The line between Emmys and Oscars for "Movies" is still quite blurry. What to do?

Perusing the TV Movie Emmy ballots, it's easy to be reminded that streaming movies are always a either/or prospects in terms of awards. Sometimes they're submitted for the Emmys and sometimes Oscars. It's not always clear which it will be since TV and Movies stopped feeling so separate as artforms once streaming upended screen entertainment. Sometimes movies are designed as theatrical features, premiere at film festivals and be bought by a streamer (remember Bad Education?) and try for Emmys. It's difficult to know which is which these days unless you're constantly on the phone with publicists but those decisions can be reversed or made later in some cases. Oscar is requiring theatrical releases again for eligibility purposes but that's easy for major corporations to work around by "four-walling" theaters without any publicity for a week to hedge awards bets. Netflix bought a couple of movie theaters almost specifically for this purpose.

Long story short here are Emmy eligible movies that people (including sometimes myself) might have previously mistaken for movie-movies for various reasons... 

Click to read more ...

Emmy Category Review: Outstanding Television Movie

by Juan Carlos Ojano

In a surprise, Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square was announced the winner of Outstanding TV Movie at last night's Primetime Creative Arts Emmys, securing Netflix another win in this category after missing last year. While this category has gone low-profile in recent years (being “demoted” from the main ceremony to the Creative Arts), the work represented in this category is still worth recognizing and worth checking out. Unlike last year, four networks are represented in this category of five (with Prime Video getting double nods). For the last time, here were the nominees...

Click to read more ...

Emmy Watch: Outstanding TV Movie

by Juan Carlos Ojano

In a year when most categories saw the number of their submissions drop, the Outstanding TV Movie category stands out as one of the few that actually had an increase in submissions (41 submissions from last year’s 28). On the flipside, this year saw even less high-profile contenders, adding to the growing indifference towards this category. Perhaps last year’s winner Bad Education set a high bar in how a “TV movie” can be received critically, faring well even in traditional film awards. The COVID-19 pandemic continued to blur what is considered a film and television, with streaming services now arbitrarily pushing some for Oscars and some for Emmys.

This year, let’s take a look at the field of contenders that we have (per platform)...

Click to read more ...