Emmy Watch: What new shows will join the Best Drama Series lineup?

Emmy nominations are closer than you think! Our team is breaking down the top contenders in all the major races and highlighting some of our favorites over the next few weeks. We’ll begin with Best Drama Series.

By Abe Friedtanzer

At this point last year, production shutdowns weren’t really going to affect the Emmy Awards since so many of the series had already aired their seasons in the back half of 2019 or early 2020. This time around, things are very different, as many shows that would have theoretically been top contenders haven’t yet returned. Here’s the most jarring statistic: last year there were eleven shows that had been nominated the previous time they were eligible (seven made the cut again). This year, there are only three. Let’s break down the few returning shows that might be back and the wide array of possibilities that could fill the remaining slots… 

Click to read more ...

Hugo Award Nominees

Let's take a brief look at the Hugo Award nominees. They're mostly focused on sci-fi and fantasy literature but they do have one movie category and the nominees go like so...

Long Form Dramatic Presentation" (aka movies)

• Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
• Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
• The Old Guard
• Palm Springs
• Soul
• Tenet

We hadn't thought of Eurovision Song Contest as a 'sci-fi fantasy' film but there are unseen elves so...

Click to read more ...

Creative Arts Emmy Winners 2020

By Abe Friedtanzer and Nathaniel R

The big PrimeTime Emmys night is, of course, tonight but last night they wrapped up their week long 'below the line' festivities known as The Creative Arts Emmys. Among the "firsts" this week: Maya Rudolph won her first Emmy (for Big Mouth) and then her second (for Saturday Night Live), beating herself, the long running History Channel series Vikings and ABC's black-ish won their first Emmys (on the 13th and 19th nomination, respectively since they've been up for at least one prize every season). Three companies also won their first Emmys: Pop TV (via Schitt's Creek and One Day at a Time), Quibi (via the program #FreeRayshawn), and Disney+ (via The Mandalorian).

Our Emmy team correctly called Best TV Movie and both of the comedy guest acting categories but missed the drama guest acting races, all three costume fields, and animated program. Oops. If these awards truly correlated to the main races for Sunday night, we might expect to hear The Mandalorian and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel called as this year's top winners, but we’ll stick with the Succession and Schitt's Creek, which both won outstanding casting honors, as our predictions for the Drama and Comedy winners tonight. Full list of Creative Arts Emmy winners follows after the jump... 

Click to read more ...

Emmy Review: Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes

by Cláudio Alves

Compared to other Emmy awards, the Best Costumes tryptic of Contemporary, Period, and Fantasy/Sci-Fi represents a fairly recent addition. For decades, there was no distinction between genres. Contemporary, period and fantasy competed together, to the obvious disadvantage of the more modern-set series. Later on, fantasy and period designs were joined in a single award, leaving space for contemporary fashions to win. As of 2018, all three got their own category.

We'll be starting our analysis of the Best Costumes contenders with the Fantasy/Sci-Fi race which has been dominated by Game of Thrones in previous years. As that series' reign has ended, a new champion will emerge…

Click to read more ...

Toys, battle angels and photoreal lions dominate the VES Awards

by Nathaniel R

Alita Battle Angel, The Lion King and Toy Story 4 led the pack at the annual Visual Effects Society nominations though Toy Story 4 is not one of the finalists for the Visual Effects Oscar. (Inexplicably the Oscar finals had to make room for Cats which received zero nominations from the VES.) Sadly the VES completely ignored Ad Astra which was an unfortunate miss for the Oscar finalist list and suffers a further indignity here. What's a beautiful well reviewed sci-fi drama gotta do to get some respect? 

The nominations and a few comments are after the jump...

Click to read more ...