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...

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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)...

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"Minari" leads the Dorian Award nominees but LGBT films underperform

by Nathaniel R

The Society for LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, to which I and a few of our writers here belong, have revealed their nominations for the film year with Ammonite, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, I Carry You With Me, Supernova, and Uncle Frank up for best LGBTQ Film though only one of them (Ma Rainey) secured any other nominations. Minari leads with the overall nominations with six and Nomadland is just behind with five.

You can see all the nominations after the jump...

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In 2020, what is a "theatrical film"?

by Juan Carlos

2020 is the year that altered the face of cinema as we know it. After cinemas closed all over the world, films were either delayed or released in modified platforms like virtual cinemas and VOD. Indoor gathering restrictions also led to a resurgence of drive-in theaters. Meanwhile, streaming became an even more vital way for films to reach audiences. Platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu all have Oscar contenders this season.

This shift in movie-watching was further validated by the Academy’s decision earlier this year to allow films released via streaming and VOD to be eligible for the Academy Awards, provided that they were previously intended for theatrical release and that they will be available in the Academy Screening Room. This amendment to the eligibility rules is major, especially given the Academy’s previous adherence to the traditional definition of what a “theatrical film” is. Pre-COVID eligibility rules state that...

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20:20 (Pt 4) Contrarian takes, gay comedies, and a KStew double

Part One | Part Two | Part Three 
We're occassionally surveying the films of 2020 that are already streaming, whether they're great, terrible or anywhere inbetween in case you're looking to get caught up on the film year before December/January's "year in review" style media mania. We're freezing them at the 20th minute and 20th second just for streaming roulette kicks. How many of these twelve 2020 pictures have you seen?

-What are we getting?
-Uh... nothing good.

UNDERWATER (William Eubank, US)
20th Century Fox. Original release date: January 10th. Streaming on HBOMax

KStew's dialogue right there is suddenly how I'm feeling about the cinema of 2020. I know I know we're supposed to be saying it was rich. Well, I was feeling like it was rich until I started drafting up the annual Film Bitch Awards and realized it was a wasteland once I removed all the festival titles that don't have distribution in 2020. Still have to get through another 20 pictures though and if half of them are wonderful the problem will be solved?  I promise that I'm not just in a grumpy mood though the following text might suggest otherwise as I had an entirely lovely Thanksgiving. How about you? 

They were actually hillbilly royalty because my pawpaw was related to the guy who started the Hatfield-McCoy feud.

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