Innholdsfortegnelse for Awards Special, 30A, August 19, 2021 i The Hollywood Reporter

Safely.” That’s the word Cynthia Erivo employs to describe how she’s stepping out during this year’s awards season, one that has once again been dented by the COVID-19 pandemic amid rising concerns over the delta variant and renewed mask mandates for indoor spaces. “I’m approaching it as safely as I possibly can, but I’m excited to see people,” says the star, Emmy-nominated for her turn as the Queen of Soul in Nat Geo’s Genius: Aretha. Seeing people has mostly been relegated to small screens for virtual events, much like last year — but not completely. Studios, streamers and networks have hosted some in-person gatherings, but the look, feel and logistics are not back to normal. “The volume is not what it was pre-pandemic,” Amy Ramirez, Swisher Prods. chief creative officer…

PAPER MOON 1973 Marshall was an associate producer on Peter Bogdanovich’s Depression-era road movie starring Ryan O’Neal and daughter Tatum O’Neal. The film earned four Oscar noms the following year, including best supporting actress for 10-year-old Tatum, making her the youngest performer to win a competitive Oscar. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK 1981 Marshall earned his first Oscar nomination for the launch of the Indiana Jones franchise (the only film in the series to land a best picture nod), his first collaboration with Steven Spielberg. THE COLOR PURPLE 1985 Marshall’s second best picture-nominated film proved Spielberg could helm serious, dramatic films — but went for a record-tying 0-for-11 at the Oscars. THE SIXTH SENSE 1999 Marshall produced M. Night Shyamalan’s psychological thriller, which he had read as a spec script.…

Filmmaker Eugene Ashe had an unexpectedly revolutionary concept for his new feature film: a sweeping, high-glam love story about a Black couple in the 1960s that assiduously did not revolve around the civil rights movement or Black trauma. Meanwhile, NFL cornerback turned actor Nnamdi Asomugha was painstakingly looking for a breakout role, something so unique and challenging that he’d ultimately also sign on as a producer. Amazon’s Sylvie’s Love united the pair’s formidable efforts — as well as those of leading lady Tessa Thompson — to create a refreshing romance that intentionally evokes the glossy melodrama of classic Hollywood. The collaborators joined THR for a conversation about their commitment to get everything recognizably right and to tell a story audiences hadn’t seen before. Tell me about the beginnings of your…

It’s almost anticlimactic for Michaela Coel’s universally acclaimed magnum opus to land in the limited field more than a year after premiering and being overlooked by so many other awards shows. But it also makes sense. It’s hardly a traditional comedy, and the parameters of drama don’t quite track either. Now it’ll settle for being the wild card and low-key favorite in a category where, in any other year, Mare of Easttown or The Queen’s Gambit would have very easily walked away with it all.…

Despite breaking Netflix viewership records and raising star Anya Taylor-Joy to the A-list, The Queen’s Gambit’s path to success was as unlikely and hard-won as that of its protagonist. Executive producer William Horberg does not exaggerate when he says, albeit jokingly, that it “took 30 years to get paid.” From novel to seven-part Netflix series, the story of orphan chess prodigy Beth Harmon (Taylor-Joy) and her battles with addiction, rival players and a slew of condescending men changed hands many times before it ended up with writer-director Scott Frank. Only two people saw the project through from beginning to end: co-creator and EP Allan Scott and Horberg. Horberg recently spoke with THR about how his Emmy-nominated original song came to be, working with the world’s greatest chess players and why…

An Oscar-winning director’s adaptation of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about race in America, released in 2021? There are almost too many expectations to cram into one project without sinking it under the weight. But Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad easily won critics over when it premiered in May. If it has a handicap, it might be visibility. Anecdotally, Hollywood players haven’t flocked to the series in the same way they have its more commercial competition.…

In this scene from The Flight Attendant’s first episode, Cassie (Kaley Cuoco) returns to the scene of the crime at the center of the HBO Max comedy series’ murder-mystery plot: the Bangkok hotel suite where she discovers Alex (Michiel Huisman), who has been brutally killed at some point the night before, during Cassie’s alcohol-induced blackout. But this is not really the hotel suite — it’s Cassie’s “mind palace,” where she returns frequently throughout the series to process the trauma she has experienced and figure out what happened to Alex. “It’s a structure that you can build in your head to help you concentrate on things, remember things, visualize things,” explains Steve Yockey of this seemingly otherworldly version of the hotel suite. It was not a device novelist Chris Bohjalian used…

