Emmy Creative Arts Winners 2019
Monday, September 16, 2019 at 7:00AM
NATHANIEL R in Beyoncé, Emmy, Free Solo, Homecoming, James Corden, RuPaul's Drag Race

by Nathaniel R

"We're going to the Catskills" was a popular episode of the Emmy's darling favourite The Marvelous Mrs Maisel.

The Creative Arts Emmys were held over the weekend so Game of Thrones and Marvelous Mrs Maisel are looking set to easily repeat their previous series wins on Emmy Night (Sept 22nd) since they retained a stranglehold on below the line prizes. The big news that had the internet in a huff over the two night ceremony was the fact that the popular concert special Beyonce Homecoming lost all the Emmy categories it was up for. Whether or not you love Beyoncé (I remain indifferent) that seems justifiably insane in some of those categories.

It's really time for Emmys to bring back blue ribbon panels because this "everyone can vote" thing just means that whatever is the most watched or most obsessed over show just wins everything regardless of the category. If voters aren't watching their submission tapes they're also often voting on shows they loved the year before or love right now (but a different season is the thing they're voting on. Etcetera). Why have 100s of categories if you're just going to bury three or four shows in the same dozens of awards and leave hundreds of just-as-fine programs Emmyless? If the Emmys were truly a reflection of the art of television there would be more of a variety of winners from year to year. The list of winners and a few notes after the jump...

The Queer Eye cast at the Emmys

Structured Reality Program Queer Eye
Variety Special (Live) Norman Lear Presents: All in the Family and The Jeffersons 

This award makes Norman Lear the oldest Emmy winner of all time. He's 97 years old

Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) Carpool Karaoke: When Corden Met McCartney 

Somehow this one beat cultural events like Hannah Gadbsy: Nanette and Beyonce: Homecoming.

Choreography (Variety / Reality) Tessandra Chavez, World of Dance

All the nominees were from just two shows, this one and So You Think You Can Dance

Production Design (Variety Special) Rent
Production Design (Variety / Reality Series) Saturday Night Live — "Host: John Mulaney" 
Short Form Variety Series Carpool Karaoke: The Series
Short Form Animated Program Love, Death and Robots — "The Witness"

Very cool animation in this episode but this is clearly a show for straight boys. Both episodes sampled were all boobs and violence.

Narrator David Attenborough, Our Planet 

One of the nominees here was Angela Basset for The Flood and given that Bassett is the Queen of Enunciation, we are not pleased that she lost. 

Music Composition (Documentary) Free Solo
Music Direction Fosse/Verdon — "Life is a Cabaret"

Another place where Homecoming lost. Fosse/Verdon actually made a good showing. Will Michelle Williams win on Emmy night? We're crossing our fingers for her.

Music and Lyrics Crazy Ex-Girlfriend — "Antidepressants Are So Not A Big Deal" 

FINALLY an Emmy for that amazing show.

Creative Achievement in Interactive Media Free Solo — "360"

Hmmm, how many prizes does Free Solo need?

Creative Achievement In Interactive Media Within A Scripted Program Bandersnatch (Black Mirror)
Interactive Program NASA and SpaceX: The Interactive Demo-1 Launch 

This was up against a field entirely made of out of late night comedy talk shows so standing out helps?

Technical Direction / Camerawork / Video Control (Special)
The Late Late Show Carpool Karaoke Primetime Special 2019 

They sure do love that James Corden series. show. It beat the Oscars, the Tonys, and the Kennedy Center Honors here and various other shows in other categories

Technical Direction / Camerawork / Video Control (Series) Last Week Tonight with John Oliver — "Psychics" 
Short Form Nonfiction / Reality Creating Saturday Night Live 
Writing (Variety Special) Hannah Gadsby: Nanette
Writing (Nonfiction) Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown — "Kenya" 
Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking [TIE] RBG  / The Sentence
Informational Series or Special Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown 
Documentary / Nonfiction Special Leaving Neverland

