
At the age of 84, documentary legend Sheila Nevins today earned the first Oscar nomination of her career.
Nevins was nominated in the Documentary Short category this morning for her directorial debut, The ABCs of Book Banning, from MTV Documentary Films. She has won more than 30 Emmy Awards during her illustrious career, but this is her first Oscar recognition.
“It was a sleepless night,” Nevins says of the anticipation for the announcement. “It’s always a sleepless night. This was a particularly sleepless night.”
‘The ABCs of Book Banning’
Her film, co-directed by Nazenet Habtezghi and Trish Adlesic and produced by Adlesic, examines the surge of book banning in U.S. schools, and gives a platform to kids who share what it means to them to be denied access to reading materials in their libraries.
“I felt a rage to make it,” Nevins told Deadline back in October. “It had to...
Nevins was nominated in the Documentary Short category this morning for her directorial debut, The ABCs of Book Banning, from MTV Documentary Films. She has won more than 30 Emmy Awards during her illustrious career, but this is her first Oscar recognition.
“It was a sleepless night,” Nevins says of the anticipation for the announcement. “It’s always a sleepless night. This was a particularly sleepless night.”
‘The ABCs of Book Banning’
Her film, co-directed by Nazenet Habtezghi and Trish Adlesic and produced by Adlesic, examines the surge of book banning in U.S. schools, and gives a platform to kids who share what it means to them to be denied access to reading materials in their libraries.
“I felt a rage to make it,” Nevins told Deadline back in October. “It had to...
- 1/23/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV


HBO has set an October premiere for Aka Mr. Chow, the original documentary film directed by Nick Hooker (HBO’s AgnelIi). The film debuts Sunday, October 22 at 9 Pm on HBO and will be streaming on Max.
Produced by Oscar-nominated Diane Quon (Minding The Gap), executive produced, written, and edited by Emmy-winning editor Jean Tsien, and executive produced by Emmy-nominated Graydon Carter and Annabelle Dunne (HBO’s Everything Is Copy), Aka Mr. Chow details the life of Michael Chow. Born Zhou Yinghua in 1930s Shanghai, he would use creativity to triumph over childhood trauma, personal loss, and systemic prejudice, growing up to become the actor and artist before inventing a new identity, Mr. Chow, when he opens the first of his iconic restaurants. Having found fame and fortune in the West, Mr. Chow celebrates his Chinese roots and finds catharsis by returning to painting, reemerging as the artist M.
Produced by Oscar-nominated Diane Quon (Minding The Gap), executive produced, written, and edited by Emmy-winning editor Jean Tsien, and executive produced by Emmy-nominated Graydon Carter and Annabelle Dunne (HBO’s Everything Is Copy), Aka Mr. Chow details the life of Michael Chow. Born Zhou Yinghua in 1930s Shanghai, he would use creativity to triumph over childhood trauma, personal loss, and systemic prejudice, growing up to become the actor and artist before inventing a new identity, Mr. Chow, when he opens the first of his iconic restaurants. Having found fame and fortune in the West, Mr. Chow celebrates his Chinese roots and finds catharsis by returning to painting, reemerging as the artist M.
- 9/20/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV

The Covid-19 pandemic was hard on everyone, not least Judd Apatow. Among the many casualties was his last movie, “The King of Staten Island,” which was supposed to open the SXSW film festival but had to cancel after America went into lockdown. When faced with such challenges, creative people create. Some made bread. Others grew out their beards. Judd Apatow made a movie. A very bad movie. In not-even-the-worst-thing-to-launch-on-Netflix-lately “The Bubble,” a team of insufferable Hollywood actors quarantine together on the set of a massively disorganized franchise movie and proceed to drive each other crazy. But hey, what did you do during Covid?
During her Oscar opening monologue, co-host Amy Schumer (star of Apatow’s far-better 2015 “Trainwreck”) took a moment to congratulate the audience. “During a raging pandemic, you made a movie. Give yourselves a hand,” she said. “And yet they weren’t all great. … You know who you are.
During her Oscar opening monologue, co-host Amy Schumer (star of Apatow’s far-better 2015 “Trainwreck”) took a moment to congratulate the audience. “During a raging pandemic, you made a movie. Give yourselves a hand,” she said. “And yet they weren’t all great. … You know who you are.
- 4/1/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV

MTV Documentary Films has acquired worldwide rights to Ondi Timoner’s “Last Flight Home,” a moving and deeply personal portrait of family dealing with the last days of their patriarch. The documentary had several bidders and the sale was highly competitive.
“Last Flight Home” was a favorite with critics after it premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. MTV Documentary Films is planning a theatrical release in the fall along with an awards campaign. “Last Flight Home” was written, directed and edited by Ondi Timoner, the filmmaker behind “Dig!” and “We Live in Public.” She also produced the film with David Turner.
The film follows Eli Timoner, a suburban man and business leader whose meteoric rise was impacted by health struggles. It charts his last remaining days, while celebrating an extraordinary life, one filled with wild achievements, tragic loss and enduring love from an incredibly close-knit family. Eli Timoner...
“Last Flight Home” was a favorite with critics after it premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. MTV Documentary Films is planning a theatrical release in the fall along with an awards campaign. “Last Flight Home” was written, directed and edited by Ondi Timoner, the filmmaker behind “Dig!” and “We Live in Public.” She also produced the film with David Turner.
The film follows Eli Timoner, a suburban man and business leader whose meteoric rise was impacted by health struggles. It charts his last remaining days, while celebrating an extraordinary life, one filled with wild achievements, tragic loss and enduring love from an incredibly close-knit family. Eli Timoner...
- 2/25/2022
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV

This year at the Sundance Film Festival, three feature documentaries — Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s “Aftershock,” Reid Davenport’s “I Didn’t See You There” and Isabel Castro’s “Mija” — share in common a $10,000 grant provided by the Points North Institute and CNN Films’ American Stories Documentary Fund.
Launched in 2020, the fund underwritten by CNN has dispensed a total of $100,000 in grants to emerging U.S. filmmakers working on 10 documentary projects that highlight pivotal moments in America. Eiselt and Lewis Lee’s “Aftershock,” and Davenport’s “I Didn’t See You There” are two of nine films in the Sundance U.S. Documentary Competition program, while Castro’s “Mija” is featured in the festival’s Next program. “Aftershock” addresses the U.S. maternal health crisis, “I Didn’t See You There” examines the discrimination people with disabilities face throughout the country, and “Mija” explores America’s immigration issues via music manager Doris Muñoz.
Launched in 2020, the fund underwritten by CNN has dispensed a total of $100,000 in grants to emerging U.S. filmmakers working on 10 documentary projects that highlight pivotal moments in America. Eiselt and Lewis Lee’s “Aftershock,” and Davenport’s “I Didn’t See You There” are two of nine films in the Sundance U.S. Documentary Competition program, while Castro’s “Mija” is featured in the festival’s Next program. “Aftershock” addresses the U.S. maternal health crisis, “I Didn’t See You There” examines the discrimination people with disabilities face throughout the country, and “Mija” explores America’s immigration issues via music manager Doris Muñoz.
- 1/25/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV


I wonder when we’ll grow numb to movies about the Covid-19 crisis. Anyone saying they already have is either lying or living a life of privilege wherein the continued ebb and flow of hospitalization numbers has yet to personally impact them. They’re also the ones posing the biggest threat to those who’ve yet to take a breath because they’re the ones who care more about a “normal” that may never exist again than the health of a marginalized stranger who never experienced that same “normal” before the pandemic let alone now that we’re still very much inside of it. Watching Matthew Heineman’s documentary The First Wave isn’t therefore a casualty of diminishing returns due to a false sense of redundancy. If anything, it proves more powerful from accumulation.
Proximity plays an impact too considering the best-known Covid-19 documentary thus far was 76 Days.
Proximity plays an impact too considering the best-known Covid-19 documentary thus far was 76 Days.
- 11/19/2021
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage

