‘Making A Murderer’ Dominates At Creative Arts Emmys, Night 2

Jim Halterman September 11, 2016, 11:35 pm

On the second night of the Creative Arts Emmys, held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, Netflix docuseries Making A Murderer took the night with four statues in the Outstanding Directing, Writing, Picture Editing and Documentary or Non-Fiction Series.

The 10-episode series, which had its share of critics who challenged its accuracy, documented the compelling case of Steven Avery and events that continue surround it today. Do the awards help bring a sense of vindication against those naysayers? Not really, said co-writer/producer/directors Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos after their multiple wins. “We have always said the show’s best friend is the public record,” Ricciardi said. “If anyone wanted to challenge any choices we made they could go and check the public record themselves but we worked on this for a decade and we that were are as diligent and thorough and accurate as possible so we are proud of the work, proud of our team and we’re grateful to everyone that participated in the making of the series.”

Given the story in Making A Murderer is continuing to unfold, Demos added that she and Ricciardi are definitely not finished telling it. “Things are happening and we’re following those events as they unfold. As you follow things as they’re unfolding, of course you can’t tell the future, you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen but that’s part of the process. We have other projects, we’re developing a scripted project at this time and we’re looking at other options as well.”

Of those upcoming projects, Ricciardi revealed, “We are working on adapting a docuseries written by Steven Brill that was published in the Huffington Post last fall, it’s called America’s Most Admired Lawbreaker and producers are [George Clooney’s] Smokehouse and the financier is Sonar.” The project is in the development stage, she said, and is not set up at a network yet.

Also a winner during the ceremony was FXX’s Archer, which took the Outstanding Animated Series statue for the first time. Executive producer Matt Thompson explained backstage, “This is our third nomination so I had just told myself, ‘Oh, we lost!’ but it feels completely different to win something as it does to lose.”

Asked about the success of the animated series—which has gone through several reinventionsover the years, including the most recent season where the agents moved to Los Angeles to become private investigators—Thompson gave kudos to series creator Adam Reed, who was not present for the ceremony. “He wants to keep himself interested and the way he keeps himself interested is slightly tweaking his own formula, which he keeps doing again and again.” The show is not done with retooling and executive producer Casey Willis teased the upcoming eighth season will take the gang back in time to the year 1947.

Other notable wins include three Emmys for both Fox’s Grease: Live and documentary film Cartel Land (which aired on A&E) and two statues for HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.

Here is the complete list of Creative Arts Emmy winners from Night 2:

Outstanding Informational Series Or Special
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

Outstanding Special Class Program
Grease: Live

Outstanding Choreography (tie)
Quest Crew
Kathryn Burns

Outstanding Structured Reality Program
Shark Tank

Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program
Born This Way

Outstanding Cinematography For A Reality Program
Life Below Zero

Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Reality-Competition Program
RuPaul’s Drag Race – RuPaul Charles

Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control For A Series
Dancing With the Stars

Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control For A Limited Series, Movie Or Special
Grease: Live

Outstanding Actress In A Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series
Patrika Darbo

Outstanding Makeup For A Multi-Camera Series Or Special (Non-Prosthetic)
Key & Peele

Outstanding Hairstyling For A Multi-Camera Series Or Special
Saturday Night Live

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Nonfiction Program (Single Or Multi-Camera)
Vice • Fighting Isis

Outstanding Sound Editing For A Nonfiction Program (Single Or Multi-Camera)
Cartel Land

Outstanding Cinematography For A Nonfiction Program
Cartel Land

Outstanding Production Design For A Variety, Nonfiction, Reality Or Reality-Competition Series
Portlandia

Outstanding Production Design For A Variety, Nonfiction, Event Or Award Special
Grease: Live

Outstanding Actor In A Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series
Rob Corddry, Childrens Hospital

Outstanding Costumes For Variety, Nonfiction Or Reality Programming
The Wiz Live!

Outstanding Picture Editing For A Structured Or Competition Reality Program
Who Do You Think You Are? • Bryan Cranston

Outstanding Picture Editing For An Unstructured Reality Program
Project Greenlight • Accident Waiting To Happen

Governors Award
American Idol

Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction Or Reality Series
Inside Look: The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

Outstanding Short Form Variety Series
Park Bench with Steve Buscemi

Outstanding Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series
Childrens Hospital

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Variety Series Or Special
Danny Elfman’s Music From the Films of Tim Burton (Live From Lincoln Center)

Outstanding Picture Editing For Variety Programming
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction For A Variety Special
Grease: Live

Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction For A Variety Series
The Voice

Outstanding Individual Achievement In Animation – (Juried)
Jason Kolowski – Adventure Time • Bad Jubies
Tom Herpich – Adventure Time • Stakes Pt. 8: The Dark
Jason Carpenter – He Named Me Malala
Chris Tsirgiotis – Long Live the Royals • Punk Show
Scott Daros – Robot Chicken DC Comics Special

Outstanding Animated Program
Archer • The Figgis Agency

Outstanding Short Form Animated Program
Robot Chicken • Robot Chicken Christmas Special The X-Mas United

Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance
Seth MacFarlane

Outstanding Picture Editing For A Nonfiction Program
Making a Murderer

Outstanding Directing For A Nonfiction Program
Making a Murderer

Outstanding Writing For A Nonfiction Program
Making a Murderer

Outstanding Variety Special
The Late Late Show Carpool Karaoke Prime Time Special

Outstanding Writing For A Variety Series
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

Outstanding Directing For A Variety Series
Inside Amy Schumer

Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking (tie)
Cartel Land
Jim: The James Foley Story

Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Special
What Happened, Miss Simone?

Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series
Making a Murderer

Creative Arts Emmy Awards airs Saturday, September 17 at 8/7c on FXX. The Emmy Awards will be presented on Sunday, September 18 with host Jimmy Kimmel at 7/6c on ABC.