Joan Crawford's long road to Oscar

by Cláudio Alves

I make no secret that I'm a Joan Crawford fan. After all, I've already waxed poetic about the star's stellar 1947 and her turn in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. However, I've never written about Crawford's career pre-Oscar win. Since we're celebrating 75 years since that victory, it feels like an appropriate time to examine the actress' long road to Oscar, the misconceptions about her legacy, the complexities of her contemporary popularity. If you want to read more about the 18th Academy Awards, check out Baby Clyde's wonderful overview of the ceremony and the race for gold. Now, it's time to focus solely on that year's Best Actress champion…

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Emmy Ballots Due

Voting for the 69th annual Emmy Awards closes Monday. The televised event will be held on Sunday, September 17th (same day TIFF wraps up!) with the Creative Arts ceremony (for below the line and guest acting awards) generally happening a few days beforehand. In case you missed any of our Emmy-related investigations, here they all are.

Comedy Actress will Julia Louis-Dreyfus continue breaking records?
Drama Lead Actress Movie/Mini Kidman, Witherspoon, Lange, etc.
Drama Supporting Actress Thandi Newton, Millie Bobby Brown, etc.
Drama Guest Actress Ann Dowd, Alexis Bledel, and more
Drama Male Acting Categories Sterling K Brown, Riz Ahmed, etc.
Voiceover Can Kevin Kline triple crown?
Production Design The Young Pope, Portlandia, Hairspray Live, etc.
Contemporary Costumes Grace and Frankie interview
Costume Design, Period/Fantasy Feud, The Handmaid's Tale, Genius etc.
Main Title Design American Gods, The Crown, Westworld, etc
Music Supervision Big Little Lies soundtrack
Music Supervision Pt 2 The whole category

Nomination Snubs Rita Moreno, Minnie Driver, Insecure, etc.
Nomination Happiness Laura Dern, RuPaul's Drag Race, etc.
Official Nominations Westworld and Saturday Night Live led...
Team Experience's Ballot not the actual Emmy list obviously

ANY LAST MINUTE FYCS AS TELEVISION ACADEMY MEMBERS COMPLETE THEIR BALLOTS?

Emmy Review: Outstanding Period/Fantasy Costumes

by Nathaniel R

The television Academy split up the costume categories at the Emmys just a few years ago. Given that all awards bodies default to period work over contemporary work if they have a choice between the two (sigh) it's good that they did this. Now contemporary costumes will be able to actually win prizes! This period category, then, feels more like a continuation of the original Emmy category "Outstanding Costumes for a Series"

The nominees are...

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Emmy Review: Best Actress, Limited Series or Movie

We've been reviewing Emmy categories. Voting concludes next Monday with the ceremony on September 17th.

by Eric Blume

Entertainment writers have been crowing for a while about this category, claiming that it looks more like a Best Actress Oscar list than it does an Emmy list.  And it’s true, this year’s six nominees include four women who have already won that Oscar, along with two of television’s biggest names.  It’s an embarrassment of riches: six interesting, surprising, deep performances from six formidable actors...

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The Furniture: Who Should Win the Emmys for Production Design

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

Last year, I made a pitch to the Academy of Television Arts and Science on the subject of production design. Hopefully you also remember that amazing table tennis parlor from Penny Dreadful. But what you might not remember is that not a single one of the nominees I recommended actually won. Not even Lemonade, about which I am still annoyed.

But here I am, one year later, trying again. Here’s who should win each of the five production design Emmys. (At least Game of Thrones isn’t eligible this year, or they’d be winning for the fourth year in a row.)

Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary or Fantasy Program (One Hour or More)
The Young Pope is almost dizzyingly lush. It’s here as a “contemporary” program, but much of it feels just as fantastical as the other nominees. It revives the gilded extravagance of the old Catholic Church, back when the Pope presented himself as more of an emperor than a priest. One is reminded of the clerical fashion show from Fellini’s Roma, but with a much darker undercurrent.

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