Exclusive: Toto and His Sisters, a film by Oscar-nominated documentarian Alexander Nanau, has started streaming today for the first time in the U.S. on emerging service Documentary+.
The streaming outlet was launched by Xtr. Founded in 2019, Xtr is a backer of notable documentary projects such as a multi-part look at NBA legend Magic Johnson set up at Apple TV+ and the Emmy-winning 76 Days, which aired on MTV and streamed on Pluto. The surging appetite for unscripted programming — vividly demonstrated over the past couple of years by The Last Dance, Tiger King and many other titles — is fueling both Xtr and Documentary+. Average watch time on Documentary+ is 80 minutes, according to the company.
Nanau and collaborator Bianca Oana, received an Oscar nomination for Collective, a film about a concert-venue fire and related government corruption in their native Romania. The film also received an Oscar nom in the foreign language category,...
The streaming outlet was launched by Xtr. Founded in 2019, Xtr is a backer of notable documentary projects such as a multi-part look at NBA legend Magic Johnson set up at Apple TV+ and the Emmy-winning 76 Days, which aired on MTV and streamed on Pluto. The surging appetite for unscripted programming — vividly demonstrated over the past couple of years by The Last Dance, Tiger King and many other titles — is fueling both Xtr and Documentary+. Average watch time on Documentary+ is 80 minutes, according to the company.
Nanau and collaborator Bianca Oana, received an Oscar nomination for Collective, a film about a concert-venue fire and related government corruption in their native Romania. The film also received an Oscar nom in the foreign language category,...
- 11/19/2021
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV

MTV Documentary Films’ Hogir Hirori’s “Sabaya” and Jessica Kingdon’s “Ascension” will make their streaming debut on Paramount Plus today as the MTV ramps up its awards campaign for both.
Both feature docs are in the running for an Oscar nomination and will become available to stream today at 10 a.m. Pt on the ViacomCBS service formerly known as CBS All Access. The service is the streaming home for other MTV projects, including the Emmy-award winning doc “76 Days,” about Wuhan, China, on lockdown just after the Covid-19 pandemic first hit.
Sheila Nevins, a documentary powerhouse that now heads MTV Documentary Films, executive produced “Sabaya” and “Ascension.” She acquired “Sabaya” after the doc’s Sundance Film Festival premiere in January and “Ascension” following the film’s Tribeca Film Festival premiere in June.
Hirori’s “Sabaya,” which won the Sundance directing award in the World Cinema Documentary category, is about...
Both feature docs are in the running for an Oscar nomination and will become available to stream today at 10 a.m. Pt on the ViacomCBS service formerly known as CBS All Access. The service is the streaming home for other MTV projects, including the Emmy-award winning doc “76 Days,” about Wuhan, China, on lockdown just after the Covid-19 pandemic first hit.
Sheila Nevins, a documentary powerhouse that now heads MTV Documentary Films, executive produced “Sabaya” and “Ascension.” She acquired “Sabaya” after the doc’s Sundance Film Festival premiere in January and “Ascension” following the film’s Tribeca Film Festival premiere in June.
Hirori’s “Sabaya,” which won the Sundance directing award in the World Cinema Documentary category, is about...
- 11/15/2021
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV

MTV Documentary Films has acquired worldwide rights to “Krimes,” the new non-fiction feature by award-winning filmmaker Alysa Nahmias. The deal comes before the film’s screening at Doc NYC on Sunday.
“Krimes” had its world premiere at the Heartland Film Festival. It chronicles the story of a clandestine masterpiece by an incarcerated artist. Isolated in a segregated environment where personal expression is verboten, 26 year-old artist Jesse Krimes covertly creates conceptual art during his six-year prison sentence. His work includes a large-scale mural made out of bed sheets, newspaper and hair gel. Jesse’s detailed crafting of this artwork provides a mental escape from the dehumanizing surroundings, while inspiring connections in unexpected places. With the help of fellow artists, he smuggles out individual panels of his work piece-by-piece to avoid being caught with contraband, only seeing his artwork in totality after coming home. His creations, Apokaluptein: 16389067 and Purgatory, mark his experience...
“Krimes” had its world premiere at the Heartland Film Festival. It chronicles the story of a clandestine masterpiece by an incarcerated artist. Isolated in a segregated environment where personal expression is verboten, 26 year-old artist Jesse Krimes covertly creates conceptual art during his six-year prison sentence. His work includes a large-scale mural made out of bed sheets, newspaper and hair gel. Jesse’s detailed crafting of this artwork provides a mental escape from the dehumanizing surroundings, while inspiring connections in unexpected places. With the help of fellow artists, he smuggles out individual panels of his work piece-by-piece to avoid being caught with contraband, only seeing his artwork in totality after coming home. His creations, Apokaluptein: 16389067 and Purgatory, mark his experience...
- 11/12/2021
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV

Roger Ross Williams, Ronan Farrow, Jean Tsien, Cecilla Aldarondo, Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh will be honored at the 2021 IDA Documentary Awards.
Williams, who won the 2010 Oscar for best documentary, short subjects with “Music by Prudence,” will receive the Career Achievement Award. He was the first African American director to win an Oscar, and he also picked up a nomination in 2017 for best documentary feature with “Life, Animated.” The doc also picked up two News & Documentary Emmy Awards, and Williams won a Primetime Emmy for “The Apollo” in 2020.
Farrow will receive the Truth to Power Award. His investigative journalism for The New Yorker helped break the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal, for which the magazine won a Pulitzer Prize. Farrow is currently producing documentaries for HBO.
Tsien, who has worked in documentary film for over 35 years, will receive the Pioneer Award. She started her career as an editor, then story consultant,...
Williams, who won the 2010 Oscar for best documentary, short subjects with “Music by Prudence,” will receive the Career Achievement Award. He was the first African American director to win an Oscar, and he also picked up a nomination in 2017 for best documentary feature with “Life, Animated.” The doc also picked up two News & Documentary Emmy Awards, and Williams won a Primetime Emmy for “The Apollo” in 2020.
Farrow will receive the Truth to Power Award. His investigative journalism for The New Yorker helped break the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal, for which the magazine won a Pulitzer Prize. Farrow is currently producing documentaries for HBO.
Tsien, who has worked in documentary film for over 35 years, will receive the Pioneer Award. She started her career as an editor, then story consultant,...
- 11/10/2021
- by Jordan Moreau
- Variety Film + TV

With his breathless, soul-piercing “The First Wave,” director Matthew Heineman makes a tough cinematic proposition. He asks his audience to travel back to March 2020 and relive the early, frightening days of the Covid-19 crisis in New York City, when the Big Apple quickly became the world’s coronavirus epicenter through four deadly months.
More graphic in its approach than two similarly themed nonfiction films — Nanfu Wang’s “In the Same Breath” and Hao Wu and Weixi Chen’s “76 Days” — Heineman’s documentary is indeed a hard one to consent to at first, considering that the globally ruinous pandemic is far from over. But even when the high-adrenaline “The First Wave” gets a touch too explicit for its own good with shots of morgue truck interiors, glimpses at newly sealed body bags and close-ups of eyelids flickering on the verge of lifelessness, it is also a necessary and undeniably moving...
More graphic in its approach than two similarly themed nonfiction films — Nanfu Wang’s “In the Same Breath” and Hao Wu and Weixi Chen’s “76 Days” — Heineman’s documentary is indeed a hard one to consent to at first, considering that the globally ruinous pandemic is far from over. But even when the high-adrenaline “The First Wave” gets a touch too explicit for its own good with shots of morgue truck interiors, glimpses at newly sealed body bags and close-ups of eyelids flickering on the verge of lifelessness, it is also a necessary and undeniably moving...
- 10/8/2021
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV

At this time in 2020, there was exactly one feature-length film about Covid-19: Hao Wu’s “76 Days,” a bracing vérité portrait of the Wuhan lockdown that contrasted the chaos inside four of the city’s hospitals with the funereal quiet that blanketed the empty streets outside. A year later, every film so inevitably seems like it’s about the pandemic in one way or another that actual documentaries on the subject risk leaving a strange aftertaste of redundancy; an unavoidable side effect when it comes to a crisis that every potential viewer on the entire planet has lived through, at least to a certain extent.
The nature of that extent varies widely, though — not just around the globe or between red and blue states, but also across the zip codes that cinch individual cities into clear socio-economic divides. It varies between the people who survived the virus, and the...
The nature of that extent varies widely, though — not just around the globe or between red and blue states, but also across the zip codes that cinch individual cities into clear socio-economic divides. It varies between the people who survived the virus, and the...
- 10/8/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire

