If you’ve been hearing a faint roar of enthusiasm all weekend, it’s not from the various football games that have been going on. It’s actually from TV fans celebrating the arrival of Emmys Season, with the Creative Arts Emmys happening this weekend and the real, grown-up Emmys happening a week from tonight. But what are the Creative Arts Emmys? Well, they’re like the regular Emmys but there are fewer famous people and some of the characters are not particularly interesting to the general public—as intelligent pop culture fans, we understand that the winner of Best Lighting Design/Direction For A Variety Special deserves recognition, but not everyone is so open-minded. Also, the constant pressure from advertisers means there’s only so much time at the actual Emmys for awards, so even seemingly important stuff like Best Animated Program gets dumped on the two-night Creative Arts Emmys.
In terms of highlights for the 2019 ceremonies, night one saw Norman Lear become the oldest person to ever win an Emmy at 97 (he won the Best Variety Special (Live) award for ABC’s All In The Family and The Jeffersons special), and Rachel Bloom announced that she was pregnant after winning the Best Original Music And Lyrics Emmy alongside her Crazy Ex-Girlfriend colleagues Adam Schlesinger and Jack Dolgen. Also: Hannah Gadsby won an Emmy for Nanette, The Simpsons won the Animated Program award, Queer Eye from for Structured Reality Program, and Free Solo contributed to the controversial blurring of TV and movie lines by winning a number of non-fiction Emmys.
On night two, Bradley Whitford won the Guest Appearance award for his stint on The Handmaid’s Tale, making him the first actor to ever get that Emmy for both drama and comedy (having previously won for Transparent), and in his speech he noted that award shows are not “arenas of justice” since Fleabag’s Hot Priest didn’t get a nomination. After that, everything is sort of a big, dragon-sized blur because Game Of Thrones seriously won a literal ton of Creative Arts Emmys (or at least 10) and that’s all before the major categories next week, so it stands to win even more. Chernobyl and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel also won a good amount, but this is definitely Thrones’ year (again).
The full list of winners—and it’s a long one—is below.
2019 Creative Arts Emmys Winners
Variety Special (live): Live In Front Of A Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All In The Family And The Jeffersons
Variety Special (pre-recorded): Carpool Karaoke: When Corden Met McCartney Live From Liverpool
Choreography For Variety Or Reality Programming: Tessandra Chavez, World Of Dance
Production Design For A Variety Special: Rent
Production Design For A Variety, Reality Or Competition Series: Saturday Night Live
Structured Reality Program: Queer Eye
Short Form Variety Series: Carpool Karaoke: The Series
Short Form Animated Program: Love, Death & Robots
Picture Editing For A Nonfiction Program: Bob Eisenhardt, Free Solo
Narrator: Sir David Attenborough, Our Planet
Music Composition For A Documentary Series Or Special (original Dramatic Score): Marco Beltrami, Brandon Roberts, Free Solo
Music Direction: Alex Lacamoire, Fosse/Verdon
Original Music And Lyrics: Adam Schlesinger, Rachel Bloom, Jack Dolgen, “Antidepressants Are So Not A Big Deal,” Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Creative Achievement In Interactive Media Within An Unscripted Program: Free Solo
Interactive Program: NASA And SpaceX: The Interactive Demo-1 Launch (YouTube)
Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control For A Special: Late Late Show Carpool Karaoke Primetime Special 2019
Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control For A Series: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
Short Form Nonfiction Or Reality Series: Creating Saturday Night Live
Writing For A Variety Special: Hannah Gadsby, Nanette
Writing For A Nonfiction Program: Anthony Bourdain, Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown
Motion Design: Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj
Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking: (tie) RBG; The Sentence
Informational Series Or Special: Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown
Documentary Or Nonfiction Special: Leaving Neverland
Documentary Or Nonfiction Series: Our Planet
Makeup For A Multi-camera Series Or Special (non-prosthetic): Saturday Night Live
Hairstyling For A Multi-camera Series Or Special: Hector Pocasangre, RuPaul’s Drag Race
Costumes For Variety, Nonfiction Or Reality Programming: Zaldy Goco, Art Conn, RuPaul’s Drag Race
Directing For A Reality Program: Hisham Abed, Queer Eye
Casting For A Reality Program: Queer Eye
