Friday, May 15, 2026

'The Stringer' leads nominees for Outstanding Investigative Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Flashback Friday


Happy Flashback Friday! I'm returning to the News & Doc Emmy Awards with the nominees for Outstanding Investigative Documentary, which The Stringer leads with four nominations, followed by Cover-Up and Syria's Detainee Files tied at two nominations, then Critical Incident: A Death at the Border and Predators tied at one nomination. I'm linking to the trailers in this order, beginning with The Stringer: The Man Who Took The Photo | Official Trailer | Netflix.
A former Saigon photo editor reveals a secret he’s been plagued with for 52 years, setting off a gripping two-year investigation into the truth behind one of the Vietnam War’s most iconic photographs. Acclaimed conflict photographer Gary Knight and a small team of journalists embark on a relentless search to locate and seek justice for a man known only as “the stringer.”
Unfortunately, this trailer is age-restricted and has to be viewed on YouTube or Netflix itself because of nudity — yes, it's that photo!

The Stringer's other nominations are in Outstanding Writing: Documentary, Outstanding Research: Documentary, and Outstanding Direction: Documentary. The number of nominations along with its Vietnam War and journalism subject matter would normally make this my favorite for this category, but this is a tougher category than the numbers alone suggest.

Next, Cover-Up | Official Trailer | Netflix.

Cover-Up is a political thriller that traces the explosive career of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. Urgent and deeply reported, Cover-Up is both a portrait of a relentless journalist and an indictment of institutional violence — revealing a cycle of impunity in the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. Drawing on exclusive access to Hersh’s notes, and interweaving primary documents and archival footage, Cover-Up captures the power and process of investigative journalism.
I'm repeating what I wrote about in 'Songs from the Hole' leads arts and culture documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards.
The voters here are mostly journalists and this is a story about journalism. A lot of them are also based in New York. As I'm fond of writing about awards shows, electorates matter.
Both Cover-Up and The Stinger are documentaries about journalism, so this statement applies to both of them. Also lot of the voters not in New York are based in Washington, D.C. Cover-Up would appeal to them.

In case Cover-Up looks familiar, it was a nominee for Best Documentary at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards where its other nomination was for Best Historical Documentary. Here, its other nomination is for Outstanding Editing: Documentary.

In lieu of an actual trailer for Syria's Detainee Files, I'm embedding 'I’d Scream Louder': After Assad’s Fall, Brothers Return to Saydnaya Prison | FRONTLINE (PBS).

Bashar al-Assad’s regime detained over a million people during the Syrian war. Saydnaya was the regime’s most notorious prison. In this video drawn from the documentary "Syria’s Detainee Files," brothers who were held at Saydnaya describe their experience – and so does a former guard who admits to torturing people there.
Harrowing. Its second nomination is for Outstanding Research: Documentary, where it's competing against The Stringer.

Now for the documentaries with just this one nomination. Watch Critical Incident: Death at the Border | Official Trailer | HBO.

HBO Original Documentary #CriticalIncident: Death At The Border revisits a 2010 case that still resonates today. Premieres December 29 on @hbomax.
This barely made the eligibility deadline. Didn't seem to hurt its chances. Of course, it's another nominee that features a journalist, so it appeals to the News & Doc electorate. It's also timely again because of Trump's immigration crackdown.

The final trailer is ‘Predators' – Trailer (MTV Documentary Films).

To Catch a Predator lured sex offenders to a film set where they were interviewed and arrested while cameras rolled. PREDATORS is a chilling, surprising exploration of the show, and the world it helped create.
This could just as easily have been a nominee for crime and justice or arts and culture as it explores the boundaries among journalism, activism, and sensationalist entertainment. In any event, it's another product of MTV Documentary Films, which I've praised in the past. I can't count it out.

Now for the other categories where The Stringer, Cover-Up, and Syria's Detainee Files earned nominations.

Outstanding Research: Documentary
The American Revolution
Florentine Films | PBS [WETA-TV]
Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time
Lightbox [Proximity Media | National Geographic]
Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America
72 Films [National Geographic]
The Strike
UPHSF LLC
The Stringer
Netflix [LinLay Productions | Netflix | VII Foundation | XRM Media]
Syria’s Detainee Files
FRONTLINE | PBS [BBC]
Turning Point: The Vietnam War
Netflix [Luminant Media | Netflix]
The White House Effect
Actual Films | Netflix [Netflix | The Department of Motion Pictures]
Turning Point: The Vietnam War leads this category with five nominations, followed by Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time and The Stringer tied at four, then The Strike with three, Syria's Detainee Files and The White House Effect tied with two, then The American Revolution tied with Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America at just this one. That there are so many nominees indicates that this is a very competitive category, so I won't designate a favorite right now. Just the same, I'm noting that The American Revolution earning just this one nomination here suggests to me that it's eligible for the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, so I expect it to be nominated there, too. That happened for The U.S. and the Holocaust, so I've seen it happen before.

