Beatles doco hit at Emmys
Sir Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary, Get Back, has won all five categories it was nominated for in the 2022 Emmys. Jackson has also won the Emmy for Outstanding Directing of a documentary/nonfiction Programme.
The eight-hour, three-part doco is nominated in five categories at the Creative Arts Emmys, which are announced over two days ahead of the full Emmy ceremony on Wednesday.
In an email from Los Angeles, co-producer Clare Olssen said they had ‘‘an absolutely incredible evening’’ at the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony.
‘‘The Beatles: Get Back was a labour of love for our crew.
‘‘I am so thrilled to see the phenomenal work of Peter, our editor and sound team recognised by the academy.
‘‘A dozen Emmy statues will be on their way home to New Zealand shortly.’’
Get Back beat out Netflix’s The Andy Warhol Diaries and jeenyuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, HBO’S 100 Foot Wave, and the documentary tipped to beat Jackson’s epic, Showtime’s We Need To Talk About Cosby. Jackson pipped director Andrew Rossi for The Andy Warhol Diaries; comedy legends Judd Apatow for George Carlin’s American Dream, and Amy Poehler for Lucy And Desi; Ian Denyer for Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy, and W. Kamau Bell for We Need To Talk About Cosby.
Get Back editor Jabez Olssen won Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Programme, beating George Carlin’s American Dream, Lucy And Desi, Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy, Netflix’s The Tinder Swindler, and We Need To Talk About Cosby.
Ahead of the awards, editor Jabez Olssen said working on the film had been ‘‘one of the great privileges of my career’’.
The film has also won Outstanding Sound Editing For A Nonfiction Or Reality Programme, for Wingnut Films’ Martin Kwok, Emile De La Rey, Matt Stutter, Michael Donaldson, Stephen Gallagher, Tane Upjohn-beatson, Music Editor; Simon Riley; and Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Nonfiction Or Reality Programme for Michael Hedges, Brent Burge, Alexis Feodoroff, and Giles Martin.
It is understood Jackson and some of the Wingnut Films team are in the US for the ceremony, which is not being screened live.
A highlights package will appear during the full Emmy Awards ceremony on Wednesday.
Industry paper Variety tipped Jackson to win the directing category for Part 3: Days 17-22, the final episode of the documentary, and Get Back to win each of the categories it was in.
It noted the Wellington-made doco could be nudged out by Showtime’s zeitgeist-tapping, UScentric We Need to Talk About Cosby, however.
An early winner on the day was late Marvel star Chadwick Boseman, who won Outstanding Character Voice-over
Performance for his role as Star Lord T’challa, in the animated Disney+ show What If...?, for the episode, What If... T’challa Became A Star-lord?, and former US President Barack Obama, who won
Outstanding Narrator for Our Great National Parks.
The documentary is compiled from hundreds of hours of visual and audio film made during the recording of Let It Be, at a period when the legendary band was close to breaking up, and tensions were high.
Jackson has managed to tease a tense, engaging narrative from the recordings, including cliffhanger episode endings, and a moving live recording of the band’s last public performance together, with Stuff reviewer James Croot describing it as ‘‘stunning’’.