Olivia Colman, Josh O’Connor, Kate Winslet collect awards.
The Crown gave Netflix its first ever best drama series win at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, with the streaming giant also beating out regular awards rival HBO for the first time by taking the biggest overall Emmy haul.
The Queen’s Gambit earned Netflix another first win in the best limited or anthology series category and Ted Lasso provided Apple TV+ with its first big Emmy showing as best comedy series.
Starting with 129 nominations, Netflix took 10 awards during Sunday’s ceremony to add to the 34 it had scored during earlier Creative Arts Emmy events,...
The Crown gave Netflix its first ever best drama series win at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, with the streaming giant also beating out regular awards rival HBO for the first time by taking the biggest overall Emmy haul.
The Queen’s Gambit earned Netflix another first win in the best limited or anthology series category and Ted Lasso provided Apple TV+ with its first big Emmy showing as best comedy series.
Starting with 129 nominations, Netflix took 10 awards during Sunday’s ceremony to add to the 34 it had scored during earlier Creative Arts Emmy events,...
- 9/20/2021
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily

Olivia Colman, Josh O’Connor, Kate Winslet collect awards.
The Crown gave Netflix its first ever best drama series win at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, with the streaming giant also beating out regular awards rival HBO for the first time by taking the biggest overall Emmy haul.
The Queen’s Gambit earned Netflix another first win in the best limited or anthology series category and Ted Lasso provided Apple TV+ with its first big Emmy showing as best comedy series.
Starting with 129 nominations, Netflix took 10 awards during Sunday’s ceremony to add to the 34 it had scored during earlier Creative Arts Emmy events,...
The Crown gave Netflix its first ever best drama series win at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, with the streaming giant also beating out regular awards rival HBO for the first time by taking the biggest overall Emmy haul.
The Queen’s Gambit earned Netflix another first win in the best limited or anthology series category and Ted Lasso provided Apple TV+ with its first big Emmy showing as best comedy series.
Starting with 129 nominations, Netflix took 10 awards during Sunday’s ceremony to add to the 34 it had scored during earlier Creative Arts Emmy events,...
- 9/20/2021
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily

“Boys State,” “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” The Social Dilemma,” and “76 Days” all won Emmys last weekend during the Creative Arts ceremonies, but they share another distinction: They are the last documentaries able to win a statuette from the Television Academy for the same nonfiction film that successfully qualified for Academy Award consideration.
The Television Academy shut down the controversial practice of awards double-dipping earlier this year, decreeing that, beginning in 2022, any documentary placed on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences viewing platform for Oscar shortlist consideration, “will be deemed a theatrical motion picture and thus ineligible for the Emmy competition.”
The straightforward rule is expected to have major awards-season ramifications for documentaries, and filmmakers surveyed by Variety about the subject have mixed feelings about it. For decades, documentary filmmakers and the companies that back their work have campaigned for Emmy statuettes after a fight for a little gold man,...
The Television Academy shut down the controversial practice of awards double-dipping earlier this year, decreeing that, beginning in 2022, any documentary placed on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences viewing platform for Oscar shortlist consideration, “will be deemed a theatrical motion picture and thus ineligible for the Emmy competition.”
The straightforward rule is expected to have major awards-season ramifications for documentaries, and filmmakers surveyed by Variety about the subject have mixed feelings about it. For decades, documentary filmmakers and the companies that back their work have campaigned for Emmy statuettes after a fight for a little gold man,...
- 9/15/2021
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV

Two years and four months after MTV launched the MTV Documentary Films division headed by Sheila Nevins, the former longtime president of HBO Documentary Films, the unit landed its first Emmy Award with 76 Days.
The film, produced by Hao Wu and Jean Tsien, on Sunday during the Creative Arts Emmys won the Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking category, which also included Dick Johnson Is Dead and Welcome to Chechnya.
76 Days, which Hao Wu also co-directed, tells the story of the Wuhan lockdown in early 2020, looking behind the frontlines of the crisis in four hospitals to explore the human stories of health care workers and patients who struggle to survive the pandemic.
Emmys Scorecard: Wins By Network & Program After Creative Arts Ceremonies
Accepting the award, Hao Wu thanked his co-directors, Anonymous and Weixi Chen, “who took enormous personal risk filming in Wuhan at the start of the outbreak.”
Nevins,...
The film, produced by Hao Wu and Jean Tsien, on Sunday during the Creative Arts Emmys won the Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking category, which also included Dick Johnson Is Dead and Welcome to Chechnya.
76 Days, which Hao Wu also co-directed, tells the story of the Wuhan lockdown in early 2020, looking behind the frontlines of the crisis in four hospitals to explore the human stories of health care workers and patients who struggle to survive the pandemic.
Emmys Scorecard: Wins By Network & Program After Creative Arts Ceremonies
Accepting the award, Hao Wu thanked his co-directors, Anonymous and Weixi Chen, “who took enormous personal risk filming in Wuhan at the start of the outbreak.”
Nevins,...
- 9/12/2021
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV


That’s a wrap on all three of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards shows, so let the music play!
“RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the reality competition series which is hosted by drag queen RuPaul Charles, won big with five Emmys in several categories, including Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program, Outstanding Directing for a Reality Program and Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program (which is RuPaul’s sixth straight Emmy win for the category).
Also, to further the franchise’s stardom, “RuPaul’s Drag Race Untucked,” a behind-the-scenes spinoff of the reality series, won the unstructured reality category for the first time.
None of this weekend’s three Creative Arts shows were televised. Next Saturday, a highlights show of sorts will air on Fxx starting at 8 p.m. Et/Pt.
The *real* Emmys, hosted by Cedric the Entertainer, air live next Sunday, Sept. 19, starting at 8 p.m. Et/5 p.
“RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the reality competition series which is hosted by drag queen RuPaul Charles, won big with five Emmys in several categories, including Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program, Outstanding Directing for a Reality Program and Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program (which is RuPaul’s sixth straight Emmy win for the category).
Also, to further the franchise’s stardom, “RuPaul’s Drag Race Untucked,” a behind-the-scenes spinoff of the reality series, won the unstructured reality category for the first time.
None of this weekend’s three Creative Arts shows were televised. Next Saturday, a highlights show of sorts will air on Fxx starting at 8 p.m. Et/Pt.
The *real* Emmys, hosted by Cedric the Entertainer, air live next Sunday, Sept. 19, starting at 8 p.m. Et/5 p.
- 9/12/2021
- by Tony Maglio and Aarohi Sheth
- The Wrap


The 73rd Primetime Emmys take place on September 19 and air live coast-to-coast on CBS. But the majority of trophies for TV’s highest honor will be handed out at the three Creative Arts Emmy ceremonies that take place in the weekend prior. On Saturday, September 11, and Sunday, September 12, the television academy handed out its Creative Arts Emmy Awards, honoring the best behind-the-scenes artists as well as achievements in animation, documentaries, reality TV, variety, and short form programming.
Saturday’s single ceremony is devoted to crafts while Sunday has back-to-back events with the afternoon focused on reality and documentaries and the evening on acting, music and variety.
Scroll down for the complete 2021 Creative Arts Emmy winners list. Winners are noted with an X and in gold.
Guest Acting
Best Comedy Guest Actress
Yvette Nicole Brown, “A Black Lady Sketch Show”
Issa Rae, “A Black Lady Sketch Show”
Jane Adams, “Hacks”
Maya Rudolph,...
Saturday’s single ceremony is devoted to crafts while Sunday has back-to-back events with the afternoon focused on reality and documentaries and the evening on acting, music and variety.
Scroll down for the complete 2021 Creative Arts Emmy winners list. Winners are noted with an X and in gold.
Guest Acting
Best Comedy Guest Actress
Yvette Nicole Brown, “A Black Lady Sketch Show”
Issa Rae, “A Black Lady Sketch Show”
Jane Adams, “Hacks”
Maya Rudolph,...
- 9/11/2021
- by Paul Sheehan and Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby


