'Game of Thrones' already a big winner at the Emmy Awards

While the prime-time telecast is tonight, the technical awards were already presented last Sunday.  Ace Show Biz reports 'Game of Thrones' Dominates With Eight Wins at 2015 Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

HBO wins big with 29 awards including eight from 'Game of Thrones' while NBC follows with 11 gongs including four from 'SNL' 40th anniversary special.

Here are the fantasy series' wins:

• Outstanding Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic): "Game of Thrones"
• Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary or Fantasy Program (One Hour or More): "Game of Thrones"
• Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series: "Game of Thrones"
• Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series: "Game of Thrones"
• Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series: "Game of Thrones"
• Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour): "Game of Thrones"
• Outstanding Special Visual Effects: "Game of Thrones"
• Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Drama Series, Limited Series or Movie): "Game of Thrones"

The other big winner at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards was "American Horror Story: Freak Show" with five trophies for FX:

• Outstanding Makeup for a Limited Series or a Movie (Non-Prosthetic): "American Horror Story: Freak Show"
• Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Limited Series, Movie or a Special: "American Horror Story: Freak Show"
• Outstanding Costumes for a Period/Fantasy Series, Limited Series or Movie: "American Horror Story: Freak Show"
• Outstanding Hairstyling for a Limited Series or a Movie: "American Horror Story: Freak Show"
• Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Supporting Role: "American Horror Story: Freak Show"

Unfortunately, that was pretty much it for live-action speculative fiction last Sunday night.  Both "Penny Dreadful" and "The Walking Dead" were shut out; two of the latter's nominations went either to "Game of Thrones" (stunts and sound editing) and two to "American Horror Story" (special effects and makeup) while Penny Dreadful's categories went to "American Horror Story" (makeup), "Transparent" (theme music), and "House of Cards" (music composition).  The closest "The Walking Dead" got was Chris Hardwick, who hosts "Talking Dead," winning Social TV Experience for "@Midnight."  At least I can be happy for Chris, who deserves an award for his work somewhere.

The only other other Speculative Fiction show that won an award was "Adventure Time," which was crowned "Outstanding Short-Form Animated Program."  Good choice, but otherwise nothing.  I'll have to wait until tomorrow night to see if "Game of Thrones" wins its seven remaining categories, "American Horror Story" wins its remaining four, and "Last Man on Earth" wins any of its three.  That's pretty much it for SF tomorrow.

Follow over the jump for my comments on winners in other genres.

Three other winners deserve recognition here.  On the serious side, "Citizenfour," which I mentioned twice before, won for "Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking."  It can add that to its Oscar for "Best Feature Length Documentary."  The other documentary award went to "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief."  In addition to "Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special," it also won "Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming" and "Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming."  Both shows are ones that I'm going to add to my Neflix/Amazon/HBO Go queues.

On the silly side, Katy Perry's Super Bowl Halftime show won for "Outstanding Costumes for a Variety Program or Special."  I had no idea I was watching something that excellent at the time!

As for the rest of the categories, Prime Time on YouTube presents the highlights in Creative Arts Emmy Awards 2015.

Creative Arts Emmy Awards with exclusive access to all of the evening's winners and presenters including Derek and Julianne Hough, Jane Lynch, Peter Facinelli, Chris Hardwick, Anthony Bourdain, Margo Martindale, Fred Willard, Scott Aukerman, and many more. Find out where Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series winner, Reg E. Cathey, is keeping his new golden statuette.

While I was rooting for Michael J. Fox to win Outstanding Actor in a Guest Role for his work in "The Good Wife," I'm not unhappy that someone from "House of Cards" did instead.  The same for the Guest Actress winner from "The Americans."  All three are at the intersection of politics and crime, and all three are outstanding shows that my wife and I have watched and will watch again.

Stay tuned for another post about tonight's awards program in which I plan to follow up on the shows and performers I listed as my favorites in 2015 Critics' Choice Awards, Speculative Fiction, Politics, Crime, and History.  Here's hoping at least some of them win.