced last week that it will begin phasing out its three-decade-old programme, under which Cuban doctors work in its country to fill the gap in the country’s healthcare system.
Communist-ruled Cuba, under heavy United States sanctions, has been earning billions of dollars each year by leasing thousands of members of its “white coat army” to countries around the world, especially in Latin America. Havana has used its medical missions worldwide as a tool for international diplomacy.
list of 4 itemsend of list
So why are some countries withdrawing from the programme that helps the host countries?
Guatemala’s health ministry said in a statement that it would begin a “gradual termination” over this year.
“The phased withdrawal of the Cuban Medical Brigade stems from an analysis of the mission’s completion of its cycles,” the statement, originally in Spanish, said on February 13.
The statement added that the Cuban medical mission was meant to support Guatemala through the 1998 Hurricane Mitch, which devastated parts of Central America, overwhelmed local hospitals and left rural communities with almost no access to medical care.
“The Ministry of Health is developing a phased strategic replacement plan that includes hiring national personnel, strengthening incentives for hard-to-reach positions, strategic redistribution of human resources, and specialized technical support,” the statement said.
The Cuban mission in Guatemala comprises 412 medical workers, including 333 doctors.
The Central American country’s decision comes amid growing pressure from the United States, which wants to stop Cuban doctors from serving abroad.
The move aims to starve Cuba of much-needed revenue as a major share of the incomes earned by doctors goes to government coffers. Cuba has been facing severe power, food and medical shortages amid an oil blockade imposed by the Trump administration since January.
Guatemala is just one country which benefits from Cuban medical missions.
Over the past decades, Cuba has sent medical missions around the world, from Latin America to Africa and beyond. It began sending these missions shortly after the 1959 Cuban revolution brought Fidel Castro to power.
Castro’s communist government reversed many of the pro-business policies of Fulgencio Batista, the dictator backed by the US. The revolution ruptured ties between the two countries, with the US spy agency CIA trying several times unsuccessfully to topple Castro’s government.
Guatemala has moved closer to the US since the election of Bernardo Arevalo as the president in January 2024. He has cooperated with US President Donald Trump’s administration. Last year, Guatemala agreed to ramp up the number of deportation flights it receives from the US. The US has deported thousands of immigrants without following due process to third countries such as Guatemala and El Salvador, which are headed by pro-Trump leaders.
In November 2018, shortly after Brazil elected Jair Bolsonaro as president, Cuba announced its withdrawal from the country’s Cuba “Mais Medicos” (More Doctors) programme. Bolsonaro, who is known as Brazil’s Trump, had criticised the medical mission, deeming it “slave labour”. Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence after he was convicted in September 2025 of plotting to stage a coup in order to retain power after his defeat in the 2022 presidential election.
The US has deemed Cuba’s foreign medical missions a form of “forced labour” and human trafficking, without any evidence, and has a goal of restricting the Cuban government’s access to its largest source of foreign income.
US efforts to curb Cuba’s medical missions are not new. Just last year, Washington imposed visa restrictions aimed at discouraging foreign governments from entering into medical cooperation agreements with Cuba.
In February last year, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the US would restrict visas targeting “forced labor linked to the Cuban labor export program”.
“This expanded policy applies to current or former Cuban government officials, and other individuals, including foreign government officials, who are believed to be responsible for, or involved in, the Cuban labor export program, particularly Cuba’s overseas medical missions,” a statement on the US State Department’s website said.
Rubio, who is of Cuban origin, has been a vocal critic of Havana, and has pushed US policies in Latin America, including the military operation to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3. Under Trump, Washington has pushed its focus on Latin America as part of its Western Hemisphere pivot, which seeks to restore Washington’s preeminence in the region.
Since Maduro’s abduction, the US focus has turned towards Cuba. Senior US officials, particularly Rubio, hinted that Havana could be the next target of Washington’s pressure campaign.
The US, in effect, cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba as part of a new oil blockade. Havana has faced sweeping US sanctions for decades, and Cuba has since 2000 increasingly relied on Venezuelan oil provided as part of a deal struck with Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez.
The blockade has caused a fuel shortage and, in turn, a severe energy crisis in Cuba. President Miguel Diaz-Canel has imposed harsh emergency restrictions as a response.
This has renewed US pressure on countries to phase out Cuban medical missions.
More than 24,000 Cuban doctors are working in 56 countries worldwide. This includes Latin American countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Mexico; Africa, including Angola, Mozambique, Algeria; and the Middle East, including Qatar.
There have been occasional deployments in other countries. For instance, Italy received Cuban doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic to help overwhelmed hospitals in some of its hardest-hit regions.