Next, two categories I covered in 'Katrina: Come Hell and High Water' leads social issue documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Flashback Friday, beginning with another of The Stringer's nominations.
I return to 'Sally' leads Science and Technology Documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Katrina: Come Hell and High Water's third nomination.
Sally should just be happy to be nominated in this category. 2000 Meters to Andriivka has six nominations, including Best Documentary. Life After has four, also including Best Documentary, as does The Stringer. Katrina: Come Hell and High Water and Vietnam: The War That Changed America both tied Sally with three. Apocalypse in the Tropics and Music Box: It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley have just this one. Out of this field, 2000 Meters to Andriivka is my provisional favorite.
I still think so.
Seeing Music Box: It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley reminds me that it was nominated for Best Music Documentary at the 2025 Critics Choice Documentary Awards. I was disappointed that it failed to earn either an Oscar or GRAMMY nomination, so I'm glad it earned an Emmy nomination, even if I'm very sure it won't win.

Now for Cover-Up's second nomination.

Outstanding Editing: Documentary
Cover-Up
Netflix [Plan B | Netflix | Praxis Films]
Folktales
Loki Films [Fifth Season | Impact Partners | Topic Studios]
Katrina: Come Hell and High Water
Netflix [Netflix | Message Pictures]
Life After
Multitude Films | PBS [ITVS]
Love + War
Little Monster Films [National Geographic]
2000 Meters to Andriivka
FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Associated Press]
Thoughts & Prayers
HBO Documentary Films [Tony Tina]
The White House Effect
Actual Films | Netflix [Netflix | The Department of Motion Pictures]
I think 2000 Meters to Andriivka is the favorite, if only because it's the only nominee also nominated for Best Editing at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards and I suspect 2000 Meters to Andriivka might sweep its categories.
I'm returning to 'Songs from the Hole' leads arts and culture documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards, itself recycled from 'Underdogs' earns four News & Doc Emmy Award nominations, for The Stringer's final nomination.

Outstanding Writing: Documentary
Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya
Thunderheart Films [WETA-TV]
2000 Meters to Andriivka
FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Associated Press]
Songs From the Hole
Netflix [Cocomotion Pictures | Question Culture | Impact Partners | Artemis Rising Foundation | Netflix]
The Stringer
Netflix [A Netflix Documentary | An XRM MEDIA | VII FOUNDATION Production | LinLay Productions]
Underdogs
Wildstar Films [Maximum Effort | National Geographic]
The trailer alone demonstrated that Underdogs deserved this nomination. Unfortunately, I doubt it will win this award. It's competing against 2000 Meters to Andriivka with six nominations including Best Documentary, Songs from the Hole with four nominations including Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary, and The Stringer, also with four nominations including Outstanding Investigative Documentary. I expect grit will win over wit.
Songs from the Hole has plenty of grit, but it is facing stiff competition from 2000 Meters to Andriivka, The Stringer, and Underdogs. It might lose to one of the first two.
I still think so.

Follow over the jump for the last three most read posts about the Emmy Awards during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.


Normal social media promotion during August 2025, including Twitter/X traffic, plus heavy web traffic during September 2025 contributed to 'Arcane' leads Gold Derby odds to win Outstanding Animated Program at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards from August 12, 2025 earning 456 raw page views by March 20, 2026 to rank 77th overall and 54th among entries posted during the 2025-2026 blogging year. It earned 208 views (second most during August 2025) and 2 likes (most during month and tied for third most likes during year) on Twitter/X.


Normal social media promotion during August 2025 plus heavy web traffic during September 2025 contributed to 'Welcome to Wrexham' vs. 'Love on the Spectrum' for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program at the Emmy Awards from August 5, 2025 earning 376 default and 423 raw page views during the 15th year of the blog to rank eleventh overall by the former, 85th overall by the latter, and 59th among entries posted during the blogging year.


Normal social media promotion during August 2025, including Twitter/X traffic, plus heavy web traffic during September 2025 contributed to Nate Bargatze vs. Conan O'Brien for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) at the Emmys from August 15, 2025 ending the blogging year with 423 raw page views to rank 86th overall and 58th among entries posted between March 21, 2025 and March 21, 2026. It earned 265 views (most for August 2025) on Twitter/X.

That's a wrap for today's retrospective. I plan on resuming my look at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for the Sunday entertainment feature. In the meantime, stay tuned for a brief evergreeen educational post tomorrow.

Previous posts in this series Previous posts about the 57th News & Doc Emmy Awards Previous retrospectives about entertainment Previous retrospectives about Twitter/X
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)