BAFTA TV Award Winners: I May Destroy You, Welcome to Chechnya

The BAFTA TV Awards were announced yesterday with Michaela Coel's critically acclaimed I May Destroy You winning Best Actress and Best Mini-Series (it had previously taken Writing, Directing, and Editing at the "Bafta Craft awards). The Crown did not fare well (hits too close to home?) and Steve MQueen's Small Axe picked up just one major prize (Supporting Actor for Malachi Kirby). In better news, Paul Mescal won Best Actor for his exquisite work on Normal People and the superb queer documentary Welcome to Chechnya, which Oscar so unwisely snubbed last season, picked up another award. The winners are listed after the jump...

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Emmy Watch: Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Our team is breaking down the top contenders in all the major Emmy races and highlighting some of our favorites over the next few weeks. Today, we’re looking at Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

 

By Abe Friedtanzer

I was going into this category thinking that it might actually boast the highest percentage of possible returning nominees – a full 50% of last year’s slate, which in this crazy time is actually a lot. But Black Monday and its star Don Cheadle don’t appear to be eligible since they counted the four final episodes of season two, which aired last summer, last year, and even though the show returned a few weeks ago, there just aren’t enough installments for Showtime to bother to submit it (apparently). If it does somehow end up on the ballot, count Cheadle in again. The two surefire returning nominees are Anthony Anderson (Black-ish), vying for his seventh bid, and Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method), set to earn his third and final nomination for this role. Let’s take a look at the rest of the field…

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Emmy Watch: Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Our team is breaking down the top contenders in all the major races and highlighting some of our favorites over the next few weeks.

 

By Abe Friedtanzer 

This category is an interesting one because it includes only three past nominees who were all eligible last year, but only one of them was nominated. In a much more open field than ever before, it’s the right time for those who have missed out in crowded years to return again and for a few new faces to break through, especially since past winners like Claire Danes and Viola Davis can’t stage surprise returns because their shows are now over. We all know that last year’s nominee Olivia Colman (The Crown) will be back, and she’ll be joined by her season four costar Emma Corrin (Princess Diana). Beyond that, little is certain. Let’s take a look…

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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… 

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King McQueen On Every Screen

by Jason Adams

Steve McQueen, the man who directed five, count 'em, five of last year's best films with his Small Axe series, is about to confound everybody fixated on old-fashioned definitions of Art all over again with a new three-part thingamajig for the BBC called Uprising.  THR is calling it a "docuseries" and this one, on paper, does admittedly sound more like a proper old-fashioned series than the Small Axe anthology ended up seeming (to me). We'll  wait and see how McQueen confounds our expectations, since he does always love to do that, and to stunning effect. And hey if awards voting bodies can't keep up with where and how the art is happening that's their fault, not the artists.

Uprising will focus in closer on the 1981 events that formed the backdrop of Axe's fourth chapter "Alex Wheatle" -- namely the New Cross Fire which killed 13 young people, and the Black People's Day of Action and then the Brixton Riots which followed right on its heels. It's not entirely clear if this will be entirely a documentary -- McQueen's quoted as saying it will be drawn from "testimonials" of the people involved -- or if there will be a hybrid project with a fictionalized mix of recreations. Not that McQueen needs help but I'm hoping he draws some inspiration from Raoul Peck's recent HBO series Exterminate All the Brutes, which threw absolutely everything at us all at once and blew my socks straight off in the process.