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None for six: Australian creatives take a hiding at the Emmys
Like fame, Emmy glory was fleeting.
Australia marched into the second of three Emmy Awards events in Los Angeles with nominations in six categories, recognising the work of our best cinematographers, production designers, musicians, producers and graphic designers.
Empty-handed: Nominee Zoe White at night two of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sunday, September 15, 2019.Credit: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
We walked out empty handed.
Barely an hour into the ceremony the bulk of the brutal work was done: cinematographers Zoe White (The Handmaid's Tale) and Germain McMicking (True Detective) had lost their Emmys to Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and HBO's Chernobyl.
Adding insult to injury, nominees Jasper Leak (Quincy), Patrick Clair and Raoul Marks (True Detective) and Anna Dokoza (Special) lost to, respectively, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Game of Thrones and the Sundance series State of the Union.
Then the final blow came as the period or fantasy production design Emmy, which has been the virtual property of Australian Game of Thones designer Deborah Riley for the past few years, was lost to Chernobyl.
2018 Creative Arts Emmy Awards: Deborah Riley, left, and Paul Ghirardani accept the award for outstanding production design for a narrative period or fantasy program (one hour or more) Game of Thrones' 'Dragonstone'.Credit: AP
In the end, HBO's Game of Thrones, which won in a raft of categories on its final season victory lap, and Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and HBO's Chernobyl, could not be beaten. They were the night's favourites, scooping up most of the awards.
It has been a side-effect of the splitting-at-its-seams list of Emmy categories that they now have to be handed out over three nights.
The first two ceremonies get held on one weekend and focus on "creative arts" disciplines such as design, editing, wardrobe, hairstyling and stunts; while the third "primetime" Emmys focuses on performance, writing, directing and the big awards of best drama, comedy, limited series and telemovie.
2019 Creative Arts Emmy Award winners Luke Letkey, from left, Laura Bethencourt Montes, Steven Godfrey, Clare Cheetham, Max Dennison, Claudius Christian Rauch, and Lindsay McFarlane from Chernobyl.Credit: AP
The winners at the creative arts Emmys included: the Sesame Street special When You Wish Upon A Pickle, which won outstanding children's program; Succession composer Nicholas Britell, who won outstanding main title theme music; and US space agency NASA, which won outstanding original interactive program for its InSight: Mars Landing special.
The Nike Dream Crazy ad campaign, which featured American sports star Colin Kaepernick, won the outstanding commercial Emmy; the print component of the campaign, created by the Wieden + Kennedy agency, had previously won the outdoor grand prix award at the Cannes Lions.
Among the winners in the guest acting categories were Jane Lynch, who won guest actress in a comedy series for her work on The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, and Bradley Whitford, who won guest actor in drama series for his work on The Handmaid's Tale.
Lynch dedicated her award to the groundbreaking female comedians of Hollywood's golden age, including Joan Rivers, Totie Fields and Phyllis Diller, whom she described as "those gals who blazed a trail."
Accepting his Emmy, Whitford acknowledged the social and cultural impact of The Handmaid's Tale.
The show's star, Elisabeth Moss, was "getting to perform what I think is the voice of a generation," he said. "I want to thank [author] Margaret Atwood with giving us perspective. Action is the antidote to despair."
Whitford also pointed out that awards show victories were less than definitive. "Awards show are not arenas of justice," Whitford said. "They are conspiracies of circumstance and my circumstances are so lucky."
Australia had already taken home one Emmy this year, secured by Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby on the first night of the creative arts Emmys, in the category of writing for a variety special for the Netflix special Nanette.
Nanette had been nominated in two categories, but lost outstanding variety special (pre-recorded) to the When Corden Met McCartney: Live From Liverpool episode of Carpool Karaoke.
"[I am] so honoured to receive an Emmy for Nanette," Gadsby said after the win.
"My gratitude to the Television Academy for recognising my work, to Netflix for the embrace of my vision and to my team for their humbling faith in me. If you found strength in Nanette, know that our stories matter; our humanity matters," she said.
Australia still has one nominee left standing on what has become a bloody awards battlefield: director Daina Reid, who has been nominated in the outstanding directing for a drama series category for her work on the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale.
The winner of that category will be announced at this weekend's "primetime" Emmy awards.
The Emmys are given out annually by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) in recognition of excellence in television programming; there are more than 25,000 voting ATAS members who vote in categories pertaining to their specialised fields.
The 71st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will air in Australia on Monday, September 23, live at 10am on FOX8 (Foxtel). The telecast will also be available to stream on Foxtel.