Sunday, June 8, 2025

'Mammals' and the remaining nominees for Best Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards


I return to the News & Doc Emmy Awards for today's Sunday entertainment feature by looking at Mammals and the nominees for Best Documentary I haven't already examined yet. I begin with Mammals | Official Preview ft Coldplay | BBC Earth.

We're bringing you a first look at the brand new BBC Earth series: Mammals.

Found on every continent, and in every ocean, Mammals are some of the most adaptable animals on our planet. Join David Attenborough as he follows the journeys of our closest relatives in the animal kingdom.

Born to survive. Built to thrive. #Mammals. Coming Soon.

Coldplay's ‘Paradise’ interwoven with the Mammals score by Thomas Farnon, performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.
How this earned a nomination for Best Documentary but not Outstanding Nature Documentary is beyond me. Then again, that category already has seven nominees, two more than usual, so maybe there just wasn't room.

Follow over the jump for the trailers to The Commandant's Shadow, Queendom, and The Sing Sing Chronicles plus the two craft categories in which Mammals earned nominations.

I resume the trailers with The Commandant’s Shadow | Official Trailer from Warner Brothers.

Two lives. Two stories. One wall that divided them. Witness the historic moment over 70 years after the Holocaust when the son of the Commandant of Auschwitz meets an incredible survivor.
...
From Warner Bros. Pictures and HBO Documentary Films comes filmmaker Daniela Völker’s timely and poignant documentary “The Commandant’s Shadow,” which follows Hans Jürgen Höss, the 87-year-old son of Rudolf Höss, as he faces his father’s terrible legacy for the first time. His father was the Camp Commandant of Auschwitz and masterminded the murder of over a million Jews; the life of Höss and his family was recently fictionalized in the Academy Award-winning “The Zone of Interest.” Now, “The Commandant’s Shadow” tells the story of the real people who lived on site at Höss’s death camp.
The real-life version of Zone of Interest, which won two Oscars — I can see why it earned this nomination. I'm just surprised it didn't get any others.

Next, Queendom | Official Trailer from Greenwich Entertainment.

In defiance of Russia’s anti-LGTBQ laws, a queer, 21-year-old artist risks her life performing in surreal costumes throughout Moscow. Jenna Marvin’s radical public performances blend artistry and activism in this SXSW documentary.
"Drag is political" echoes RuPaul saying "I make a political statement every time I bat my false eyelashes" — true both in the U.S. and Russia.

The last trailer in this category is The Sing Sing Chronicles | Official Trailer from MSNBC.

MSNBC Films presents a special two-night event, "The Sing Sing Chronicles," an NBC News Studios production from Director Dawn Porter. Building on decades of investigative reporting from "Dateline" producer Dan Slepian, the four-part documentary series exposes the injustices of different wrongful convictions at the notorious Sing Sing prison.
This is a worthy nominee, but I think it's the weakest among the field. Some documentary had to be.

Now that I've watched the trailers for all the Best Documentary nominees, I'm revisiting what I wrote in 'The Sixth' leads nominees for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards: “I still think The Grab is first, but I'll change or solidify my choice after I write about Mammals.” No change in my choice; The Grab is still first.

I’m moving on to the craft categories with Outstanding Cinematography Documentary, which I last looked at in 'King Coal' vs. 'Hollywood Black' and 'Madu' for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards and originally covered in 'Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story' leads nominees for Outstanding Nature Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards.

In addition to Our Living World, the nominees for Outstanding Cinematography Documentary are King Coal, Mammals, and Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough follow with three each, then Earthsounds with two, and "Lions of the Skeleton Coast" from Nature with just this one. All of them are nature or environmental documentaries, even King Coal, which is nominated for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary, so like the nominees for nature documentaries, I can recommend them to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development. All of them are beautifully shot, so I think King Coal might benefit from being the most different. I'll revisit this when I look at all of their trailers.
On the other hand, Mammals has a nomination for Best Documentary. That might count for something, all else being equal.
Since this is the last time I plan on writing about this category and the next, I’m going to embed the trailers for Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough, Earthsounds, and "Lions of the Skeleton Coast" from Nature beginning with Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough | Official Trailer | Netflix.

Advanced audio technology captures the sound of nature like you've never heard it before, in this riveting docuseries narrated by Sir David Attenborough.
That’s impressively shot and recorded. Let’s see how Earthsounds — Official Trailer | Apple TV+ compares.

Hear our planet like never before. Narrated by Tom Hiddleston, Earthsounds is now streaming on Apple TV+ https://apple.co/_Earthsounds

Earthsounds travels to spectacular habitats, including the Queensland rainforest, the Antarctic ice shelf, the Namibian dunes, tropical coral reefs and more. Discoveries and rarely heard recordings from the series include snow leopards singing love songs, the intimate chatter of ostrich chicks from inside their eggs, musical spiders, walrus’s underwater courtship calls and more. But it’s not just animals that make unusual noises; the series also captures the mesmerizing secret sounds of our planet, including the hum of deserts, drinking trees, and the mysterious buzz of the Northern Lights.

Earthsounds is produced by the award-winning team at Offspring Films and executive produced by Alex Williamson and Isla Robertson. Sam Hodgson is the series producer, and the series director is Tom Payne. Earthsounds is the second collaboration between Offspring Films and Apple TV+, following four-time BAFTA Award-nominated Earth at Night in Color.
Also impressive. Now for Nature: Lions of the Skeleton Coast PREVIEW from AZPM (Arizona Public Media).

Lion researcher Dr. Philip Stander follows three orphaned desert lion cubs as they navigate the brutal Skeleton Coast of Namibia. Watch the cubs learn to adapt, hunt, and defy the odds of survival in this vast desert territory.
After watching all the nominees, I think this is a three-way contest among King Coal, Mammals, and Our Living World with Mammals having an edge because of BBC’s expertise in nature documentaries along with the Best Documentary nomination. That’s taking nothing away from Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough, but I think it’s getting its recognition the next category, which I wrote about in 'Apollo 13: Survival' leads nominees for Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Wayback Wednesday and again in 'Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story' leads nominees for Outstanding Nature Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards.

Apollo 13: Survival is not the most nominated member of the field for Outstanding Sound – Documentary. That honor goes to Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story with six nominations. Mammals and Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough follow with three each, then Earthsounds with two. Apollo 13: Survival, Earthsounds, and Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough have faced off twice for sound awards at the BAFTAs and Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS) Awards and Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough won both times, so it's my pick to win this award.
After watching and listening to both trailers, I have solidified my choice.

That’s a wrap for this installment. I expect the next one will examine Outstanding Social Issue Documentary, where Daughters and Death Without Mercy lead with two nominations apiece. That might not be tomorrow, when I plan on writing something more topical and less involved. Stay tuned.

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