Directing For A Documentary/nonfiction Program: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Free Solo
Directing For A Variety Special: Thom Zimny, Springsteen On Broadway
Animated Program: The Simpsons
Character Voice-over Performance: Seth MacFarlane, Family Guy
Picture Editing For Variety Programming: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
PIcture Editing For An Unstructured Reality Program: United Shades Of America With W. Kamau Bell
Picture Editing For A Structured Reality Or Competition Program: Queer Eye
Sound Mixing For A Variety Series Or Special: Aretha! A Grammy Celebration For The Queen Of Soul
Sound Mixing For A Nonfiction Program (single Or Multi-camera): Free Solo
Sound Editing For A Nonfiction Program (single Or Multi-camera): Free Solo
Lighting Design/direction For A Variety Special: Rent
Lighting Design/direction For A Variety Series: Saturday Night Live
Host For A Reality Or Competition Program: RuPaul, RuPaul’s Drag Race
Unstructured Reality Program: United Shades Of America With W. Kamau Bell
Cinematography For A Nonfiction Program: Free Solo
Cinematography For A Reality Program: Life Below Zero
Guest Actress In A Drama Series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Cherry Jones
Prosthetic Makeup For A Limited Series, Movie Or Special: Star Trek: Discovery
Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (half Hour) And Animation: Barry
Guest Actor In A Comedy Series: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Luke Kirby
Sound Mixing For A Limited Series Or Movie: Chernobyl, “1:23:45"
Production Design For A Narrative Contemporary Program (one Hour Or More): The Handmaid’s Tale
Production Design For A Narrative Period Or Fantasy Program (one Hour Or More): Chernobyl
Sound Editing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (one Hour): Game Of Thrones
Production Design For A Narrative Program (half Hour): Russian Doll, “Nothing In This World Is Easy”
Sound Editing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (half Hour) And Animation: Barry
Special Visual Effects In A Supporting Role: Chernobyl, “1:23:45"
Special Visual Effects: Game Of Thrones, “The Bells”
Children’s Program: When You Wish Upon A Pickle: A Sesame Street Special
Multi-camera Picture Editing For A Comedy Series: One Day At A Time, “The Funeral”
Single-camera Picture Editing For A Limited Series Or Movie: Chernobyl, “Please Remain Calm”
Fantasy/sci-fi Costumes: Game Of Thrones, “The Bells”
Contemporary Costumes: Russian Doll, “Superiority Complex”
Period Costumes: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, “We’re Going To The Catskills!”
Makeup For A Limited Series Or Movie (non-prosthetic): Fosse/Verdon
Makeup For A Single-camera Series (non-prosthetic): Game Of Thrones, “The Long Night”
Guest Actor In A Drama Series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Bradley Whitford
Cinematography For A Multi-camera Series: The Ranch
Cinematography For A Single-camera Series (one Hour): The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Stunt Coordination For A Drama Series, Limited Series Or Movie: Game Of Thrones
Stunt Coordination For A Comedy Series Or Variety Program: GLOW
Hairstyling For A Single-camera Series: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Hairstyling For A Limited Series Or Movie: Fosse/Verdon
Guest Actress In A Comedy Series: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Jane Lynch
Main Title Design: Game Of Thrones
Original Main Title Theme Music: Succession
Actor In Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series: State Of The Union, Chris O’Dowd
Creative Achievement In Interactive Media Within A Scripted Program: Bandersnatch (Black Mirror)
Original Interactive Program: NASA’s InSight Mars Landing
Commercial: “Dream Crazy,” Nike
Music Composition For A Series (original Dramatic Score): Game Of Thrones
Music Composition For A Limited Series, Movie Or Special (original Dramatic Score): Chernobyl
Music Supervision: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Casting For A Limited Series: When They See Us
Casting For A Comedy Series: Fleabag
Casting For A Drama Series: Game Of Thrones
Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series: State Of The Union
Single-camera Picture Editing For A Drama Series: Game Of Thrones, “The Long Night”
Single-camera Picture Editing For A Comedy Series: Fleabag, “Episode 1"
Cinematography For A Single-camera Series (half-hour): Russian Doll
Cinematography For A Limited Series Or Movie: Chernobyl
Actress In A Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series: State Of The Union, Rosamund Pike
Sound Editing For A Limited Series, Movie Or Special: Chernobyl, “1:23:45"
Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (one Hour): Game Of Thrones, “The Long Night”