The 42nd News and Documentary Emmy Awards were presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), to honor the best in American news and documentary programming in 2020. The winners were announced on two ceremonies via live-stream at Watch.TheEmmys.TV and other apps associated, the winners for the News categories were announced on September 28, 2021, while the ones for the Documentary categories were revealed on September 29, 2021.[1][2][3]
The nominees were announced on July 27, 2021, with CBS's news magazine 60 Minutes and Vice's news program VICE News Tonight leading the nominations with 16 each while PBS was the most nominated network with 52.[4]
Winners and nominees
The nominations were announced on July 27, 2021.[5]
The Trade – Jacopo Campaiola, Pablo Durana, Nicholas Kraus, Ross McDonnell, Max Preiss (Showtime)
Epic Animal Migrations: Mexico – Alfredo Barroso, Martin Boege, Chels Briseno, Grant Brokensha, Valentin Cobarrubias, Ricardo Deneke, Nicholas Donelly, Johnny Friday, Liisa Juuti, Luciano Larobina, Daniel Philogene, Emiliano Ruprah, Emiliano Villanueva, Boris Von Schoenebeck (Smithsonian Channel)
Hidden Kingdoms of China – Luke Barnett, John Brown, Dondrub Djorge, Shane Moore, Dave Mothershaw, Chris Openshaw, Jacky Poon, Rolf Steinmann (National Geographic)
Nature: "Cuba's Wild Revolution" – Domenico Pontillo, John Murray (PBS)
The Last Ice – Neil Gelinas, Scott Ressler, Stefan Wiesen, Ron Chapple, Nic Donnelly (National Geographic)
The Weekly: "The Sicario" – Victor Tadashi Suarez (FX)
The Report by NBC News: "Fighting the Surge" – Ed Ou, Julie Kim, Aaron Sasson (Quibi)
VICE News Tonight: "American Uprising" – Ben Bishop, Juanita Ceballos, Roberto Daza, Jika Gonzalez, Dave Mayers, Chris Olson, Jesse Seidman, Daniel Vergara (Vice)
Outstanding Direction: News
Outstanding Direction: Documentary
Election Week in America – Directed by Reza Baktar (CNN)
ABC News: "Your Voice Your Vote 2020: The Democratic Debate" – Directed by Jeff Winn (ABC)
AC360: "Coronavirus: Facts and Fears Town Hall" – Directed by Daniel Figueroa (CNN)
CBS News Special: "Bravery and Hope: 7 Days on the Front Line" – Diana DeCilio, Seth Fox, Michael McHugh, Michael Vele (CBS)
Stressed Election – Aaron Byrd, Meg Felling, Caroline Kim, Ben Laffin, Will Lloyd, Kevin Oliver, Noah Throop, Ainara Tiefenthaler (The New York Times)
The Circus: Inside the Craziest Political Campaign on Earth – Barry Blaschke, Michelle Brundige, Charles Divak, Stefanie Maridueña, Jon Miller, Jane Jo, Benji Kast, Evan Wise (Showtime)
HBO Documentary Films: "Agents of Chaos" – Julie Gratz, Diego Coutinho, Hazel Baird, Aaron Hodgins Davis, Ivo Collins Stoop, Bruno Ferrari, Guilherme Ferreirinha, Rafael Morinaga, Dave Penn, Ben Woodlock, Nick Gibney (HBO)
High Score – Christopher Skinner, Joel Plosz, Phil Robibero, Ciara Bresnahan, Christopher Fequiere, Suejee Lee (Netflix)
NBC News: "She Wanted a 'Freebirth' With No Doctors. Online Groups Convinced Her It Would Be OK" – Thommas Parrinello, Michael Basilico, James Surdam, Heather Seidel, Andrew Zimbelman (NBC)
AC360: "CNN/Bellingcat Investigation into the Poisoning of Russian Opposition Leader Alexey Navalny" – Tim Lister, Sebastian Shukla, Darya Tarasova, Clarissa Ward (CNN)
60 Minutes: "Opioid Playbook" – Emilio Almonte, Sam Hornblower (CBS)
60 Minutes: "Hell Flight" – Guy Campanile, Lucy Hatcher (CBS)
Axios: "President Donald J. Trump: An Interview" – Jacob Ruszem, Christina Avalos, Juliet Bartz, Ben Feinstein, Tatiyana Jenkins, Beth Morrissey, Jonathan Swan (HBO)
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer: "Lekki Toll Gate Shooting Investigation" – Barbara Arvanitidis, Stephanie Busari, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Katie Polglase (CNN)
Independent Lens: "Feels Good Man" – Giorgio Angelini, Drew Blatman, Arthur Jones, Katrina Taylor, Caitlin Ward, Aaron Wickenden (PBS)
America's Hidden Stories: "Hitler's US Election Plot" – Mark Hughes, Hossam Aboul-Magd, Mark Carroll, Thomas Kaufman, Daniel Lyons, Ezra Wolfinger (Smithsonian Channel)
Election Coverage – Ilya Livshits, Tom Petershack, Margot Silver, Jeff Taylor, Corey Atwood, Tristan James Lead Scenic Designer Emmett Aiello, Marc Greenstein (MSNBC)
^The official press release lists separately the 14 nominations that FRONTLINE received alone and the 5 other nominations that it received in partnership with projects like The Marshall Project.