Emmy Awards 2017 Proves Milestone Night for Women, People of Color

'Big Little Lies' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' were the big winners.

September 18, 2017 7:28 am
Emmys
Actor/producer Elisabeth Moss, winner of the awards for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for 'The Handmaid's Tale,' poses in the press room during the 69th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 17, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

It was ladies’ night at Sunday’s Emmy Awards.

HBO’s Big Little Lies, with a female-dominated cast led by best actress winner Nicole Kidman, won as best limited series and added six other awards for a total of eight. Among them: Alexander Skarsgard and Laura Dern won in the supporting acting categories.

Similarly, Hulu’s dystopian tale, The Handmaid’s Tale, won eight statuettes, including for best drama series. (Star Elisabeth Moss won best actress in a mini-series; Anne Dowd as supporting actress.)

The series was likely helped in part by the ineligibility of its network’s Game of Thrones, which has been dragon-nip to voters in recent years.

Donald Glover won two key comedy awards for FX’s Atlanta: best actor and best director, becoming the first black filmmaker to win the latter. The 69th annual Emmy Awards continued its diverse streak: Outstanding lead actor in a drama series was won by Sterling K. Brown for NBC’s This Is Us, while Riz Ahmed won as lead actor in a limited series for HBO’s The Night Of.

Much of the voting seems to have been a referendum against Donald Trump as the most awards of the night, nine, went to Saturday Night Live, which spent much of the last season skewering the president.

Similarly, HBO’s left-leaning Last Week Tonight With John Oliver dominated the variety-talk series.

There was much less suspense in the leading actress in a comedy category as Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus won her sixth Emmy in a row. The show also won best comedy series … again.

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