GoT, black actors shine at Creative Arts Emmy Awards

“Games Of Thrones” got the maximum honours with seven wins out of its 15 announced categories at the first night of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which hit a diversity milestone as black actors swept all guest categories.

“Westworld” co-creator/executive producer Jonathan Nolan noted the dominance of “Game of Thrones” as he picked up his trophy for interactive media within a scripted program.

He expressed his thanks to “Game of Thrones” showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff “for wrapping up so the rest of us can win some f***ing Emmys”, reported variety.com.

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace” took four statuettes, and “The Crown”, “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” followed with three awards each at the gala here on Saturday night.

Guest acting honours went to Tiffany Haddish for “Saturday Night Live”, Ron Cephas Jones for “This Is Us”, Samira Wiley for “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Katt Williams for “Atlanta”.

The award for outstanding television movie went to “USS Callister”, the first episode of the fourth instalment of anthology series “Black Mirror”. “USS Callister” also won outstanding sound editing for limited series, movie or special.

Awards were given out in 53 categories, honoring outstanding technical and creative achievement for scripted programming, including comedy, drama and limited series, while the ceremony on Sunday will cover the remaining 26 categories in animation, documentary, reality and variety programming.

Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Lynch, Carol Burnett, RuPaul Charles, Bryan Cranston and the cast of Fuller House were among the presenters for the awards.

The Governors Award was given to “Star Trek”.

Clips from “Star Trek” over the years rolled out on the screen.

Celebrity scientist Bill Nye said: “We could go on and on celebrating Star Trek’s social and cultural influences but time and space does not permit. ‘Star Trek’ may have started out as an entertainment series but it changed the world.” Over 100 crew members from “Star Trek: Discovery” were at the event.

Actor William Shatner said: “Thank you so much. 52 years. What a gift. We’re grateful… ‘Star Trek’ has endured because it represents an idea – one that’s greater than the sum of our parts… We watch and we reach to see the best version of ourselves… ‘Star Trek’ is a phenomenon….I accept this award with honour.”

IANS