This one beat out a whole slew of famous docs must of which we've actually reviewed here:  FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never HappenedThe Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon ValleyJane Fonda in Five Acts, Love, Gilda, and Minding the Gap

Documentary / Nonfiction Series Our Planet 
Makeup (Multi-Camera, Non-Prosthetic) Saturday Night Live — "Host: Adam Sandler" 
Hairstyling (Multi=Camera) RuPaul's Drag Race — "Trump: The Rusical" 
Costumes (Variety / Nonfiction / Reality) RuPaul's Drag Race — "Trump: The Rusical" 


This episode beat out the costume work on Beyoncé's Homecoming? WUT?! Surely even RuPaul wouldn't approve.

Directing (Reality) Queer Eye — "Black Girl Magic"
Casting (Reality) Queer Eye 
Directing (Documentary / Nonfiction) Free Solo 
Directing (Variety Special) Springsteen on Broadway 
Animated Program The Simpsons — "Mad About the Toy"

I haven't watched the Simpsons in a long time so perhaps it was deserving but given the regular critical hosannas to its fresher competitors like Big Mouth — "The Planned Parenthood Show", Bob's Burgers — "Just One of the Boyz 4 Now for Now", and BoJack Horseman — "Free Churro" one has to wonder how seriously voters are taking their ballots. Well, one has to wonder that all the time about the Emmys. 

Character Voice-Over Performance Seth MacFarlane, Family Guy

Emmy's single most useless category. They nearly always give it to MacFarlane and ignore most of the great voicework on more critically lauded animated series.

Picture Editing (Variety) Last Week Tonight — "The Wax and the Furious" (Segment) 
Picture Editing (Unstructured Reality) United Shades of America — "Hmong Americans and the Secret War" 
Picture Editing (Structured Reality / Competition) Queer Eye
Picture Editing (Nonfiction) Free Solo 
Sound Mixing (Variety) Aretha! A Grammy Celebration for the Queen of Soul 
Sound Mixing (Nonfiction) Free Solo
Sound Editing (Nonfiction) Free Solo

It turns out the Oscar winning Free Solo needed a LOT more trophies... something really must be done about documentaries being eligible for both Emmys and Oscars.

Lighting Design / Direction ( Variety Special) Rent
Lighting Design / Direction (Variety Series) Saturday Night Live — "Host: John Mulaney" 
Reality Host RuPaul Charles, RuPaul's Drag Race
Unstructured Reality Program United Shades of America
Cinematography (Nonfiction) Free Solo
Cinematography (Reality) Life Below Zero
Choreography (Scripted Program) Kathryn Burns, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 

Short Form Comedy or Drama Series State of the Union
Actor In A Short Form Comedy or Drama Series Chris O'Dowd, State of the Union
Actress In A Short Form Comedy or Drama Series Rosamund Pike, State of the Union

They gave all their short form prizes to the same show. Is it the only one they watched? But yay Rosamund Pike is an Emmy winner. (That said I'm a bit sad for Jessica Hecht who was amazing on Special

Casting for a Comedy Series Fleabag
Casting for a Drama Series Game of Thrones

This is what I mean about Emmy voters never taking their privilege to vote seriously. How does the final season of Game of Thrones which introduced no significant new characters win a casting award over a bunch of fairly new series? For wrangling lots of extras?

Casting for a Limited Series, Movie or Special When They See Us

One of the rare prizes that Chernobyl was up for that it lost.