HBO’s “Welcome to Chechnya” and Netflix’s “Dick Johnson is Dead” were strong contenders for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars this past year, but neither made the cut with the motion picture academy. However, the Oscars’ loss is the Emmys’ gain as both nonfiction films are nominated for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, along with another film that just missed out at the Oscars, “76 Days.” But which film will win?
Unlike in past years, there are no Oscar nominees in this year’s Emmy lineup; documentaries used to be anomalous in that they were often eligible at both events. But the Emmys instituted a new rule stating that “any programs that have been nominated for an Oscar are no longer eligible to enter the Primetime Emmy Awards competition.” So no more cases like “Free Solo” winning the Oscar and then sweeping the Emmys a few months later.
Unlike in past years, there are no Oscar nominees in this year’s Emmy lineup; documentaries used to be anomalous in that they were often eligible at both events. But the Emmys instituted a new rule stating that “any programs that have been nominated for an Oscar are no longer eligible to enter the Primetime Emmy Awards competition.” So no more cases like “Free Solo” winning the Oscar and then sweeping the Emmys a few months later.
- 9/1/2021
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby

For a film that almost didn’t get made, 76 Days has racked up an impressive number of awards.
The documentary directed by Hao Wu, Weixi Chen and a Chinese filmmaker who remains anonymous, and produced by Wu and Jean Tsien, earned a spot on the Oscar shortlist earlier this year, claimed the Audience Award at AFI Fest, and in June won a prestigious Peabody Award. The Peabody committee praised the film for its humanistic approach, immersing viewers within hospitals in Wuhan, China as that city implemented an emergency lockdown in the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak.
“For a film that begins with a wailing nurse shouting out for her dying father,” the committee wrote, “and ends with the screeching of city air raid sirens to honor those who died in the coronavirus pandemic, 76 Days is yet a hopeful film that does more than just document the beginning...
The documentary directed by Hao Wu, Weixi Chen and a Chinese filmmaker who remains anonymous, and produced by Wu and Jean Tsien, earned a spot on the Oscar shortlist earlier this year, claimed the Audience Award at AFI Fest, and in June won a prestigious Peabody Award. The Peabody committee praised the film for its humanistic approach, immersing viewers within hospitals in Wuhan, China as that city implemented an emergency lockdown in the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak.
“For a film that begins with a wailing nurse shouting out for her dying father,” the committee wrote, “and ends with the screeching of city air raid sirens to honor those who died in the coronavirus pandemic, 76 Days is yet a hopeful film that does more than just document the beginning...
- 8/26/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV

Like the terror attacks on Sept.11, 2001, Covid-19 is a topic that will inevitably become the subject matter of hundreds, if not thousands, of documentaries over the next several decades.
Even now, just 18 months after the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. began and during a time when the delta variant is making Covid cases surge across the country, there are a handful of pandemic-focused docus available for viewing. Each film explores the virus’ origins as well as the long-term ramifications on the world, emotionally, societally and politically.
But the question for some of the filmmakers and distributors is this: How much appetite is there for these documentaries at a time when the delta variant is surging?
HBO Documentary Films’ “In the Same Breath,” debuting Aug. 18 on HBO and HBO Max, is the latest to test that appetite. Directed by Nanfu Wang, a Chinese émigré who was Emmy-nominated last year for “One Child Nation,...
Even now, just 18 months after the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. began and during a time when the delta variant is making Covid cases surge across the country, there are a handful of pandemic-focused docus available for viewing. Each film explores the virus’ origins as well as the long-term ramifications on the world, emotionally, societally and politically.
But the question for some of the filmmakers and distributors is this: How much appetite is there for these documentaries at a time when the delta variant is surging?
HBO Documentary Films’ “In the Same Breath,” debuting Aug. 18 on HBO and HBO Max, is the latest to test that appetite. Directed by Nanfu Wang, a Chinese émigré who was Emmy-nominated last year for “One Child Nation,...
- 8/18/2021
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV

MTV turns 40 on Sunday, and it hardly looks its age. Well, that’s because it hardly looks like, well, anything anymore. At least that’s the depressing state of the linear MTV channel, which in recent years has become 95% reruns of “Ridiculousness,” along with a handful of runs of 20-year-old movies (“Joe Dirt”) and limited first-run airings of legacy shows like “Teen Mom” and “Catfish: The TV Series.”
It’s been a cliché for years to complain about what happened to the music on MTV. But the music question has been moot since the mid-2000s, when videos moved to YouTube and Vevo. The larger issue is, what happened to the programming, period, on MTV? It’s become a zombie channel, and for those of us still rooting for the brand, it’s a sad sight to see.
MTV isn’t the only neglected cable channel out there; as my...
It’s been a cliché for years to complain about what happened to the music on MTV. But the music question has been moot since the mid-2000s, when videos moved to YouTube and Vevo. The larger issue is, what happened to the programming, period, on MTV? It’s become a zombie channel, and for those of us still rooting for the brand, it’s a sad sight to see.
MTV isn’t the only neglected cable channel out there; as my...
- 8/1/2021
- by Michael Schneider
- Variety Film + TV

Emmy nominations in the doc categories are giving films passed over by the Oscars a shot at some trophies of their own.
Dick Johnson Is Dead, directed by Kirsten Johnson, 76 Days, from director Hao Wu, and Welcome to Chechnya, directed by David France, earned nominations in the juried category of Outstanding Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. Each of those films had made the Oscar Documentary Feature shortlist earlier in the year, but didn’t earn Oscar nominations.
The nod to 76 Days, a film set in hospitals in Wuhan, China during the city’s initial lockdown after the outbreak of Covid-19, marks the first Emmy nomination for MTV Documentary Films, the division headed by Sheila Nevins.
“It’s a great honor to be nominated for an Emmy,” Wu said in a statement to Deadline. “As we’re still reeling from the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic, we sincerely hope that...
Dick Johnson Is Dead, directed by Kirsten Johnson, 76 Days, from director Hao Wu, and Welcome to Chechnya, directed by David France, earned nominations in the juried category of Outstanding Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. Each of those films had made the Oscar Documentary Feature shortlist earlier in the year, but didn’t earn Oscar nominations.
The nod to 76 Days, a film set in hospitals in Wuhan, China during the city’s initial lockdown after the outbreak of Covid-19, marks the first Emmy nomination for MTV Documentary Films, the division headed by Sheila Nevins.
“It’s a great honor to be nominated for an Emmy,” Wu said in a statement to Deadline. “As we’re still reeling from the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic, we sincerely hope that...
- 7/13/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV

Since the first Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, the impulse was clear: someone had to record it all. Multiple people, it turns out, wanted to helm that “someone.” Trio Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, and Anonymous took TIFF by storm last year with “76 Days,” unleashing raw footage from Wuhan to the world. Nanfu Wang, on the other hand, took a more introspective approach with her Sundance-premiering documentary “In the Same Breath.” In her essay film, she meditates upon the conflicting identity politics of a Chinese-American in these polarized times. Now, seasoned Chinese Canadian director Yung Chang enters the conversation with “Wuhan Wuhan.” Like his peers, he too returns to footage directly imported from Wuhan. Unlike the others, however, the virus is not the be-all end-all; instead, he chooses the high road, pondering upon life beyond the pandemic.
“Wuhan Wuhan” is screening at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival
“Wuhan Wuhan” rotates between...
“Wuhan Wuhan” is screening at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival
“Wuhan Wuhan” rotates between...
- 6/30/2021
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse

