The inaugural ceremony, staged on a working soundstage and broadcast live on NBC. The guild built the show around a simple premise that still defines it: actors honoring actors. 

Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) and Jodie Foster (Nell) took the lead film awards, with Martin Landau (Ed Wood) and Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway) in supporting. On television, NYPD Blue and Seinfeld won the first ensemble prizes. George Burns, then 98, received the Life Achievement Award.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The unveiling of the guild's new statuette, The Actor, the award given to every winner. 
• The first ensemble awards in awards-show history being handed to full TV casts rather than individual leads.
   

VIEW THE INAUGURAL SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS NOMINEES AND WINNERS