The Emmy Nominations!!

The 69th Emmy nominations have been announced! HBO need not worry that Game of Thrones wasn't eligible this year, as they landed the most nominated drama anyway with Westworld. The early-in-the-season genre hit tied Saturday Night Live for 22 nominations each, followed by Stranger Things and Feud tying for second place at 18 each.

Most of the nominations follow Emmy's expected players despite the openings left by departed perennials like Thrones, though this year isn't without surprises or fresh faces. The major breakthroughs this year were Hulu (finally in the major races thanks to the success of The Handmaid's Tale) and our beloved RuPaul's Drag Race (scoring 7 nominations, plus one for Untucked).

The team will be sharing their favorite nominations and frustrations on what missed the cut later today, but our dream ballot should give you a hint of our thoughts. Here are the nominees in the top categories:

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Team Experience's Dream Emmy Ballot!

Emmy voting closes tomorrow evening, dear readers! Since Nathaniel and the team here at The Film Experience have been writing up our favorite FYCs of the past television year, we have decided to also do some fantasy Emmy voting of our own. Our own Emmy dream ballot has favorites you've read about here before, like nomination leaders Big Little Lies (7 nominations), Feud (6), The Leftovers and the conclusion of Looking (5).

That's a whole lot of love for HBO here at TFE, with Veep also being our most nominated comedy at 4 nods. Might HBO earn similar success with Emmy itself, even though mainstay Game of Thrones won't be eligible? Will this allow for The Leftovers to finally get some love?

Take a look at the results after the jump...

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Soundtracking: "Big Little Lies"

It's Chris Feil's weekly series on music in the movies, this time on one of this year's television favorites...

Did you know that Emmy added a music supervision category this year? While this may seem a bit nebulous (Emmy sure does have a heck of a lot of categories!), at least we might get some great soundtracks and song choices recognized. Consider my soundtrack column this week an FYC (among others we've written) for what must be the inaugural front-runner Big Little Lies. Emmy: did you ever want it? Did you want it bad?

The musical landscape of Monterey is packed with soul tunes both new and old, weighted with a kind of timeless, cross-generational longing that ties together the various women of its ensemble. They way these songs ache deepen our understanding of each woman’s unique pain: the angry defiance of Jane running to “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole”, Madeline’s romantic respite in “River”, and a lyrically literal reflection of Celeste’s sexual confusion with “Victim of Love”. For the audience, music helps us draw the connections between their shared pain, what ultimately unites them all. Big Little Lies’s musical identity is as distinct as the series itself.

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The Dress Heard Around the Galaxy and the Year of Dern

By Spencer Coile 

As the year of Laura Dern rages forward, ignited by Big Little Lies, it was only a matter of time before fans learned a little bit about her character in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Marking her first appearance into the franchise, Dern's role is an invention of director Rian Johnson's, playing Vice Admiral Holdo, an officer of the Resistance. But if that weren't enough for us lucky fans, Annie Leibovitz of Vanity Fair went on set and snapped some stunning photos of numerous cast members of The Last Jedi. Pictured above is Dern's colorful, sweeping, elegant look (the film's costume design is by Michael Kaplan). I don't know about you, but this one photo is enough to help me make it to December.  

Arriving in December, The Last Jedi will put a nice cap on 2017 for Laura Dern. So let's look at what she is busy with this year...

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The Last Tweetweek (Not Really)

The Last Jedi gets top billing because everyone's been talking about it.

Just watched THE LAST JEDI trailer, noticed that "this film is not yet rated." Crossing my fingers it's gong to be straight-up XXX! pic.twitter.com/GJEqmbtVJH

— Scott Sigler (@scottsigler) April 14, 2017

After the jump more on The Last Jedi and other random movie and celebrity amusements

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