At the bottom of this page are IndieWire Deputy TV Editor Ben Travers’ predictions for Best TV Movie. This article will be updated throughout the season, along with all our predictions, so make sure to keep checking IndieWire for the latest news from the 2020 race. Voting for the 2021 Emmy nominations was held from June 17 through June 28 (with polls closing at 10 p.m. PT). Emmy nominations were announced Tuesday, July 13. The Creative Arts Emmy Awards will be given out Saturday, September 11 and Sunday, September 12. The 73rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will take place Sunday, September 19. CBS is broadcasting the ceremony.
The State of the Race
The 73rd Emmy eligibility calendar runs from June 1, 2020 through May 31, 2021, which means theaters in Los Angeles and New York were shut down for at least two-thirds of TV’s calendar year. So, like it or not, audiences watched a vast majority of new movies released in that time from the comfort and safety of home. Perhaps they relished the opportunity to immediately rewatch Charlie Kaufman’s mind-bending Netflix film, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.” Or they thanked their chosen deity that they didn’t have to wrangle the kiddos out of the house on December 25 to go see Pixar’s “Soul.” Perhaps some even appreciated the unique combination of electricity and intimacy provided by Regina King’s “One Night in Miami…”
Regardless, there were lots of reasons to appreciate the convenience, artistry, and utmost necessity of television, as it relates to seeing movies, over the past year and change. But the Outstanding TV Movie category won’t be honoring them — at least not in a complete sense. Listen, I’m not going to sit here and debate what’s a TV movie and what’s a movie movie, partly because I already did that, but mainly because the designation is broken. Movies are just movies. The Oscars still cling to outdated qualifying requirements tied to the business of filmmaking; essentially, if a movie was released in theaters or was intended to be released in theaters, it qualified for the most recent Academy Awards. That leaves very few films out of the Oscars, and thus leaves very few films to compete at the Emmys. Luckily, some of these movies are very good. But so long as this category feels like digging for gold in a scrapyard, the honor of winning won’t lead to that many more people seeing the chosen movie. That still leaves the ever-popular Dolly Parton in “Christmas on the Square,” which marks the third Parton film in the last five years to be nominated for Best TV Movie (following “Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love” in 2017 and “Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings: These Old Bones” in 2020). While a long shot to be sure, “Christmas on the Square” is one of only two nominees with more than one nomination: Both the Lifetime film and HBO’s “Oslo” snagged two total nominations, while the rest of the category’s films only saw recognition in this category.
It’s doubtful two nods vs. one will make a difference, whether it’s in deciding this race or in earning attention for these five films. So, what will emerge victorious among them? And will that solo time on stage help boost exposure for one of these widely available films? Only time will tell, even if it’s already clear the TV Academy needs to rework this category. Power Rankings: Will Win: “Sylvie’s Love” Could Win: “Oslo” Should Win: “Sylvie’s Love” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
