Can Daniel Radcliffe earn an Emmy nomination for the comedy film “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story“? Or even win? The Roku film, a parody of music biopics, is an unconventional awards contender — after all, it satirizes a certain kind of awards bait movie project. But it could also be noteworthy by bringing awards attention to the underappreciated telefilm format.
As limited series and anthologies have taken precedence in the industry, TV movies have mostly been pushed aside at the Emmys. Consider that last year’s five nominees for Best TV Movie — “Ray Donovan: The Movie.” “Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnon ,” “The Survivor,” “Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas,” and ultimate winner “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers” — had no other nominations in any other categories.
That’s a far cry from just a few years ago. Consider that just in 2013 “Behind the Candelabra” swept the Emmys with 11 wins including Best Miniseries or Movie. That was during a three-year stretch when there were so few miniseries being made that the two categories were combined, with telefilms winning two out of the three times. The very next year “Sherlock: His Last Vow” won seven Emmys, more than any other program that year. The year after that “Bessie” won four Emmys out of 12 nominations.
But things changed after that. “Sherlock: The Abominable Bride” won in 2016, but it only had six total nominations. Then from 2017 to 2019 the category was dominated by standalone episodes of an anthology show, “Black Mirror,” locking out traditional TV films. In 2020 the Best TV Movie was “Bad Education,” a prestigious HBO acquisition that had only one other nomination for lead actor Hugh Jackman. The 2021 winner was “Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square,” which was relegated to Best TV Movie and Best Choreography for Scripted Programming nominations and wins. And the aforementioned “Rescue Rangers” had no other nominations in 2022.
The drop in recognition for TV movies has been precipitous. But perhaps “Weird” can reverse that trend. It won Best TV Movie and Best Movie/Limited Actor for Radcliffe at the Critics Choice Awards. It won Producers Guild and American Cinema Editors Awards. It was nominated by the Directors Guild, which combined movies and limited series in one category just like the Emmys do for their directing award. And as of this writing Radcliffe ranks third in our Emmy predictions for Best Movie/Limited Actor based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users. Radcliffe is actually ahead of an actor in a real, dramatic music biopic, Michael Shannon in “George and Tammy.”
So can “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” and Radcliffe really reverse the trend of struggling telefilms at the Emmys?
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