Cuban doctors are crucial for Caribbean countries. They fill a significant gap in medical care amid a lack of trained medical professionals.
Caribbean countries hit back in March 2025 against the US threats to restrict visas. “We could not get through the pandemic without the Cuban nurses and the Cuban doctors,” Barbados’s Prime Minister Mia Mottley said in a speech to the parliament.
“Out of the blue now, we have been called human traffickers because we hire technical people who we pay top dollar,” Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Keith Rowley said back then, adding that he was prepared to lose his US visa.
“If the Cubans are not there, we may not be able to run the service,” Saint Vincent and the Grenadines then-Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said. “I will prefer to lose my visa than to have 60 poor and working people die.”
In August 2025, the US announced that it was revoking the visas of Brazilian, African and Caribbean officials over their ties to Cuba’s programme that sends doctors abroad.
It named Brazilian Ministry of Health officials, Mozart Julio Tabosa Sales and Alberto Kleiman, who had their visas revoked for working on Brazil’s Mais Medicos, or “More Doctors” programme, which was created in 2013.
Some countries are now finding ways around the pressure from Washington. For instance, this month Guyana announced that it would start paying doctors directly, rather than through the Cuban government.
New blockchain solutions are integrating corporate treasury and retail banking, and opening the transactions system to multiple issuers of tokenized deposits and stablecoins. But regulators worry these innovations could make the global system more fragile.
Tuesday, 2:14 PM GMT: Elena, the treasurer of a global logistics giant in Rotterdam, stares at a red alert on her dashboard. A supplier in Singapore demands an immediate $40 million settlement to release a shipment of semiconductors. The old banking system would tell her she’s out of luck; her euro liquidity is trapped in a T+1 settlement cycle and the foreign-exchange swap markets are too slow for an instant release.
But Elena’s treasury operations are kinetic. She hits “Execute.”
Four thousand miles away in Chicago, it is 8:14 AM: David, a retail banking client, is buying coffee. His phone buzzes with a silent notification: “Yield Generated: $4.20.”
He doesn’t know it, but in the last 18 seconds, J.P. Morgan’s Kinexys algorithm borrowed the digital title of his tokenized vacation home, which was sitting idle in his portfolio, then pledged it as collateral to mint $40 million in intraday stablecoins for Elena.
In less than a minute, the transaction is over.
Elena’s chips are released in Singapore.
The bank has managed its risk without touching its own balance sheet.
And David has paid for his morning coffee just by owning a house.
Two-tiered digital asset strategies, combining institutional/bank-led Tier 1 and retail/public chain Tier 2 transactions to merge corporate treasury and retail banking, are now a reality. Programmable money appears inevitable; the struggle is over who—banks or crypto-natives—will control this “kinetic” new world connecting retail assets with corporate liquidity.
“Our mandate for Kinexys by J.P. Morgan is to transform how information, money, and assets move around the world from an institutional perspective,” says Arif Khan, chief product officer for Kinexys Digital Payments. “Since inception, over US$3 trillion in transaction volume has been processed on the Kinexys platform, which processes on average more than US$5 billion daily in transaction volume.” Although Kinexys’s offerings are not aimed at retail clients, it enables banks to use retail assets as collateral for institutional clients.
Tony McLaughlin, a contributor to “The Regulated Liability Network,” a 2022 white paper and blueprint for bank-led digital money, left Citi last year after a two-decade career to found Ubyx, a stablecoin clearing system. He sees the November 2024 US elections as clarifying the route for banks to interact with public chains.
“This is because stablecoin regulation was more likely to pass, and stablecoins live on public chains,” he says. “It would be intolerable if only non-banks were able to offer stablecoins on public chains, so it would be necessary for banks to be able to enter the market.”
McLaughlin predicts the development of a “pluralistic market structure, just like we have in [credit] cards,” with “many issuers and many receivers” and a variety of issuers—including both banks and non-banks—offering tokenized deposits and a variety of stablecoins. The “great unlock,” he foresees, is building “a common acceptance network.” Corporate treasurers will utilize a mixture of tokenized deposits, stablecoins, and tokenized money market funds from different issuers.
Ubyx is working to get banks and fintechs to offer wallets for clients to receive stablecoins and tokenized deposits, ensuring transactions “are processed within the regulatory perimeter and go through KYC, AML, fraud, and sanctions checking,” McLaughlin says. The current situation, where “stablecoins are transacted across self-custodial wallets,” is less desirable, he says, since the supply of these unregulated wallets is “infinite” while the supply of regulated wallets is “essentially zero.”
