Friday, May 30, 2025

'The Grab' leads both Outstanding Investigative Documentary and Best Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards


I told my readers to "Stay tuned as I resume my coverage of the News & Doc Emmy Awards" at the end of PBS NewsHour explains 'How Meta's blockbuster antitrust trial could have major implications for big tech' — a Throwback Thursday special, and I'm following through with the nominees for Outstanding Investigative Documentary, which include two of the nominees for Best Documentary. From most to least nominated, they are The Grab with four nominations, American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders with three, Fault Lines episode "The Night Won't End" with two, and two Frontline episodes, "A Dangerous Assignment: Uncovering Corruption in Maduro’s Venezuela" and "South Korea’s Adoption Reckoning," both with one. I'm sharing their trailers in that order, beginning with The Grab - Official Trailer | Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite | Opening June 14 by Magnolia Pictures & Magnet Releasing.

Quietly and seemingly out of sight, governments, private investors and mercenaries are working to seize food and water resources at the expense of entire populations. These groups are establishing themselves as the new OPEC, where the future world powers will be those who control not oil, but food. And it's all beginning to bubble to the surface in real time. Global food prices have hit an all-time high, threatening chaos and violence. Meanwhile China, Russia, the UAE and Wall Street are just a few of the players strategizing within this shocking, shifting geopolitical landscape.

THE GRAB is a global thriller combining hard-hitting journalism from The Center for Investigative Reporting with the compelling character-driven storytelling of director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, taking you around the globe to reveal one of the world’s biggest and least known threats.

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite
This documentary fits the overall theme of this blog and is one I can recommend to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development. It's also a chance for Gabriela Cowperthwaite to earn the recognition she deserved but didn't get for Blackfish. I hope she, along with the film's producers, researchers, and trailer creators, get it.

I did not see the "share" icon for American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders | Official Trailer | Netflix, so I'm embedding American Conspiracy: Il caso Octopus | Trailer ufficiale | Netflix Italia.


 Here's the English translation of the Italian video description.
Investigators have no doubts about the death of Danny Casolaro: for them, the journalist found in the bathtub of a hotel room committed suicide. But the reporter's family and colleagues believe it could have been murder. The motive? The investigation he was conducting into a conspiracy he called "Octopus," a secret organization linked to the theft of government spy software, a series of unsolved murders and some of the biggest political scandals of the 20th century. Years later, researcher Christian Hansen tries to reveal the secrets of Casolaro's death, along with the story that cost him his life. Stardust Frames, Duplass Brothers Productions and director Zachary Treitz present this four-part docuseries that tells the mystery that has lasted for decades.
This film shares producers with Wild Wild Country, which won the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series as well as four other nominations at the 2018 Creative Arts Emmy Awards and four nominations at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. That's a good sign for its award chances, although I'm still rooting for Cowperthwaite and The Grab.

Al Jazeera English uploaded the entire episode for "The Night Won't End," which I'm not sharing here, so I'm embedding Excerpts from 'The Night Won't End: Biden's War on Gaza' in lieu of an actual trailer.

Israel’s bombing campaign continues in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis deepens to catastrophic levels, the Biden administration has not wavered in its support for Israel. United States weapons transfers - from 2,000-pound bombs to artillery shells and tanks - have been a crucial part of the Israeli military campaign. Fault Lines worked with journalists in Gaza to profile three families as they try to survive the war. Together with Airwars, Fault Lines also investigated an air strike on December 11 in north Gaza in which more than 100 people from the same family were killed. Numerous attacks on civilians - including that on Hind Rajab and her relatives in late January - have raised international concern and questions over continuing US support. Fault Lines partnered with Forensic Architecture and Earshot to investigate that attack. From air strikes to field executions, Fault Lines investigates the killings of civilians by the Israeli military in Gaza and the role of the United States in the war.
"Biden's war on Gaza" — Al Jazeera certainly has an opinion. John Oliver had an opposing message and I had a reaction. Oliver warned that Donald "Hoover Cleveland" Trump would be worse on Gaza and that turned out to be true. As my readers can probably tell, I'm not rooting for Al Jazeera English's nominee to win either this award or Outstanding Writing – Documentary. Good thing there are better nominees in both categories.

Now for the two nominated Frontline episodes, beginning with A Dangerous Assignment: Uncovering Corruption in Maduro's Venezuela (trailer) | FRONTLINE.