Children's Program When You Wish Upon a Pickle: A Sesame Street Special
Cinematography for a Limited Series or Movie Chernobyl – Jakob Ihre (Episode: "Please Remain Calm")
Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series The Ranch – Donald A. Morgan (Episode: "Reckless")
Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour) Russian Doll – Chris Teague (Episode: "Ariadne")
Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (One Hour) The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – M. David Mullen (Episode: "Simone") (Prime Video)

 

Commercial "Dream Crazy" (Nike)
Contemporary Costumes  Russian Doll "Superiority Complex"
Period Costumes The Marvelous Mrs Maisel "We're Going to the Catskills"
Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes Game of Thrones "The Bells"

Luke Kirby as Lenny Bruce on "Mrs Maisel" 

Outstanding Guest Actor In A Comedy Series
Matt Damon, Saturday Night Live
Robert De Niro, Saturday Night Live
★ Luke Kirby, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Peter MacNicol, Veep
John Mulaney, Saturday Night Live
Adam Sandler, Saturday Night Live
Rufus Sewell, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series
Michael Angarano, This Is Us
Ron Cephas Jones, This Is Us
Michael McKean, Better Call Saul
Kumail Nanjiani, The Twilight Zone
Glynn Turman, How to Get Away with Murder
★ Bradley Whitford, The Handmaid's Tale

When Emmy has a favourite actor they stick with em. See also the next prize.

Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series
★ Jane Lynch, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Sandra Oh, Saturday Night Live
Maya Rudolph, The Good Place 
Kristin Scott Thomas, Fleabag
Fiona Shaw, Fleabag
Emma Thompson, Saturday Night Live

Over this field? Really Emmy voters? Watch your tapes!

Outstanding Guest Actress In A Drama Series
Laverne Cox, Orange Is the New Black
★ Cherry Jones, The Handmaid's Tale
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Apocalypse
Phylicia Rashad, This Is Us
Cicely Tyson, How to Get Away with Murder
Carice van Houten, Game of Thrones

Cherry Jones now has a second Emmy to go with her two Tonys

The Guest Acting categories are always such oddities with Emmys. What do you make of this year's four prizes?

Hairstyling for a Limited Series or Movie  Fosse/Verdon
Hairstyling for a Single-Camera Series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Main Title Design Game of Thrones

Makeup for a Limited Series or Movie (Non-Prosthetic) Fosse/Verdon
Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic)  Game of Thrones "The Long Night"

Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Limited Series, Movie or Special Star Trek: Discovery "If Memory Serves"

Whoa, Game of Throne actually lost one tech category. Congratulations to Star Trek Discovery for breaking that seemingly impenetrable hold on Emmy voters.

Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score) Hildur Guðnadóttir, Chernobyl 
Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score) Ramin Djawadi, Game of Thrones 
Music Supervision Robin Urdang, Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel "We're Going to the Catskills"
Original Main Title Theme Music Nicholas Britell, Succession

So Britell ended up winning an Emmy before an Oscar despite his amazing film scores

Production Design for a Narrative Program (Half-Hour) Russian Doll "Nothing in the World is Easy"
Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program (One Hour or More) The Handmaid's Tale "Holly"
Production Design for a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program (One Hour or More)  Chernobyl

Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series  Fleabag – Gary Dollner (Episode: "Episode 1")
Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series Game of Thrones – Tim Porter (Episode: "The Long Night") 
Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Limited Series or Movie Chernobyl – Simon Smith 
Multiple-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series One Day at a Time "The Funeral"
Sound Editing for a Limited Series, Movie or Special
Chernobyl "1:23:45"
Sound Editing for a One Hour Show Game of Thrones "The Long Night"
Sound Editing for a Half-Hour Show Barry "Ronny/Lily"
Sound Mixing for a Half-Hour Show Barry "Ronny/Lily"
Sound Mixing for a One Hour Show Game of Thrones "The Long Night"
Sound Mixing for a Limited Series /  Movie  Chernobyl "1:23:45"

As with Oscar voters, Emmy voters don't know the difference between Editing and Mixing and just give both awards to the same piece of art. 

Special Visual Effects Game of Thrones "The Bells"
Special Visual Effects In A Supporting Role Chernobyl "1:23:45"
Stunt Coordination for a Comedy Series or Variety Program GLOW
Stunt Coordination for a Drama Series, Limited Series or Movie Game of Thrones

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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