McLaughlin blames regulators who have “placed a large ‘Keep Off the Grass’ sign on bank participation in public blockchain,” allowing the “vacuum” to be “filled by unregulated players.” Bank and fintech involvement will make these new transaction processes safer, he argues, and “dramatically increase the regulated nodes in these networks.” He draws a parallel to the evolution of streaming media; just as content piracy gave way to streaming TV and music from “reputable players,” so the transition to a more honest and reliable digital transactions system will come about on public blockchains.
“We believe that both private and public blockchain options will coexist moving forward,” says Khan. “Institutional firms that want to keep their money movements on a private permissioned network will still benefit from the 24/7, 365-day, programmable benefits that blockchain infrastructure provides.”
While banks pitch kinetic treasury as a liquidity upgrade, regulators and wealth strategists warn it may introduce new fragility into the global transactions system. Without a public digital currency, Fabio Panetta, governor of the Bank of Italy, has warned, the payments market will be dominated by “closed-loop” private solutions, such as proprietary stablecoins or Big Tech platforms, that do not interoperate, fragmenting the monetary system and threatening the “singleness” of currencies.
J.P. Morgan’s Khan counters that interoperability between deposit tokens and other digital cash will be essential for scale and adoption.
“We are proactively working with other actors in the industry, such as DBS in Singapore, to develop a framework for interbank tokenized deposit transfers across multiple blockchains,” he says. “This would potentially allow the institutional client bases of each bank to pay each other, exchanging or redeeming their deposit tokens across either bank’s platform and across borders with real-time, around-the-clock availability.”
For example, a J.P. Morgan institutional client would be able to pay a DBS institutional client using JPM Coin on the Base public blockchain, which the recipient could exchange or redeem for equivalent value via DBS Token Services.
“This aims to uphold the singleness of money,” Khan argues, “where deposit tokens across banks and blockchains are fungible and represent the same value: a key principle that is imperative in an increasingly multi-chain, multi-issuer world.”
The Clearing House, which owns and operates core payments system infrastructure in the US, is currently discussing and analyzing stablecoins and tokenized deposits. President and CEO David Watson suggests that tokenized deposits could be a more significant development than stablecoins, especially for large multinational corporations and wholesale banking.
That’s because tokenized deposits are viewed as “truly a fiat instrument,” he argues, while a stablecoin is merely a “representation of an instrument.” This directly impacts the risk profile for corporate treasurers. “If you’re a multinational corporate treasurer,” Watson asks, “how much of the company’s balance sheet are you willing to hold in different stablecoins, with all that exposure, versus fiat money backed by the issuing government?”
The concerns about trust and risk that Watson highlights, directly inform initiatives like JPM Coin, which Khan notes was driven by clients seeking to make public blockchain payments using a trusted, familiar bank product. With Kinexys Digital Payments, treasurers can pre-define rules that automatically trigger payments, foreign exchange conversions, and liquidity movements in real time. Decisions are executed without manual intervention and are not subject to banking cut-off times.
BMW Group uses Kinexys Programmable Payments for fully pre-programmed euro-to-US-dollar FX transactions and corresponding fund movements. Since both the FX and payment settlement occur instantly on the same blockchain platform, the process operates 24/7 without human intervention or traditional settlement windows. This allows BMW to optimize global liquidity, reduce idle balances, and execute near-instant, multi-currency cross-border payments.
The traditional method for large multinational corporations to manage liquidity—relying on extensive multi-currency buffers and manual fund transfers—is inherently capital-inefficient and complex, Khan contends. Blockchain-based infrastructure, by contrast, offers a fundamental shift, enabling a new, more dynamic model that moves beyond the limitations of conventional settlement windows.
“We are going to see a new paradigm emerge,” McLaughlin predicts. “We are going to move from the age of bank accounts to the age of tokens, chains, and wallets.”
The Super Bowl is over. Going to Disneyland? Do you have a spare $1,000 to spend?
I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope newsletter and the guy wondering about the profit margin on a $6 churro.
In the meantime, welcome back to the newsletter as we push through to the Oscars on March 15. Have you been catching up on the nominated movies? “Sentimental Value” is a delight … though just how delightful has been the subject of some debate.
Get exclusive awards season news, in-depth interviews and columnist Glenn Whipp’s must-read analysis straight to your inbox.
By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy.
Joachim Trier’s richly rewarding family drama “Sentimental Value” hauled in nine Oscar nominations last month, setting a record for most acting nods for a non-English-language movie.