Amazon’s Uncle Frank stars Paul Bettany as Frank Bledsoe, a gay professor of literature living in early ’70s New York City with his partner, Wally (Peter Macdissi). Having left behind a close-knit family in his native Creekville, South Carolina, Frank lives semi-openly as a gay man in New York while keeping the rest of the Bledsoe clan in the dark about his sexuality — that is, until his niece Beth (Sophia Lillis) arrives in the city for college and stumbles upon Frank’s secret life. When Frank’s father dies suddenly, Beth and Wally persuade him to return to Creekville for the funeral — and the three embark on a road trip so that Frank can confront his past. The trip triggers the memories of an early relationship with another young boy,…

Embedding itself in the zeitgeist almost as soon as it premiered on Netflix in 2020, it truly seemed like checkmate for Scott Frank’s cerebral yet addictively watchable period chess drama. Golden Globe wins for the miniseries and lead Anya Taylor-Joy were never in doubt, and Emmy love seemed just as inevitable. And while it’s still favored to win, the category’s robust showing this year may make the path to victory a bit more complicated.…

The next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, by far the most lucrative entertainment franchise in the world, quietly started in January … with a TV show. WandaVision, a meditation on grief disguised as a genre-bending ode to several decades’ worth of TV sitcoms, laid the groundwork for not just the coming barrage of Marvel series on Disney+ — but several MCU films to follow. It did that, care of creator Jac Schaeffer, while simultaneously pulling some praiseworthy performances from leads Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany. The project is up for 23 Emmy nominations, more than any other limited series, including mentions for its two lead performers and supporting scene-stealer Kathryn Hahn. Its haul is all the more impressive when one considers that Marvel’s entire film franchise, with $23 billion…

Renée Elise Goldsberry is among the more interesting Emmy contenders this year. She’s nominated — but not for the hilarious and celebrated performance she recently delivered in the Peacock comedy Girls5eva. No, Goldsberry is up for her Tony-winning portrayal of Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton — one she delivered in two taped performances in 2016 and finally released via Disney+ last year. A win would bring her one letter closer to achieving that enviable EGOT status — that’s an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony — but she’s not counting her acronyms before they’ve hatched. I can’t believe I’m talking to someone on EGOT watch. You could only have one letter, and you get on the EGOT watch. You have two! You’re on the path. Let me tell you,…

I May Destroy You is both a case of art imitating life and life imitating art. Michaela Coel’s masterful HBO limited series — which centers on a British writer named Arabella (Coel) who is dealing with the fallout of sexual assault, along with myriad other subjects — is rooted in her own experiences to the point that it’s tricky to tell where Bella stops and where Michaela begins. Conversely, Coel’s writing also has carried into real life — both in her close relationships with onscreen best friends Terry (Weruche Opia) and Kwame (Paapa Essiedu) and in the fact that fans regularly approach her in public to express their gratitude, as they do to her character in the show. One year after I May Destroy You debuted to sonorous acclaim, the…

Kate Winslet? Check. A highbrow murder mystery? Check. Regional American accents? Check. Mare of Easttown satisfies so many of the traditional requirements for an Emmy-worthy miniseries. And in any other year, that would be more than enough. But the limited series field is by far the most competitive it’s ever been. Both Mare and Kate will have to beat back the women, real and fictional, of I May Destroy You, The Queen’s Gambit and WandaVision if either expects to come out on top.…

Awards have been the elusive final frontier for Disney’s Marvel fare, which has dominated the box office (if not formal accolades) for well over a decade. Its TV efforts, however, may mark a turning point for the commercially unrivaled franchise. Inaugural series WandaVision has a wild 23 nominations, outperformed only by The Mandalorian and The Crown. And, unlike a lot of genre fare, it’s getting just as much love in sexier categories as it is in crafts.…

Harry Belafonte is one win away from attaining EGOT status — winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony in competition (though he did receive an honorary Oscar in 2015, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award). His first of those wins, a Tony in 1954 for a supporting role in John Murray Anderson’s Almanac, was followed by an Emmy in 1960 for outstanding performance in a variety or musical program for The Revlon Revue: Tonight With Belafonte. The actor-singer became the first Black person to win an Emmy, beating out competition from Another Evening With Fred Astaire and Dinah Shore Chevy Show. His appearance on the hourlong CBS variety show, which in other episodes featured the likes of Chita Rivera, Peggy Lee and Jack Cole participating in music and comedy sketches, has…