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Matthew McConaughey couldn’t do it. Woody Harrelson couldn’t do it. Even Mahershala Ali — a two-time Oscar winner himself — couldn’t win an Emmy for “True Detective.” But Jodie Foster has put an end to the franchise’s losing streak, winning the Best Actress in a Limited Series Emmy Award for her lead performance in “True Detective: Night Country.” This marks Foster’s first Emmy win, as well as the first time an actor has won for their work in “True Detective.”

Foster is also a two-time Oscar winner, but Sunday night’s victory also put an end to her (very minor) personal losing streak at the Emmys. In 1999, she earned her first nomination as a producer of “The Baby Dance,” which was nominated for Best TV Movie and lost to “A Lesson Before Dying.” Fifteen years later, Foster was nominated for Best Director of a Comedy Series for “Orange Is the New Black,...

When the 2023 Primetime Emmy nominations were revealed, Ali Wong and Pedro Pascal both had the honor of being included in multiple performance lineups. She made history as the first newcomer to the acting categories recognized for both live action (“Beef”) and voice (“Tuca & Bertie”) work, while he became the first actor nominated for three programs on his initial Emmy outing. These achievements made them the newest members of a group of 26 people who earned their first two (or three) acting Emmy nominations in a single year.

Wong’s eventual Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actress win for “Beef” made her the seventh person in this bunch to succeed on one of her bids. The first was Robert Cummings, who received 1955’s Best Single Performance by an Actor prize for “Twelve Angry Men” and simultaneously lost for his regular lead turn on “My Hero.”

The first five champs who followed Cummings were Jack Albertson,...

Per Emmy tradition, all of the guest acting contenders had to designate their episode submissions on the initial nominations ballot, so we already know all of the entries for the Best Drama Guest Actor nominees. The 2021 Emmy nominees for this category are Don Cheadle (“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”), Charles Dance (“The Crown”), Timothy Olyphant (“The Mandalorian”), Courtney B. Vance (“Lovecraft Country”) and Carl Weathers (“The Mandalorian”). Scroll down to see which episodes the Emmy voters will be watching to judge the nominees’ performances.

SEEHannah Einbinder (‘Hacks’): Emmys 2021 episode submission revealed

Cheadle’s submission for “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” is “New World Order,” which streamed March 19 on Disney+ as the first episode of Season 1. Emmy ballot description: “Colonel James Rhodes / War Machine (Cheadle) is an officer with the United States Air Force and a member of the Avengers. He is present when Sam Wilson donates Captain...

Five top TV costume designers will reveal the secrets behind their crafts when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Btl Experts” Q&a event with key 2021 guild and Emmy contenders this month. Each person will participate in two video discussions to be published on Tuesday, December 1, at 5:00 p.m. Pt; 8:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Marcus Dixon and a group chat with Marcus and all of the designers together.

RSVP today by clicking here to book your reservations. We’ll send you a reminder a few before the start of the show so you won’t miss watching.

This “Meet the Btl Experts” panel welcomes the following 2021 guild and Emmy contenders:

“The Alienist: Angel of Darkness” (TNT): Rudy Mance

Mance received an Emmy nomination for “The Alienist.” Other projects have included “The Politician,” “American Horror Story,” “Pose,” “The Knick” and “The Leftovers.

“Black Monday” returned for its second season this past March. The financial industry satire follows the Jammer Group, a fictional Wall Street trading firm at the center of the real-life title event: the sudden stock market crash that took place on October 19, 1987. This year the show explored the aftermath of that crash. Scroll down for our exclusive video interviews with top Emmy contenders from the show.

SEEEmmys 2020 exclusive: Showtime categories for ‘Black Monday,’ ‘Homeland,’ ‘The Loudest Voice’ and more

Don Cheadle stars as Maurice Monroe, who ran the Jammer Group until he was framed for causing the crash. He was already nominated for Best Comedy Actor at the Emmys, the show’s only bid for its first season in 2019. But that was Cheadle’s ninth career nom. He first broke through with a pair of bids in 1999 for his supporting role in the limited series “The Rat Pack” and his...

Former AMC Networks and Hulu top programming executive Joel Stillerman has launched Content Superba, a Los Angeles-based TV production company backed by Endeavor Content.

