Canadians pick up a bunch of Emmy nominations
TORONTO — Quebec director Jean-Marc Vallee, Toronto-born late-night comic Samantha Bee and Nova Scotia star Ellen Page are among this year's Canadian Emmy Award nominees.
Montreal-born Vallee has a nomination for directing HBO’s acclaimed limited series Big Little Lies, which got a total of 16 nods on Thursday.
David E. Kelley based the darkly comedic murder mystery on Liane Moriarty’s bestselling novel. The star-packed cast includes Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, Zoe Kravitz, Alexander Skarsgard, Adam Scott, and Nova Scotia native James Tupper.
Quebec cinematographer Yves Belanger, who has worked with Vallee on films including Wild and Dallas Buyers Club, also got a nomination. A number of other Canadians who worked on the show are competing in categories including best picture editing, sound mixing and contemporary costumes.
Alberta-shot Fargo, which picked up 16 nominations, also has a slew of Canadians in contention in categories including best casting, sound mixing, sound editing, hairstyling and non-prosthetic makeup.
Meanwhile, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee is up for best variety talk series, best writing for a variety series and best interactive program for its web content. Bee’s Not The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is also named in several variety-special categories.
Page got her second Emmy nod, as executive producer on Viceland’s Gaycation, which is up for best unstructured reality program, while Vice Media co-founder and executive producer Shane Smith got nominations in the best informational series or special and best documentary or nonfiction special categories.
“Being able to report on the forgotten stories, the underreported issues or follow important investigations even when they are out of the news cycle is a real blessing,” said Smith in a statement. “Now, more than ever, logical, nonpolitical, non-partisan news is vital.”
Other Canadians nominated for Emmys include Shawn Levy, a Montreal executive producer and director on Netflix’s Stranger Things, which earned 18 nominations. As a producer, he shares in the nomination for best drama series.
“The way it’s been embraced by fans, critics and now the Television Academy has turned our world upside down,” Levy said in a statement, "which is just the way we like it!"
Toronto-shot The Handmaid’s Tale, the muchheralded series based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel, picked up 13 nominations, including best drama series. A Canadian visual effects team is also nominated in the best special visual effects in a supporting role category. The Emmys will be staged on Sept. 17. The nominations also contained some notable snubs.
TBS’ Angie Tribeca, which packs as many belly laughs into each episode as any show on the air, went unrecognized for a second year?
Oprah Winfrey, whose starring performance in the HBO film The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks got an Emmy cold shoulder, as did her OWN network's drama Queen Sugar, for which she is an executive producer.