Its primary quartet of actors — Stellan Skarsgård as a legendary director angling for a comeback, Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as his daughters and Elle Fanning as an A-list actor who becomes entangled in the family drama — all received nods. Fanning’s name was the first called when nominations were announced, signaling that Scandinavian melancholy would be notably absent that morning. Never mind the hour: Champagne glasses were raised.
The celebratory scene stood in stark contrast to the vibe just two weeks earlier when “Sentimental Value” was blanked at the Actor Awards (formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards). And it wasn’t the only international film ignored. The 2,500 SAG-AFTRA nomination committee voters also shunned Wagner Moura, the lead of celebrated Brazilian drama “The Secret Agent.” Moura went on to nab an Oscar nomination, one of four noms, including best picture, that Kleber Mendonça Filho’s drama earned.
The disparity between the choices of the motion picture academy and SAG-AFTRA could be an anomaly. Or it might be the latest evidence of an Oscar trend this decade. As the academy’s membership has become more global — 24% of Oscar voters live outside the United States — the Academy Awards have become increasingly an international affair, leading to a widening divide with the Hollywood guilds.
Is this a bad thing? It depends who you ask. If you queried the actors that SAG-AFTRA nominated who ended up being Oscar also-rans, the answer would be no. Those who believe that cinema is global, particularly now that American studios have largely abandoned making movies geared toward grown-ups, would have a different response.
“The fact that not one international film got in says a lot,” says a veteran awards consultant, who, like others interviewed, requested anonymity in order to speak freely about the industry. Indeed, one journalist tabbed SAG’s Actor Awards nominations the “‘America First’ List,” which, while technically accurate, might have taken the perceived xenophobia a bit far.
“The SAG Awards or Actor Awards — whatever they’re called now — are in danger of looking like a middlebrow affair,” another awards campaigner notes. “I know this is going to sound elitist, but it’s true. There’s a big difference between an organization where you have to be invited or apply to join versus one where, if you’re a disc jockey in Kansas City, you have voting rights.”
To be fair, DJs, Kansas City-based or otherwise, probably don’t vote for the Actor Awards’ nominations — just for the final awards. In the nominations round, 2,500 randomly selected active SAG-AFTRA members make the choices. To serve on the committee, members must be categorized as an actor/performer, dancer, singer or stuntperson in the SAG-AFTRA database. Could a DJ be classified as a performer? Probably not. In the guild’s view, actor and performer are synonymous, encompassing both principal and background players.
And sure, since only 7% of SAG-AFTRA actors and performers earn $80,000 or more a year, that means there are going to be a few full-time waiters on those nomination committees. But as the speeches at the Actor Awards remind us annually, it’s a profession where you’re just one job away from making it. Think of Connor Storrie, who worked at restaurants for eight years before getting his break on “Heated Rivalry.”
There’s still the question of why, say, SAG-AFTRA dancers and singers are voting on the merits of an acting performance, however. In contrast to the Actor Awards, nominations for the Oscars are decided by the academy’s various branches. Actors vote for actors, writers for screenplays and so on, with the general membership voting for best picture.
“Peer groups are deciding what’s worthy, and that’s the way it should be,” says an academy member from the public relations branch. “I’m not voting for visual effects.”
Not initially, at least. Academy members vote for all 24 categories in the final round, provided, per a rule change that went into effect this year, they attest to watching all the nominated work in the category.
SAG-AFTRA voters have rewarded non-English-language work over the years, but usually when a particular film or TV show — Bong Joon Ho’s 2019 masterpiece “Parasite” or Netflix’s “Squid Game” — is undeniable. Voters ignored recent lead turns from Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”), Yalitza Aparicio (“Roma”) and Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”). All three went on to earn lead actress Oscar nominations.
This year’s snubbing of “Sentimental Value” is particularly puzzling as the movie featured well-known actors like Fanning and Skarsgård, an institution from roles in blockbuster franchises like “Pirates of the Caribbean” and most recently the TV series “Andor.” It’s also a film about, among other things, the blurring of art and reality and the challenges of acting. And, in the scenes featuring Fanning, it’s in English.
What gives? Like every other contender, “Sentimental Value” screened four times for voters and was available for streaming.
“I just think people are less inclined to watch a movie with subtitles at home,” says one awards consultant, alluding to the ways that passive, multiscreen viewing has encroached upon our multitasking lives. Maybe that’s why Skarsgård, when he accepted the Golden Globe award for his work in the movie, preached that “cinema should be seen in cinemas” in his speech.
Does that sound elitist? It shouldn’t. But it does seem to be a belief from a time that’s slipping away. One certainty: With the academy nominating two international features for best picture for the third straight year, global cinema is now entrenched at the Oscars. Whether SAG-AFTRA voters decide to join the party is now a question for next year.