Stillerman, who has more than 20 years of experience developing, producing and writing for film and television, has brought in AMC Networks executive Owen Shiflett, most recently VP Development for Shudder & Sundance Now, as Svp Development and Production of the new company.

“We believe the changes in how we access our content are just the tip of the iceberg. The real change that’s upon us is a reimagining of storytelling itself as these new platforms emerge and evolve,” Stillerman said. “There has never been a better time to be the new kids, and along with our partners at Endeavor Content, we’re formally inviting the dreamers, rule breakers, innovators, and inventors to come and play with us.”

The move, which marks Stillerman’s return to and producing and entrepreneurship,...

Hollywood icon and multiple award-winner Cicely Tyson has signed with CAA for agency representation, while she continues to be managed by her longtime manager, Larry Thompson.

With a career spanning over six decades, Tyson has solidified her standing as of one of Hollywood’s most revered performers. The fashion model-turned-actress breakout role came in the 1972’s Sounder, which earned her an Oscar and Golden Globe award nom for best actress. She followed that up with memorable turns in films such as The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Help, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, and most recently Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying. She also received an Honorary Oscar at the Motion Picture Academy’s Governors Awards in 2018.

On the TV side, Tyson nabbed her first and second Emmy in 1974 for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman television movie. Other credits include the original Roots miniseries,...

Hulu’s ready to go beast mode, and has recruited AMC’s programming chief to help it grow its footprint as one of TV’s key streaming services.

Joel Stillerman, who spent nearly 10 years at AMC Networks – most recently as president of original programming and development for AMC and Sundance TV – has been named Hulu’s first-ever chief content officer.

Stillerman’s mandate? Come up with a content strategy that will grow Hulu’s advertising revenue (don’t forget, unlike Netflix, a good chunk of Hulu’s users see ads) and subscriber growth.

Hulu’s subscriber base was around 12 million last year, and at its upfront presentation last week, the company reported 47 million total unique viewers. But it still has a way to go to catch up to competitors Netflix and Amazon: According to eMarketer, Netflix boasts around 128 million individual users this year, while Amazon has around 85.3 million viewers.

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The director that epitomized the 1970’s, Joseph Sargent, has sadly passed away. (1925-2014)

With a career lasting 50 years, Sargent brought to the big screen such thrilling cinema as The Taking Of The Pelham One Two Three, MacArthur, White Lightning and Colossus: The Forbin Project.

Directors Guild of America President Paris Barclay made the following statement upon learning of the passing of director Joseph Sargent:

“When it comes to directing Movies for Television, Joe’s dominance and craftsmanship was legendary – for the past 50 years. With eight DGA Awards nominations in Movies for Television, more than any other director in this category, Joe embodied directorial excellence on the small screen. He was unafraid of taking risks, believing in his heart that television audiences demanded the highest quality stories – whether chronicling uncomfortable historic events like the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study in Miss Evers’ Boys, or compelling personal stories about inspiring individuals like...

New York -- Mekhi Phifer is not used to being shouted at, but it's part of his Broadway debut.

The 37-year-old actor, best known for the TV series "ER" and the film "8 Mile," is discovering that audiences aren't silent while watching him in "Stick Fly," Lydia R. Diamond's complex drama about a black family.

"People are spirited when they see this play," he says, laughing.

Both white and black audience members in the Cort Theatre are known to burst out with spontaneous advice for the actors or to otherwise clearly telegraph their reaction to dramatic situations. "I had to get used to that," he says. "It's not very typical for Broadway – at least the Broadway plays that I've seen."

Phifer plays Flip LeVay, a successful plastic surgeon and ladies' man who attended Exeter and Harvard. Sparks fly when he and his younger brother bring their respective girlfriends – one black, one...

Sunday, January 16 could have been Laura Linney's best day but the actress is grieving her father's death instead. One day before the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards where Laura won Best Actress in TV Comedy, 80-year-old Romulus Linney died in his Germantown, New York home after a long battle of lung cancer.

Romulus is a prolific playwright who had written more than 30 plays including "A Lesson Before Dying" which was performed Off-Broadway in September 2000. Most of his stories are set in Appalachia because he's familiar with it while growing up in the South. Beside writing, Romulus is also a professor who taught at Columbia and Princeton universities, Hunter College and The New School.