Updated with latest winners: The Peabody Awards revealed its complete list of winners for its 81st edition, recognizing the year’s most compelling and empowering stories in broadcasting and streaming media, topics that in the year 2020 included Covid-19, racial equality, immigration and social justice.
Joining the list of winners that has been rolling out since Monday is Steve McQueen’s anthology series Small Axe, which rounded out this year’s list of Entertainment honorees that include HBO’s I May Destroy You, Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso, CBS’ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Netflix’s Unorthodox, Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird and Shudder’s Guatemalan folk horror movie La Llorona.
A total of 30 awards were handed out this year for the Peabodys, presented by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. There were 60 nominees this year, with winners selected by 19 jurors who considered 1,300 entries across TV,...
Joining the list of winners that has been rolling out since Monday is Steve McQueen’s anthology series Small Axe, which rounded out this year’s list of Entertainment honorees that include HBO’s I May Destroy You, Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso, CBS’ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Netflix’s Unorthodox, Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird and Shudder’s Guatemalan folk horror movie La Llorona.
A total of 30 awards were handed out this year for the Peabodys, presented by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. There were 60 nominees this year, with winners selected by 19 jurors who considered 1,300 entries across TV,...
- 6/24/2021
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV

Amazon Prime Video’s “Small Axe” is among the final batch of this year’s Peabody Award winners, which have been announced throughout the week. Variety also has a first look at actor Cynthia Erivo presenting the honor to “Small Axe,” and filmmaker Steve McQueen’s acceptance speech; scroll down to watch.
A collection of five films from McQueen about Black West Indian immigrants in 1970s and early 1980s London, “Small Axe” touches on subjects including police brutality, anti-Black racism, immigrant live and the music, food and culture of the time.
“Watching ‘Small Axe’ was an amazing experience, specifically the ‘Lovers Rock’ episode, which showed the influence of Black music within the U.K.,” Erivo said in presenting the award. “It reminded me of the way my mom loves music, of the way I would listen to music when I was younger. It reminded me of family friends, it reminded...
A collection of five films from McQueen about Black West Indian immigrants in 1970s and early 1980s London, “Small Axe” touches on subjects including police brutality, anti-Black racism, immigrant live and the music, food and culture of the time.
“Watching ‘Small Axe’ was an amazing experience, specifically the ‘Lovers Rock’ episode, which showed the influence of Black music within the U.K.,” Erivo said in presenting the award. “It reminded me of the way my mom loves music, of the way I would listen to music when I was younger. It reminded me of family friends, it reminded...
- 6/24/2021
- by Michael Schneider
- Variety Film + TV


In the never-ending battle for prestige streamer dominance, today was a good day for Showtime. The Viacom division took two prestigious Peabody Awards for its limited series “The Good Lord Bird” starring Ethan Hawke and the news program “Vice on Showtime: Losing Ground.” Another Viacom production, MTV Films “76 Days,” won in the Documentary category.
Read More: “Ted Lasso,” “Time” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” win 2021 Peabody Awards
Traditionally handed out in an in-person ceremony, this year’s winners are being awarded virtually as one of the last vestiges of pandemic awards announcements.
Continue reading ‘The Good Lord Bird,’ ‘Unorthodox’ & ’76 Days’ Win 2021 Peabody Awards at The Playlist.
Read More: “Ted Lasso,” “Time” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” win 2021 Peabody Awards
Traditionally handed out in an in-person ceremony, this year’s winners are being awarded virtually as one of the last vestiges of pandemic awards announcements.
Continue reading ‘The Good Lord Bird,’ ‘Unorthodox’ & ’76 Days’ Win 2021 Peabody Awards at The Playlist.
- 6/22/2021
- by Gregory Ellwood
- The Playlist

“The Good Lord Bird” and “Unorthodox” are two of the latest Peabody Award winners, announced Tuesday.
This year the 81st annual Peabody Awards are being virtually presented over the course of four days. The first batch of eight were announced Monday, June 21, with another seven following suit the following day.
Showtime’s limited series adaptation of James McBride’s novel of the same name, “The Good Lord Bird,” and Netflix’s four-part limited series inspired by Deborah Feldman’s memoir of the same name, “Unorthodox,” are the two latest award recipients from the entertainment category.
Other newly crowned winners are MTV Documentary Films’ “76 Days” (in the documentary category), The Washington Post’s “Post Reports: The Life of George Floyd” (in the podcast/radio category) and, in news, PBS/GBH’s “Whose Vote Counts,” Showtime’s “Losing Ground” installment of “Vice on Showtime” and ITV’s “Muslim in Trump’s...
This year the 81st annual Peabody Awards are being virtually presented over the course of four days. The first batch of eight were announced Monday, June 21, with another seven following suit the following day.
Showtime’s limited series adaptation of James McBride’s novel of the same name, “The Good Lord Bird,” and Netflix’s four-part limited series inspired by Deborah Feldman’s memoir of the same name, “Unorthodox,” are the two latest award recipients from the entertainment category.
Other newly crowned winners are MTV Documentary Films’ “76 Days” (in the documentary category), The Washington Post’s “Post Reports: The Life of George Floyd” (in the podcast/radio category) and, in news, PBS/GBH’s “Whose Vote Counts,” Showtime’s “Losing Ground” installment of “Vice on Showtime” and ITV’s “Muslim in Trump’s...
- 6/22/2021
- by Danielle Turchiano
- Variety Film + TV

Remember when National Geographic’s “Free Solo” won the Academy Award for documentary in 2018 and then went on to win six Emmys, including directing for a documentary/nonfiction program? Or when ESPN’s “O.J.: Made in America” did the same thing in 2016?
The loophole that allowed docs to somehow compete in both Oscars and Emmys was always a bit bizarre. It couldn’t happen in scripted, where the rules have been ironclad: If you were released theatrically first, you’re a movie; if you’re on television, you’re, well, TV.
In documentary, though, it’s often TV outlets such as HBO, PBS or Nat Geo commissioning and funding the projects to air on their networks — making them, arguably, TV projects. But if they’re screened in theaters, the Oscars can claim them too. “Why a television documentary is eligible for AMPAS’ feature awards is a question for AMPAS,” the...
The loophole that allowed docs to somehow compete in both Oscars and Emmys was always a bit bizarre. It couldn’t happen in scripted, where the rules have been ironclad: If you were released theatrically first, you’re a movie; if you’re on television, you’re, well, TV.
In documentary, though, it’s often TV outlets such as HBO, PBS or Nat Geo commissioning and funding the projects to air on their networks — making them, arguably, TV projects. But if they’re screened in theaters, the Oscars can claim them too. “Why a television documentary is eligible for AMPAS’ feature awards is a question for AMPAS,” the...
- 6/17/2021
- by Michael Schneider
- Variety Film + TV


When speaking with talent affiliated with some of the most prominent television documentaries of the past year, the subjects of their favorite documentaries as well as the challenges of conveying the truth in a time when it’s easy to get lost in disinformation were subjects that provoked deep discussions. Gold Derby recently put this question to James Gay-Rees (“1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything”), Hao Wu (“76 Days”), Madison Hamburg (“Murder on Middle Beach”), Ellen Kuras (“Pretend it’s a City”) and Wendy Williams (“Wendy Williams: What a Mess”) during our recent “Meet the Experts” panel.
You can watch the documentary group panel above with these five creative talents. Click on each person’s name above to be taken to their individual interview.
For Hamburg, he wasn’t able to single out one specific documentary that influenced him. He did cite masters of the genre including Frederick Wiseman and Steve James,...
You can watch the documentary group panel above with these five creative talents. Click on each person’s name above to be taken to their individual interview.
For Hamburg, he wasn’t able to single out one specific documentary that influenced him. He did cite masters of the genre including Frederick Wiseman and Steve James,...
- 6/3/2021
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby


Even though the virus that causes Covid-19 originated from China, Hao Wu, the director of “76 Days,” explains that life in the country has very much gone back to the way things were pre-pandemic. “Based on what I learned, not just from the co-directors, but also from friends and families in China, right now the Covid situation in China is pretty stable,” Wu tells Gold Derby in our Meet the Experts: Television Documentary panel (watch the exclusive video interview above). There were occasional batches of cases that would pop up but nothing like what the United States experienced with the massive spikes in the winter months. “There were some, a few scares here and there in different cities, but every single time, if there were more than like 10 cases identified, the government pretty much shut down that entire city again.”
Produced by MTV Documentary Films, “76 Days” examines the initial...
Produced by MTV Documentary Films, “76 Days” examines the initial...
- 6/3/2021
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby

Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox News host who sued the network for sexual harassment and won, will be the subject of a new documentary, “In Her Own Words,” which will examine the use of non-disclosure agreements to silence whistleblowers. The film will also chronicle the efforts of Carlson and Julie Roginsky to launch Lift Our Voices, a nonprofit initiative which is trying to eliminate NDAs and mandatory arbitration clauses from the workplace.
“In Her Own Words” will be made with Carlson’s full participation and collaboration, but in a sad bit of irony, the newscaster can’t address certain parts of her time at Fox News as she remains bound by the NDA that accompanied her settlement.
“It is time to tell my story,” said Carlson. “One-third of American workers are bound by NDAs. They cannot tell their own truths, they cannot tell their own stories. I hope that collaborating...
“In Her Own Words” will be made with Carlson’s full participation and collaboration, but in a sad bit of irony, the newscaster can’t address certain parts of her time at Fox News as she remains bound by the NDA that accompanied her settlement.
“It is time to tell my story,” said Carlson. “One-third of American workers are bound by NDAs. They cannot tell their own truths, they cannot tell their own stories. I hope that collaborating...
- 6/2/2021
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV

Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson will discuss her fight against Roger Ailes in a new documentary feature, as well as her ongoing effort to end the use of nondisclosure agreements, or NDAs, in the workplace.
Though she remains bound by her own NDA, Carlson is fully participating and collaborating with the filmmakers of the documentary, which depicts her own activism along with the goal of reclaiming the narrative of her battle with Ailes. In 2016, Carlson’s allegations of sexual harassment resulted in her exit from Fox News and a settlement package in exchange for signing an NDA to not speak about Ailes or Fox News again.
The film, titled “In Her Own Words,” is directed by Emmy nominee Cynthia Lowen. The doc will dive into the consequences of forced arbitration and NDAs, examining how it can impact every facet of a person’s life, with many victims forced to...
Though she remains bound by her own NDA, Carlson is fully participating and collaborating with the filmmakers of the documentary, which depicts her own activism along with the goal of reclaiming the narrative of her battle with Ailes. In 2016, Carlson’s allegations of sexual harassment resulted in her exit from Fox News and a settlement package in exchange for signing an NDA to not speak about Ailes or Fox News again.
The film, titled “In Her Own Words,” is directed by Emmy nominee Cynthia Lowen. The doc will dive into the consequences of forced arbitration and NDAs, examining how it can impact every facet of a person’s life, with many victims forced to...
- 6/2/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap


Check out the premiere of our interviews with the creative teams behind “What a Mess” (Wendy Williams), “Pretend It’s a City” (cinematographer Ellen Kuras), “76 Days” (director and writer Hao Wu), “Murder on Middle Beach” (Madison Hamburg) and “1971” (producer James Gay-Rees). Followed by a roundtable discussion hosted by Charles Bright. The event is part of Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Btl Experts” series.
- 5/27/2021
- by Tom O'Neil
- Gold Derby


Five top TV documentarians will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with key 2021 guild and Emmy contenders this month. Each person will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Wednesday, May 26, at 5:00 p.m. Pt; 8:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our contributing editor Charles Bright and a group chat with Charles and all of the group together.
RSVP today to this specific event by clicking here to book your reservation. Or click here to RSVP for our entire ongoing panel series. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.
This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2021 guild and Emmy contenders:
“1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything”: James Gay-Rees
Synopsis: The musicians and soundtracks that shaped the culture and politics of 1971.
“76 Days...
RSVP today to this specific event by clicking here to book your reservation. Or click here to RSVP for our entire ongoing panel series. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.
This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2021 guild and Emmy contenders:
“1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything”: James Gay-Rees
Synopsis: The musicians and soundtracks that shaped the culture and politics of 1971.
“76 Days...
- 5/18/2021
- by Chris Beachum and Charles Bright
- Gold Derby

Since the first Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, the impulse was clear: someone had to record it all. Multiple people, it turns out, wanted to helm that “someone.” Trio Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, and Anonymous took TIFF by storm last year with “76 Days,” unleashing raw footage from Wuhan to the world. Nanfu Wang, on the other hand, took a more introspective approach with her Sundance-premiering documentary “In the Same Breath.” In her essay film, she meditates upon the conflicting identity politics of a Chinese-American in these polarized times. Now, seasoned Chinese Canadian director Yung Chang enters the conversation with “Wuhan Wuhan.” Like his peers, he too returns to footage directly imported from Wuhan. Unlike the others, however, the virus is not the be-all end-all; instead, he chooses the high road, pondering upon life beyond the pandemic.
“Wuhan Wuhan” rotates between a cast of five: a factory worker-turned-volunteer cabby; a mother...
“Wuhan Wuhan” rotates between a cast of five: a factory worker-turned-volunteer cabby; a mother...
- 5/7/2021
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse

The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors on Tuesday announced its 60 nominees representing “the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and streaming media” in 2020.
The nominees were chosen by 19 jurors who surveyed 1,300 entries from television, podcasts/radio and the web in entertainment, news, documentary, arts, children’s/youth, public service and multimedia programming. The Peabody Awards are based at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
“During an incredibly turbulent and difficult year, these nominees rose to the occasion and delivered compelling and empowering stories,” said former Yahoo! Global Editor-in-Chief Martha Nelson, who now chairs the Peabody jury. “From Covid-19 coverage to poignant explorations of identity, each nominee not only told a powerful story but also made a significant impact on media programming and the cultural landscape. We’re thrilled to recognize their outstanding and inspiring work.”
The nominated programs encompass a wide range of issues,...
The nominees were chosen by 19 jurors who surveyed 1,300 entries from television, podcasts/radio and the web in entertainment, news, documentary, arts, children’s/youth, public service and multimedia programming. The Peabody Awards are based at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
“During an incredibly turbulent and difficult year, these nominees rose to the occasion and delivered compelling and empowering stories,” said former Yahoo! Global Editor-in-Chief Martha Nelson, who now chairs the Peabody jury. “From Covid-19 coverage to poignant explorations of identity, each nominee not only told a powerful story but also made a significant impact on media programming and the cultural landscape. We’re thrilled to recognize their outstanding and inspiring work.”
The nominated programs encompass a wide range of issues,...
- 5/4/2021
- by Tom Tapp
- Deadline Film + TV
‘Ted Lasso,’ ‘I May Destroy You,’ ‘Small Axe,’ Stephen Colbert Among Peabody Awards 2021 Nominations

“I May Destroy You,” “Small Axe,” “Ted Lasso,” “The Good Lord Bird” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” are among this year’s entertainment nominees for the Peabody Awards.
The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors on Tuesday announced this year’s nominees for entertainment, documentaries, news, podcast/radio, children’s & youth, public service and arts. A total of 60 nominees were revealed as representing “the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and streaming media during 2020.”
PBS once again led the nominations with 12 programs, followed by Netflix with nine. HBO was next with five, and then Amazon and Showtime with three each, and Apple TV Plus and CBS with two apiece. Out of the nominees, half will be named winners and recognized during a virtual celebration in June.
A unanimous vote by the Peabody Awards Board’s 19 jurors is necessary to include on the final lists, which is how...
The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors on Tuesday announced this year’s nominees for entertainment, documentaries, news, podcast/radio, children’s & youth, public service and arts. A total of 60 nominees were revealed as representing “the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and streaming media during 2020.”
PBS once again led the nominations with 12 programs, followed by Netflix with nine. HBO was next with five, and then Amazon and Showtime with three each, and Apple TV Plus and CBS with two apiece. Out of the nominees, half will be named winners and recognized during a virtual celebration in June.
A unanimous vote by the Peabody Awards Board’s 19 jurors is necessary to include on the final lists, which is how...
- 5/4/2021
- by Michael Schneider
- Variety Film + TV

