Nicole Kidman loses SAG Award at anti-Trump ceremony

Australian actor Nicole Kidman has missed out on a Screen Actors Guild Award for her supporting role in Australian-made drama Lion, at a ceremony peppered with surprise winners and dominated by speeches criticising US President Donald Trump.

Kidman was once again left sitting in her seat at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles applauding Viola Davis, who has stormed through Hollywood awards season collecting every major supporting actress trophy for her performance in Fences.

Davis is the hot favourite for next month's Academy Awards.

The SAG Awards, voted on by more than 100,000 actors, are the last major ceremony before the Oscars.

In pictures: Glitz and glamour on the SAG Awards red carpet

Davis's Fences co-star Denzel Washington shook up the best actor category with his shock SAG lead actor win.

"I'm a God fearing man and I'm supposed to have faith but I didn't have faith," an emotional Washington, lost for words, said.

In the top award of the night, best ensemble, Hidden Figures, the true story about three black women mathematicians in the 1960s who played vital roles in the US space program, also caused an upset when it was victorious over Oscar best picture favourite La La Land.

“These brave women put men into space," one of the film's stars, Taraji P Henson, said.

SAG voters awarded the best actress category to La La Land's Emma Stone.

Mr Trump was not at the ceremony.

However, after a tumultuous first week in the White House that included a sudden temporary ban on citizens from seven mostly Muslim nations entering the US that led to detainments at airports across America, was the target of vitriol from the opening seconds when actor Ashton Kutcher stepped on the stage to welcome the audience "and everyone in airports that belong in my America".

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, a winner in the lead actress in a comedy television series category for her role as the US president and vice president in Veep, said her father fled religious persecution in Nazi-occupied France.

"I am an American patriot," Louis-Dreyfus said.

"I love this country and because I love this country, I am horrified by its blemishes and this immigrant ban is a blemish and un-American."

Mahershala Ali, a Muslim, confirmed his place as the favourite for the supporting actor Oscar for his role in Moonlight and said his role as a drug dealer shows "what happens when you persecute people - they fold into themselves".

Read more: SAG Awards 2017: Muslim best supporting actor Mahershala Ali makes plea for acceptance

"My mother is an ordained minister, I'm a Muslim and she didn't do backflips when I called her to say I converted seven years ago, but I tell you now we put things aside, I was able to see her and she was able to see me, we love each other," Ali said.

The largely Australian stunt crew from Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge won the stunt award, while Sydney actress Yael Stone was victorious when Orange is the New Black took the television comedy ensemble award for the third consecutive year.

Another shock winner was Stranger Things for best ensemble in a television drama series ahead of Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, The Crown and Westworld.