Before his death, Romulus had been working on a novel and had completed the libretto for an opera based on one of his plays, The Associated Press said. Laura Callanan, who is Romulus' third wife and Laura Linney's step-mother,...

Late last week, after I saw For Colored Girls, I got into a conversation with Ms Cynthia (who works behind-the-scenes here at Shadow And Act) about the kinds of books written by black authors, that tell stories primarily about black people, that have been optioned and made (or will soon be made) into films.

We all know by now that Hollywood loves to adapt novels (amongst other kinds of original sources), and during our conversation I realized that there might indeed be a pattern or two worth noting, when one looks at the “black novels” that have been given big screen treatment.

One common complaint I’ve heard about the For Colored Girls adaptation is that the material is a yet another woman-centered black pathology tale, and a lot of you aren’t interested in that kind of narrative anymore, and understandably so. I think a lot of us feel the same way.

Ellen Lewis on Michael ShannonWhen I was asked to write about an actor I love, Michael Shannon immediately jumped into my mind. It probably stems from the fact that I'm from Chicago, where Michael lived and worked for many years.In 1998 Paula Muzik, an agent in Chicago, called to tell me about Michael, who was coming to New York in the play "Killer Joe." There was an intensity and disturbing quality to Michael's performance in "Killer Joe." Combined with his physical presence and dark humor, he slightly frightened you. He was unlike any actor I had seen before, and it was exciting to think about the roles one could try him for.Years later I was casting "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" for Sidney Lumet. Sid's office at the time was at Sound One. Casting for Sidney, as other casting directors can attest, is an amazing experience—and unusual,...

The deadly verdict of the Jim Crow laws will not be swayed in The Black Theatre Troupe.s production of A Lesson Before Dying, by Romulus Linney which runs February 18-28, 2010 at the Playhouse on the Park, Viad Center, Downtown Phoenix, under the direction of Edward G. Smith

Based on Ernest J. Gaines' prize-winning novel, a young man is to be executed for a murder he probably did not commit. But in Louisiana in 1948 the question is not whether or not young Jefferson will be executed but how he will face his ultimate fate.

A Lesson Before Dying, his eighth and latest novel, won the National Book Critics Circle Award and even achieved pop culture attention garnered as an Oprah Book Club Selection. Gaines is Professor of Emeritus of English at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

A Lesson Before Dying is produced by Black Theatre Troupe, and runs...

CBS has greenlighted Pictures of Hollis Woods, a Hallmark Hall of Fame telefilm to star Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek, nominee Alfre Woodard and James Tupper.

Based on Patricia Reilly Giff's book, Woods centers on 12-year-old Hollis Woods (Jodelle Ferland) who, after being abandoned as a baby, has bounced around the foster-care system until she meets a quirky retired art teacher Josie (Spacek) who understands her and gives her unconditional love. However, Josie's difficulty remembering things gets progressively worse, and Hollis becomes the caregiver.

Woodard will play the girl's more than patient social worker. Tupper will play a husband and father of Hollis' previous foster family who wanted to adopt her until tragedy struck.

Emmy winner Ann Peacock (A Lesson Before Dying) adapted the book to the small screen. Tony Bill (Flyboys) is directing the film, which is in production in Victoria, B.C.

Brent Shields (The Valley of Light) is executive producing. Dan Paulson (Full Court Miracle) is producing.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- New Zealand's next potential Lord of the Rings-type multipicture franchise, Walden Media's adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, will be the first production to tap into the country's new Large Budget Screen Production Grant plan, which has just been finalized. Under the plan, announced in July, film and TV productions that spend at least NZ$15 million ($9.6 million) in New Zealand will qualify for a 12.5% rebate. The first of what could be seven films based on The Chronicles of Narnia cycle of books by C.S. Lewis will be directed by New Zealander Andrew Adamson (Shrek) and will start preproduction in Auckland early next year. A mid-2004 shoot is envisioned in New Zealand's South Island with Mark Johnson (The Alamo) producing. The screenplay is by Ann Peacock (Lesson Before Dying).