'Oslo' earned two nominations at the 2021 Emmy Awards

I finished 'RuPaul's Drag Race' leads competition program nominees at the 2021 Emmy Awards while modeling diversity and acceptance by telling my readers "Stay tuned for the television movie nominees as the next installment of the series." Here are the three categories at the 73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards with television movie nominees.

Outstanding Television Movie

Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square (Netflix)
Oslo (HBO)
Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia (Lifetime)
Sylvie's Love (Prime Video)
Uncle Frank (Prime Video)

The leading nominee is "Oslo," an adaptation of a Tony-winning play about the Oslo Peace Accords and one of only two nominees with another nomination. Watch Oslo: Official Trailer | HBO.

Adapted from the Tony Award-winning play of the same name, Oslo follows the secret back-channel talks, unlikely friendships, and quiet heroics of a small but committed group of Israelis and Palestinians, plus one Norwegian couple, that led to the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords. Oslo stars Ruth Wilson as Mona Juul, a Norwegian foreign minister, and Andrew Scott as Terje Rod-Larsen, a Norwegian sociologist and Mona’s husband. The film is written by Tony-winning writer of the stage play J.T. Rogers and will be directed by Barlett Sher (Tony winner for South Pacific).

Of all the nominees, "Oslo" has the strongest politics and government themes. For an inside view of the project, watch Gold Derby's interview, Emmy nominee Bartlett Sher ('Oslo' director) on bringing legendary peace negotiations to the screen.

Emmy nominee Bartlett Sher ('Oslo' director, producer) on bringing the legendary peace negotiations to the screen. The Tony winner chats with Gold Derby's Sam Eckmann about the HBO TV movie.

Bartlett Sher described both the genesis of the play and the process of adapting the play into a movie. I found his explanation of the differences of using space in the two media particularly interesting.

Now the second nominated category for "Oslo."

Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score)

Jeff Russo for Fargo (Episode: "East/West") (FX)
Jeff Russo and Zoë Keating for Oslo (HBO)
Carlos Rafael Rivera for The Queen's Gambit (Episode: "End Game") (Netflix)
Nicholas Britell for The Underground Railroad (Episode: "Chapter 2: South Carolina") (Prime Video)
Christophe Beck for WandaVision (Episode: "Previously On") (Disney+)

I present Oslo End Credits as a sample of the nominated work.



Oslo End Credits · Jeff Russo · Zoë Keating
Oslo (HBO® Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Gold Derby interviewed double nominee Jeff Russo ('Fargo,' 'Oslo,' 'Star Trek: Discovery' composer) talks 'visually evocative' scripts.

"That may actually be the longest piece of music I've ever written," reveals composer Jeff Russo about the nearly 12-minute track that he composed for the season four premiere of FX's Fargo. Set in Kansas City in 1950, the fourth installment of the anthology series used Russo's "opus" to tell the backstory of 50 years of mob family warfare, and Russo drew on the city's "jazz and blues flare" to situate the audience in the show's particular time and place. Watch Russo's full chat with Gold Derby's David Buchanan.

Russo certainly has the track record to win the award along with two chances to win, but he has stiff competition in 2019 Emmy winner Nicholas Britell, 2018 Emmy winner Carlos Rafael Rivera, and 1998 Emmy winner Christophe Beck. While I was personally impressed with Rivera's music for "The Queen's Gambit," I have a feeling that the groundswell will be for "WandaVision," a show about television that isn't about show business, but about the viewer experience. As I reiterate whenever I write about awards shows, electorates matter, and the Emmy electorate loves a good story about itself. "WandaVision" isn't really that, but it's close enough and I think that, all things being equal and they are with all nominated scores having an Emmy winner as one of its composers, that will influence the members of the Television Academy to vote for it, including in this category.

Follow over the jump for my discussion of the nominees I consider to be serious contenders for Emmys.


Based on its awards and nominations history, "Sylvie's Love" is the stronger of the two main competitors for "Oslo," as it earned two nominations at the 2021 Critics Choice Awards and won TV Movie at the Gold Derby TV Awards over a field that included "Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square" and "Uncle Frank" as well as "Oslo." "Sylvie's Love" is much less overtly political than "Oslo," but its IMDB description places it in context: "When a young woman meets an aspiring saxophonist in her father's record shop in 1950s Harlem, their love ignites a sweeping romance that transcends changing times, geography, and professional success." It certainly features diversity against a historical backdrop.


"Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square" is the other nominee with a second nomination at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

Outstanding Choreography for Scripted Programming

Debbie Allen for Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square (Netflix)
Dondraico Johnson for Genius: Aretha (Nat Geo)
Brooke Lipton for Lucifer (Netflix)
Mandy Moore and Luther Brown for Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (NBC)
Mandy Moore for Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (NBC)

"Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" is the returning winner, so I think it's the favorite. The only pitfall would be if the voters split their ballots and another nominee sneaks on by. As much as I'm rooting for "Lucifer," I think either "Genius: Aretha" or "Dolly Partons' Christmas on the Square" would benefit instead, but I'm not optimistic about this movie winning either of its nominated categories, as I consider it weaker than "Sylvie's Love."

Normally, I'd write about the limited series nominees next, but tomorrow is both the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the first night of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, so I have something else to blog about tomorrow and have run out of time. Darn. Creative Arts Emmy winners should be next in the series. Stay tuned.

Previous posts in this series

• Diversity one of the themes of the Outstanding Commercial nominees at the 2021 Emmy Awards
• 'The Social Dilemma' leads documentaries at the Emmy Awards with seven nominations
• 'Allen v. Farrow' leads documentary and nonfiction series at the Emmy Awards with seven nominations
• Quibi's last Emmy nominations are also Roku's first as the network was canceled but the shows were renewed
• It's Saturday night, so here are the 21 Emmy nominations for 'Saturday Night Live'
• 'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver' leads Outstanding Variety Talk Series nominees at the Emmy Awards for the fifth consecutive year
• 'Hamilton' at the Emmy Awards
• Dave Chappelle's four Emmy nominations for 'SNL' and '8:46'
• 'Queer Eye' leads structured reality program nominees again at the Emmy Awards while 'preaching love, acceptance, pride, and compassion'
• 'RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked' vs. 'Below Deck' for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program at the Emmy Awards
• 'RuPaul's Drag Race' leads competition program nominees at the 2021 Emmy Awards while modeling diversity and acceptance