The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors announced this year’s crop of nominees today, singling out 60 stories from more than 1,300 submissions for its prestigious award honoring broadcasting and streaming media during 2020. The Peabody Awards recognize the finest work produced for television, podcasts/radio and the web in entertainment, news, documentary, arts, children’s/youth, public service and multimedia programming.
“During an incredibly turbulent and difficult year, these nominees rose to the occasion and delivered compelling and empowering stories,” said chair of the Peabody Board of Jurors Martha Nelson. “From Covid-19 coverage to poignant explorations of identity, each nominee not only told a powerful story but also made a significant impact on media programming and the cultural landscape. We’re thrilled to recognize their outstanding and inspiring work.”
Perhaps unsurprising given the landscape of the last 18 months, the Peabody honorees skewed more heavily towards news programs, with only 10 Entertainment selections, as...
“During an incredibly turbulent and difficult year, these nominees rose to the occasion and delivered compelling and empowering stories,” said chair of the Peabody Board of Jurors Martha Nelson. “From Covid-19 coverage to poignant explorations of identity, each nominee not only told a powerful story but also made a significant impact on media programming and the cultural landscape. We’re thrilled to recognize their outstanding and inspiring work.”
Perhaps unsurprising given the landscape of the last 18 months, the Peabody honorees skewed more heavily towards news programs, with only 10 Entertainment selections, as...
- 5/4/2021
- by Libby Hill
- Indiewire


Winners will be announced virtually in June
“Ted Lasso,” the “Euphoria” Christmas special and Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You” are among the 60 Peabody Award nominees for 2021, the organization’s board of jurors announced Tuesday.
The nominations span documentaries, news programming, television and streaming. PBS led the pack with 12 nominations for its nonfiction programming like the recent “Asian Americans” series and “PBS NewsHour” coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. Netflix and HBO followed with nine and five nominations, respectively.
The 30 winners will be announced a ceremony to be held virtually in June.
“During an incredibly turbulent and difficult year, these nominees rose to the occasion and delivered compelling and empowering stories,” said Martha Nelson, chair of the Peabody Board of Jurors. “From Covid-19 coverage to poignant explorations of identity, each nominee not only told a powerful story but also made a significant impact on media programming and the cultural landscape.
“Ted Lasso,” the “Euphoria” Christmas special and Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You” are among the 60 Peabody Award nominees for 2021, the organization’s board of jurors announced Tuesday.
The nominations span documentaries, news programming, television and streaming. PBS led the pack with 12 nominations for its nonfiction programming like the recent “Asian Americans” series and “PBS NewsHour” coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. Netflix and HBO followed with nine and five nominations, respectively.
The 30 winners will be announced a ceremony to be held virtually in June.
“During an incredibly turbulent and difficult year, these nominees rose to the occasion and delivered compelling and empowering stories,” said Martha Nelson, chair of the Peabody Board of Jurors. “From Covid-19 coverage to poignant explorations of identity, each nominee not only told a powerful story but also made a significant impact on media programming and the cultural landscape.
- 5/4/2021
- by Reid Nakamura
- The Wrap

There are many poignant moments in 76 Days, Hao Wu’s moving documentary about medical workers in Wuhan, China and the patients they treated as the city went through lockdown last year over Covid-19.
For producer Jean Tsien, one moment in particular stands out.
“The first scene…with the nurse [who] lost her father…That just hit me so hard,” Tsien said during Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted awards-season event. “For anyone to say goodbye to your loved one and to see—the father’s five feet away and you cannot even say goodbye. That was the most heart-wrenching scene I’ve ever seen I think in my entire career.”
Wu, who is based in New York, happened to be visiting Shanghai when the lockdown sealed off Wuhan. He wasn’t permitted to enter Wuhan himself, so he sought out potential partners on site who could capture what was happening.
For producer Jean Tsien, one moment in particular stands out.
“The first scene…with the nurse [who] lost her father…That just hit me so hard,” Tsien said during Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted awards-season event. “For anyone to say goodbye to your loved one and to see—the father’s five feet away and you cannot even say goodbye. That was the most heart-wrenching scene I’ve ever seen I think in my entire career.”
Wu, who is based in New York, happened to be visiting Shanghai when the lockdown sealed off Wuhan. He wasn’t permitted to enter Wuhan himself, so he sought out potential partners on site who could capture what was happening.
- 5/1/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV

Padma Lakshmi, the Queer Eye hosts, Stephen Colbert and Demi Lovato are just of the few of the top tiers names joining Deadline’s Contenders Television Documentary + Unscripted event on May 1.
The day-long livestreamed celebration starts at 8 a.m. Pt on Saturday, as the Oscars are in the rearview mirror and awards season puts pedal to the small screen metal.
Along with the Taste the Nation host and the Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself executive producer, this newest addition to our Contenders events will see Demi Lovato, Michael D. Ratner, Derek DelGaudio himself, Frank Oz, Amy Schumer, Malcolm Spellman, Jameela Jamil, Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish will be among participants from the nearly 40 shows from 18 outlets at the virtual event.
Queer Eye’s Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness will also be there, as will Nicole Byer, a double dipping Ken Jeong, Rachel Brosnahan,...
The day-long livestreamed celebration starts at 8 a.m. Pt on Saturday, as the Oscars are in the rearview mirror and awards season puts pedal to the small screen metal.
Along with the Taste the Nation host and the Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself executive producer, this newest addition to our Contenders events will see Demi Lovato, Michael D. Ratner, Derek DelGaudio himself, Frank Oz, Amy Schumer, Malcolm Spellman, Jameela Jamil, Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish will be among participants from the nearly 40 shows from 18 outlets at the virtual event.
Queer Eye’s Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness will also be there, as will Nicole Byer, a double dipping Ken Jeong, Rachel Brosnahan,...
- 4/28/2021
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV

Holding a personal interest for me, since the documentary focuses on the life of a Greek photographer, George, in China, I was really eager to watch this particular documentary, additionally because it captured the way people, and mostly foreigners, experienced the pandemic in China. My final perspective on the film is that it has some things working for it and some not. Let us take things from the beginning though.
“Mazidian” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
On New Year’s Day 2020 in Beijing, George spoke with his sister in Athens and told her that he had plans to travel back to Greece in August to hold his photographic exhibition. Yet, shortly after that, Covid-19 broke out and he was unable to travel anywhere. Nine months later, George is still in Beijing, looking for his friend Lao Song in Mazidian, to discuss his photographic exhibition. As Lao...
“Mazidian” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
On New Year’s Day 2020 in Beijing, George spoke with his sister in Athens and told her that he had plans to travel back to Greece in August to hold his photographic exhibition. Yet, shortly after that, Covid-19 broke out and he was unable to travel anywhere. Nine months later, George is still in Beijing, looking for his friend Lao Song in Mazidian, to discuss his photographic exhibition. As Lao...
- 4/10/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse

Exclusive: A wider audience is about to get the chance to see director Skye Fitzgerald’s Hunger Ward, the Oscar-nominated short film from MTV Documentary Films.
The film, an unsparing look at the suffering of children in Yemen who have been reduced to starvation during the country’s civil war, will premiere on the Paramount+ streaming platform on Friday. Hunger Ward will be released the same day in more than 120 theaters, coupled with virtual cinema engagements, as part of the Academy’s 2021 Oscar Nominated Short Films program.
“It is an honor to have MTV Documentary Films and Paramount+ bring Hunger Ward’s urgent message of the humanitarian crisis affecting children of Yemen to a broad and engaged audience,” Fitzgerald said. Added Sheila Nevins, head of MTV Documentary Films, “The greatest humanitarian crisis exists in Yemen. Children are starving to death in front of America’s eyes. Filmmaker Skye Fitzgerald...
The film, an unsparing look at the suffering of children in Yemen who have been reduced to starvation during the country’s civil war, will premiere on the Paramount+ streaming platform on Friday. Hunger Ward will be released the same day in more than 120 theaters, coupled with virtual cinema engagements, as part of the Academy’s 2021 Oscar Nominated Short Films program.
“It is an honor to have MTV Documentary Films and Paramount+ bring Hunger Ward’s urgent message of the humanitarian crisis affecting children of Yemen to a broad and engaged audience,” Fitzgerald said. Added Sheila Nevins, head of MTV Documentary Films, “The greatest humanitarian crisis exists in Yemen. Children are starving to death in front of America’s eyes. Filmmaker Skye Fitzgerald...
- 4/1/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
One of several timely films offering a personal and global perspective on Covid-19, Hannah Olson’s medium-length documentary The Last Cruise is a stirring personal account of a tiny but consequential microcosm of Covid: the Diamond Princess cruise, which quickly saw its infections grow from one to eventually 691, 33 days after it set sail. A canary in the coal mine, the Diamond Princess should have offered global health organizations a blueprint for what not to do, and the film quietly makes its outrage known throughout the horrific ordeal.
Capturing the early days of Covid when so much was unknown––prior to jurisdictions throughout the world making mandatory modifications––the film is largely told through the cell phone footage of American passengers and international crew. Starting off like any other vacation home video, we learn the ship sets sail on the day when there had only been four confirmed cases in the world,...
Capturing the early days of Covid when so much was unknown––prior to jurisdictions throughout the world making mandatory modifications––the film is largely told through the cell phone footage of American passengers and international crew. Starting off like any other vacation home video, we learn the ship sets sail on the day when there had only been four confirmed cases in the world,...
- 3/20/2021
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage

“The Heist,” the true story of the theft of Willem de Kooning’s iconic “Woman-Ochre” from an Arizona art museum, is in the works from “The Love Bugs” director Allison Otto. Nonfiction studio Xtr will back the new documentary in partnership with
Roots Productions’ Jill Howerton and Josh Kunau, the producers of “The Devil We Know,” Museum + Crane’s Caryn Capotosto, the maker of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor.” Mark Monroe, writer of the Academy Award winning films “Icarus” and “The Cove,” penned the screenplay.
It’s easy to see why that caliber of talent was attracted to the story. The day after Thanksgiving, 1985, one of de Kooning’s most famous paintings was sliced from its frame and stolen from the walls of the museum where it was housed. The painting was originally acquired from de Kooning by Edward Joseph Gallagher Jr., a collector who later donated it to...
Roots Productions’ Jill Howerton and Josh Kunau, the producers of “The Devil We Know,” Museum + Crane’s Caryn Capotosto, the maker of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor.” Mark Monroe, writer of the Academy Award winning films “Icarus” and “The Cove,” penned the screenplay.
It’s easy to see why that caliber of talent was attracted to the story. The day after Thanksgiving, 1985, one of de Kooning’s most famous paintings was sliced from its frame and stolen from the walls of the museum where it was housed. The painting was originally acquired from de Kooning by Edward Joseph Gallagher Jr., a collector who later donated it to...
- 3/19/2021
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV


The 15 shortlisted contenders for Best Documentary Feature showcase the diversity and power in vérité storytelling with such a vast array of subjects and visions. From racial injustice and voter suppression to government conspiracies and emotionally connecting with animals, these stories, from all corners of life, illuminate the world we live in today.
Both the 15 semi-finalists and five nominees were determined by preferential voting. Final voting for the winner is widened to all academy members who attest to having watched all the nominees. Let’s take a closer look at the 15 films and their performances at the precursor awards.
The film that tackles 2020’s most pressing issue is “76 Days,” which gives an insider view of overwhelmed frontline workers caring for patients battling Covid-19 in Wuhan hospitals during its citywide lockdown. The direct cinema filmmaking highlights the doctors and nurses’ nonstop care, sustained compassion, and waves of anguish, all while donning...
Both the 15 semi-finalists and five nominees were determined by preferential voting. Final voting for the winner is widened to all academy members who attest to having watched all the nominees. Let’s take a closer look at the 15 films and their performances at the precursor awards.
The film that tackles 2020’s most pressing issue is “76 Days,” which gives an insider view of overwhelmed frontline workers caring for patients battling Covid-19 in Wuhan hospitals during its citywide lockdown. The direct cinema filmmaking highlights the doctors and nurses’ nonstop care, sustained compassion, and waves of anguish, all while donning...
- 3/14/2021
- by Nick Ruhrkraut
- Gold Derby

Corporate behemoths like Netflix and Disney Plus define the streaming world, but the pandemic inspired specialized distributors to invent a VOD niche with virtual cinema. Led by companies like Kino Lorber, Magnolia Films, and Film Movement, they offer films in partnership with art house theaters and split the revenues. What initially sounded like a long shot became common practice in the space of a year, and virtual cinema could be a permanent feature that runs in parallel to theatrical releases.
Using its website and membership lists to access target audiences, Kino Lorber began selling films through its Kino Lorber Marquee platform last March, starting with “Bacurau.” It also helped acclimate older viewers into seeing movies online.
A year later, Kino Lorber has released 30 films via virtual cinema. According to its self reporting, shared with IndieWire, the platform grossed $1.2 million, with $600,000 going to some 50 arthouse theaters. That’s down from the...
Using its website and membership lists to access target audiences, Kino Lorber began selling films through its Kino Lorber Marquee platform last March, starting with “Bacurau.” It also helped acclimate older viewers into seeing movies online.
A year later, Kino Lorber has released 30 films via virtual cinema. According to its self reporting, shared with IndieWire, the platform grossed $1.2 million, with $600,000 going to some 50 arthouse theaters. That’s down from the...
- 3/10/2021
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire

MTV Documentary Films has acquired North American rights to “Sabaya,” the story of volunteers of the Yazidi Home Center, who risk their lives in order to save women and girls held by Isis as sex slaves.
The film received a directing award for world cinema documentary when it premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. “Sabaya” is directed and produced by Stockholm-based filmmaker Hogir Hirori and also produced by Antonio Russo Merenda. In a rave review in Variety, Jessica Kiang wrote that the film was “gripping, harrowing, superb.”
MTV Documentary Films will qualify “Sabaya” for awards consideration and is targeting an early fall release. The company’s recent film, “76 Days,” a look at the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, was just shortlisted for a best documentary Oscar. MTV Documentary Films’s “Hunger Ward” was also shortlisted for best documentary short subject.
Here’s the logline: “Armed with...
The film received a directing award for world cinema documentary when it premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. “Sabaya” is directed and produced by Stockholm-based filmmaker Hogir Hirori and also produced by Antonio Russo Merenda. In a rave review in Variety, Jessica Kiang wrote that the film was “gripping, harrowing, superb.”
MTV Documentary Films will qualify “Sabaya” for awards consideration and is targeting an early fall release. The company’s recent film, “76 Days,” a look at the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, was just shortlisted for a best documentary Oscar. MTV Documentary Films’s “Hunger Ward” was also shortlisted for best documentary short subject.
Here’s the logline: “Armed with...
- 3/8/2021
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV

Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars from Film Awards Editor Clayton Davis. Following Academy Awards history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Oscar predictions are updated regularly with the current year's contenders in all categories. Variety's Awards Circuit Prediction schedule consists of four phases, running all year long: Draft, Pre-Season, Regular Season and Post Season. Eligibility calendar and dates of awards will determine how long each phase lasts and will be displayed next to revision date.
To see all the latest predictions, of all the categories, in one place, visit The Collective
Draft>>>Pre Season>>>Regular Season>>>Post Season
2021 Oscars Predictions:
Best Documentary Feature
Updated: Mar. 4, 2021
Awards Prediction Commentary: The documentary branch has a lot of international voters that have been added over the last few years. Some of the American stories that center around politics and social issues may get passed over...
To see all the latest predictions, of all the categories, in one place, visit The Collective
Draft>>>Pre Season>>>Regular Season>>>Post Season
2021 Oscars Predictions:
Best Documentary Feature
Updated: Mar. 4, 2021
Awards Prediction Commentary: The documentary branch has a lot of international voters that have been added over the last few years. Some of the American stories that center around politics and social issues may get passed over...
- 3/4/2021
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
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