The winners of the Documentary categories of the 42nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards are in tonight, with PBS once again topping the contenders with 10 wins, while Netflix nabbed four trophies.
The PBS documentary Belly of the Beast, which exposed eugenics and reproductive injustice in California prisons, won Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary honors. Showtime’s Kingdom of Silence, a look at journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s life, work, and murder, topped the Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary honors, while Netflix’s Athlete A, a study of the US Gymnastics scandal involving disgraced doctor Larry Nassar, came in as the Outstanding Investigative Documentary winner.
“Tonight, we celebrate these documentary professionals who in the unprecedented year of 2020
delivered the insightful, clear, factual and timely filmmaking necessary to make sense of the
tumultuous times that we live in,” said Adam Sharp, president & CEO, NATAS.
“In a year where we received more than 1,200 documentary entries, in an era where, thanks to the
advent of streaming television, more people can now see this amazing work on demand across our
nation, tonight we celebrate these brave filmmakers for opening their lens and our eyes to the world
around us and helping us to better understand the events that affect our everyday lives in
remarkable ways,” said Terry O’Reilly, Chairman, NATAS.
The ceremony was hosted by Sonja Sohn, CJ Hunt and June Cross, documentary filmmakers.
Below are the winners by program or network/platform. The complete list of Night 2 winners is below.