We are going to replace this text all through the season, together with all our predictions, so be certain to maintain checking IndieWire for the most recent information from the 2025 Emmys race. The nomination spherical of voting takes place from June 12 to June 23, with the official Emmy nominations introduced Tuesday, July 15. Afterwards, closing voting commences on August 18 and ends the evening of August 27. The 77th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards are set to happen on Sunday, September 14, and air reside on CBS at 8:00 p.m. ET/ 5:00 p.m. PT.
The State of the Race
The competitors for the Emmy for Excellent Documentary or Nonfiction Particular is so tight this 12 months that Hulu alone may fill the class with its contenders. A few of the ones which have made a splash to this point embody “Street Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Avenue Band,” the most recent collaboration between the New Jersey icon and director Thom Zimny, and Andrew McCarthy’s “Brats,” which permits the previous teen star to unpack the expertise of him and his friends receiving a lot consideration.
However the frontrunner for Hulu might be “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius),” Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson’s long-awaited observe as much as his Oscar-winning documentary “Summer time of Soul.” Like its predecessor, “Sly Lives!” was a Sundance breakout, however then, considerably out of the blue, “Girls and Gents… 50 Years of SNL Music,” which was additionally co-directed by Questlove and Oz Rodriguez premiered on Peacock in late January, inside per week of the musician-turned-filmmaker’s competition movie.
Clearly, when one is submitting a movie for a competition, or making a venture that’s pegged to an occasion like “SNL50,” they don’t have a lot management over what premieres when. However fortunately for Questlove, the movies appear to be they complement one another, due to this fact giving him a reasonably good probability of being nominated twice on this Emmy class. That’s already the case for him on the upcoming Gotham TV Awards.
Transferring from a person filmmaker to community’s documentary slates as a complete, everybody equally has about two specials that might realistically make the lower, making it all of the extra more durable on voters to resolve. As an illustration, Netflix campaigned each “Will & Harper” and “Martha” for Oscars, regardless of the Academy’s distaste for any celebrity-focused documentaries. The Tv Academy is extra keen to come back by for these varieties of movies, placing Netflix in robust standing.
Similar with Disney+, the place its documentary “Music by John Williams” is acquainted to the awards voting crowd by way of its Oscar marketing campaign, which included opening the 2024 AFI Pageant, however one in every of its different submissions “Beatles ’64” builds upon the momentum arrange by “The Beatles: Get Again,” which gained the docuseries Emmy for Disney+ three years in the past.
After which Apple TV+ has “Deaf President Now!,” co-directed by Davis Guggenheim, who gained this class two years in the past for “Nonetheless,” and “Quantity One on the Name Sheet,” which options nearly each Black actor that has led a significant movie or TV venture in the previous few a long time, together with the particular’s govt producer Jamie Foxx.
HBO has positioned itself as a vacation spot for documentaries greater than some other community, however appears essentially the most agency in “Pee Wee as Himself” being its high contender, even when there are different robust choices like “Music Field: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary” or “Clever Guys: David Chase and The Sopranos.” Amazon Prime Video and Paramount+ additionally boast longer slates, however have an emphasis on “I Am: Celine Dion” and “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” respectively.
Will probably be fascinating to see, as campaigning kicks into excessive gear, which initiatives voters will finally gravitate towards as a result of the networks may use some assist deciding which of their movies is an actual winner on this extremely robust 12 months for documentary specials.
Present Contenders (In Alphabetical Order):
“Beatles ’64” (Disney+)
“Brats” (Hulu)
“¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” (Paramount+)
“Deaf President Now!” (Apple TV+)
“I Am: Celine Dion” (Prime Video)
“Girls and Gents… 50 Years of SNL Music” (Peacock)
“Final Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna” (Hulu)
“Martha” (Netflix)
“Music Field: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary” (HBO)
“Music by John Williams” (Disney+)
“Quantity One on the Name Sheet” (Apple TV+)
“Pee Wee as Himself” (HBO)
“Street Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Avenue Band” (Hulu)
“Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)” (Hulu)
“Will & Harper” (Netflix)
Extra Class Predictions:
Excellent Animated Program
Excellent Discuss Sequence
Excellent Scripted Selection Sequence
Excellent Documentary or Nonfiction Sequence
View IndieWire’s full set of predictions for the 77th Emmy Awards.
Final 12 months’s Winner: “Jim Henson Concept Man”
Nonetheless Eligible: No.
Sizzling Streak: Having “Beatles” in your venture’s title definitely strikes worry into the networks one is campaigning in opposition to, so there may be completely an opportunity Disney+ wins the Documentary Particular a second 12 months in a row for “Beatles ’64.” Much less of an opportunity for “Music by John Williams,” however something is feasible.
Notable Ineligible Sequence: “Black Field Diaries” (ineligible as a 2025 Oscar nominee); “Sugarcane” (ineligible as a 2025 Oscar nominee); “Daughters” (the movie was not submitted for Primetime Emmys consideration); “The Reality vs. Alex Jones” (the movie was not submitted for Primetime Emmys consideration)