2024 Emmys Best Documentary or Nonfiction Special Predictions

We are going to replace this text all through the season, together with all our predictions, so be sure that to maintain checking IndieWire for the newest information from the 2024 Emmys race. The nomination spherical of voting takes place from June 13 to June 24, with the official Emmy nominations introduced Wednesday, July 17. Afterwards, closing voting commences on August 15 and ends the evening of August 26. The 76th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards are set to happen on Sunday, September 15, and air reside on ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET/ 5:00 p.m. PT.

Click on on for extra of our earlier ideas on what to anticipate on the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards.

The State of the Race

The Emmy nominations for Excellent Documentary or Nonfiction Special have been positively extra predictable than their counterparts on the sequence finish. Many of the tasks acknowledged match the mildew of what has received not too long ago, with one nominee “Girls State” even being the sequel to the 2021 winner “Boys State” (each movies are distributed by Apple TV+.)

Since then although, the winners have been profiles of popular culture icons that particularly made their mark within the TV house. “George Carlin’s American Dream” successful in 2022 bodes effectively for Disney+ and director Ron Howard’s possibilities to win for “Jim Henson Idea Man,” which equally takes a posthumous have a look at a artistic that blazed his personal path that also looms massive over right this moment’s tradition.

However the Emmys actually can take lots of campaigning, and “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life” had the facility to not solely deliver out the titular comedy legend for uncommon public appearances in promotion of the movie, however has been doing them along with his finest buddy Rob Reiner, a two-time Emmy winner, who directed the undertaking. The latest winner within the class, “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” is of the same ilk to the HBO documentary, the place a part of the enchantment to voters is having the topic of the movie out and about, reminding individuals why they fell in love along with his work within the first place.

“Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces,” one other nominee from Apple TV+ additionally suits that sort, however once more, these items can require some campaigning, and the undertaking’s topic is already very busy along with his different Emmy-nominated TV undertaking “Only Murders in the Building.” There’s a probability although that voters simply might really feel one thing is within the air, particularly with Martin’s massive Season 3 musical quantity getting an additional Emmy nomination for the Hulu sequence, inflicting them to really feel like now’s the right time to provide the comedic actor his flowers. It will even be the primary Emmy for director Morgan Neville, who has develop into an enormous identify within the documentary world after his 2014 Oscar win.

“The Greatest Night in Pop,” Netflix’s nominee directed by Bao Nguyen, is tons of enjoyable in its retelling of how “We Are the World” got here collectively, however the place it might fall quick in voters is that the tasks they appear interested in are extra in depth on a person’s physique of labor moderately than one which seize a cultural second involving a number of well-known events that might all have their very own documentaries.

Nominees are listed so as of their probability to win.

Energy Rankings:

“Albert Brooks: Defending My Life” (HBO)

“Jim Henson Idea Man” (Disney+)

“Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces” (Apple TV+)

“Girls State” (Apple TV+)

“The Greatest Night in Pop” (Netflix)

Will Win: “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life”May Win: “Jim Henson Idea Man”Ought to Win: “Jim Henson Idea Man”

Extra Class Predictions:Excellent Animated ProgramOutstanding Speak SeriesOutstanding Scripted Selection SeriesOutstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Sequence

View IndieWire’s full set of predictions for the 76th Emmy Awards.

Final 12 months’s Winner: “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie”Nonetheless Eligible: No.Scorching Streak: Ought to “Girls State” particularly win this class, it could not solely be two Emmys in a row for Apple TV+, however it could be one other win for the filmmakers, who made the undertaking as a observe as much as “Boys State,” the Emmy-winning documentary from 2020.Notable Ineligible Sequence: “20 Days in Mariupol” (ineligible as a 2024 Oscar nominee); “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” (ineligible as a 2024 Oscar nominee); “The Eternal Memory” (ineligible as a 2024 Oscar nominee); “To Kill a Tiger” (ineligible as a 2024 Oscar nominee); “Power” (the movie was not submitted for Emmys consideration); “Federer: Twelve Final Days” (the movie is not going to premiere in time to be eligible); “I Am: Celine Dion” (the movie is not going to premiere in time to be eligible)