With the Venezuelan news outlet Armando.info, FRONTLINE investigates the shadowy figure at the heart of a corruption scandal spanning from Venezuela to the U.S. "A Dangerous Assignment: Uncovering Corruption in Maduro’s Venezuela" premieres Tues., May 14, 2024.
...and concluding the trailers with South Korea's Adoption Reckoning (trailer) | FRONTLINE + @AssociatedPress.

FRONTLINE and The Associated Press investigate allegations of fraud and abuse in South Korea’s historic foreign adoption boom.
In a normal year, a Frontline episode would have a better chance of winning; 2024 wasn't a normal year. Also, most of these nominees show that the line between investigative documentaries and crime and justice documentaries is very fine, just like between science and nature documentaries.

Now to re-examine the nominees for Best Documentary, which I first covered in 'King Coal' vs. 'Hollywood Black' and 'Madu' for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards.

For the first time in this series, I'm examining the nominees for Best Documentary. I've been holding off because the category has nine nominees this year. The Grab leads with four nominations, followed by American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders and Mammals with three each, Hollywood Black, The Sixth, and The Truth vs. Alex Jones, all with two, and The Commandant's Shadow, Queendom, and The Sing Sing Chronicles with just this one. The Grab and American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders are facing off for Outstanding Investigative Documentary, The Sixth leads the nominees for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary, The Truth vs. Alex Jones is contending with Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary, and Mammals leads the rest of the field without a subject area nomination. That's four more opportunities to examine the nominees, after which I'll make my call.
Right now, I have The Grab in first, but I'm not making a final call until I write about the rest of the nominees. I'm planning on examining Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary in the next installment because I have personal and professional interests in both The Truth vs. Alex Jones and Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal, the latter of which I can also recommend to my students. Again, welcome to blogging as professional development.

Follow over the jump for the craft categories in which the nominees for Outstanding Investigative Documentary earned nominations.


The Grab is the only nominee for Outstanding Research – Documentary that has more than this one nomination. The rest, The Bibi Files, the Frontline episode "China, The U.S. and the Rise of Xi Jinping," the American Experience episode "Nazi Town, USA," and Our Oceans have only this nomination. On that criterion alone, I'm provisionally picking The Grab to win, although Frontline is known for great research. Also, I have a soft spot for Our Oceans, which is a third documentary I can recommend to my students for extra credit just from nominees I'm reviewing today.


American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders's third nomination is for Outstanding Lighting Direction – Documentary. Both Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial and Separated have two nominations with both also nominated for Outstanding Art Direction / Set Decoration / Scenic Design – Documentary. American Seams and Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey each have just this one. While I have American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders penciled in, I wouldn't be surprised by any of the nominees winning.

I conclude this portion of the post with two categories I examined in 'Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story' leads nominees for Outstanding Nature Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards, beginning with one recycled from 'Apollo 13: Survival' leads nominees for Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Wayback Wednesday.

Like Outstanding Sound – Documentary, Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story is the most nominated member of the field for Outstanding Writing – Documentary with six nominations. King Coal follows with three. The Space Race is tied with Join or Die and The Night Won't End at two apiece. I'll have at least three more opportunities to examine this field, but my preliminary pick is Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story.
King Coal might be more beautifully written than Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story, so I'm not counting it out, but I still have the latter penciled in.
I'm definitely not changing my mind after watching the excerpts from "The Night Won't End." I may or may not examine Join or Die in an entry about documentaries only nominated for craft awards.

Now a category recycled from 'Tsunami: Race Against Time' leads nominees for Outstanding Historical Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Throwback Thursday.

Tsunami: Race Against Time is up against very stiff competition in this category, particularly Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story with six nominations, The Grab with four including Best Documentary, and Blink with two. The rest have just this one nomination. I plan on examining this category at least three more times, so I'm holding off on handicapping the nominees until I see all of them.
I think Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story has an edge over Tsunami: Race Against Time, but that's not enough. I'll pick my favorite when I look at all the nominees.
I found the trailer for The Grab gripping, but I don't know if it's more urgent than Tsunami: Race Against Time's trailer. That doesn't put it ahead of Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story in my book. I expect I'll write a post featuring Blink, Brats, and Patrice: The Movie treating this and its news equivalent as show categories.

As I wrote above, I'm planning on examining Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary in the next installment. That should be for the Sunday entertainment feature because Alex Jones is as much an entertainment story as he is a legal one. In the meantime, stay tuned for last night's monologues from late-night talk show hosts to close out May.

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