Oscar watchers who thought this season’s race couldn’t get much wackier. Think again.

    The Screen Actors Guild award nominations Thursday made an already murky sweepstakes much murkier with “Into the Wild” — which suffered a setback last week when it was largely left out of the nominations for Golden Globe Awards — bouncing back to lead the SAG nominations with four nods, including best cast. Another major comeback was western “3:10 to Yuma,” which figured in many early award prognostications, but failed to win much love from critics and early nominations. 

    But the big surprises came from films that were not on the SAG list more than those that did make it including romantic drama “Atonement,” which led Golden Globe nominations but was completely snubbed by SAG. Its star, Keira Knightley, was left off the list of SAG actress nominees. Likewise, SAG voters turned up their noses for musical “Sweeney Todd” and its star Johnny Depp.

    “I look at these awards less as a competition and more as a celebration of acting,” SAG president Alan Rosenberg told Reuters. “This is just the way our (members) were feeling. They voted and let the chips fall where they may.”

    Along with “Into the Wild” and “3:10 to Yuma,” the other nominees in the best ensemble cast — SAG’s key award – were musical “Hairspray,” crime drama “American Gangster” and dark, drug thriller “No Country for Old Men.”

    Pete Hammond, a veteran Oscar watcher and columnist for TheEnvelope.com, said the only seemingly surefire candidate for an Academy Award nomination at this point is “No Country for Old Men.” But don’t count on it. In this year’s Oscar race, it appears that anything goes.