Sally Field’s Emmy Nom Ends an 8-Year TV Movie Drought. Could Other Actresses Follow?

It turns out, Emmy voters really like Sally Field — at least, a whole lot more than they like TV movies these days. Just a decade ago, Field’s Emmy nomination for best actress in a limited series/TV movie for her heart-wrenching turn in Netflix’s Remarkably Bright Creatures would signal business as usual. The category had long been the domain of decorated actresses of a certain age making the most of their juiciest roles in years — names like Julianne Moore (Game Change), Frances McDormand (Olive Kitteridge), Joan Allen (Georgia O’Keeffe) and Jessica Lange (Grey Gardens). The trend has been so closely associated with the category for so long that it might come as a shock that Field is its first nominee from a TV movie in eight years, going back to Laura Dern for 2018’s The Tale. This reflects a few key developments in TV writ large. For starters, this was an incredibly thin year for limited series — the rest of the best actress nominees all hailed from the most nominated shows overall, while those that could’ve conceivably taken Field’s slot represented contenders that were totally blanked, like Tessa Thompson’s His & Hers, Kerry Washington’s Imperfect Women and Robin Wright’s The Girlfriend. Field campaigned for Remarkably Bright Creatures, which makes a difference — but Renée Zellweger got out there a ton just last year for the well-received Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, only to come up short. Ditto Lange for her tour de force in the 2024 HBO drama The Great Lillian Hall. These kinds of meaty feature-length turns from Oscar winners used to be prime bait for Emmy voters, but now Field’s nom is more exception than rule. Part of this has to do with how the opportunities for actresses in middle age and older have shifted on TV. The prestige HBO movie was once a kind of haven for these types of stars, to say nothing of acclaimed indie filmmakers like Todd Haynes (Mildred Pierce) and Dee Rees (Bessie), who could attach A-listers to auteur-driven projects on a decent budget. Then came the boom in streaming, which blurred the lines between theatrical and TV movies — and helped make way for the modern limited series. Of late, Cate Blanchett has been nominated for both Mrs. America and Disclaimer; Jessica Chastain made it in for George & Tammy the year after winning her Oscar. This year, even as the development of these shows has slowed, multiple Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan is competing for Beef, while recently minted Tony and Emmy winner Sarah Snook is up for All Her Fault. Take Claire Danes’ example to chart how things have changed: She won the 2010 Emmy for the earnest HBO telefilm Temple Grandin and 16 years later is up in the same category for The Beast in Me, a twisty Netflix limited series. Until now, Netflix has never fielded an acting nominee from a TV movie — unless you count some Black Mirror episodes, which used to be designated as such until the TV Academy banned anthology installments from being labeled films. Nowadays, TV movies are almost never nominated anywhere except the best TV movie category. Netflix and other studios juggling Emmy and Oscar players decide how to roll their movies out — and which of them will get qualifying theatrical releases for Oscar campaigns. This has to do with where they can allocate their marketing and FYC resources but also which films they believe have the goods. Sometimes these decisions are simple enough — it’s not Dolly slander to say that 2021 TV movie Emmy winner Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square competed where it belonged. Generally speaking, the field can feel awfully random. This year’s best TV movie race includes a new Jack Ryan entry, a silly action comedy toplined by John Cena and Idris Elba (Heads of State) and a hugely popular if hardly substantive rom-com (People We Meet on Vacation). Field’s case is more complex. Remarkably Bright Creatures is a smaller, character-driven drama that earned mixed reviews, landing a 55 score on Metacritic — a tough sell for an Oscar nomination. But the star is also a beloved actress doing great work in a movie that tugs on the heartstrings. This is only the fourth film she’s appeared in over the course of the past decade. “It’s very hard to find films about older people — women most especially,” Field told the Los Angeles Times in May. “There are lots of movies about older men with great characters.” That story has not changed from the heyday of the HBO film. In Hollywood, it’s a tale as old as sexism. As the limited series recedes, it makes sense for Field’s work to end the TV-movie-actress drought. The final TV movie nominated this year is similar in scope to Remarkably Bright Creatures and came from HBO: Miss You, Love You, a lo-fi tearjerker starring Allison Janney. It earned decent reviews and was released in the prime late-spring window for voting consideration. Like every other TV movie nominee not named Remarkably Bright Creatures, it received no other nominations above the line. But Janney’s work, to say nothing of her perennially underrated co-star Andrew Rannells, was certainly worthy. And if there was any place to honor it, well, the Emmys might have just started making the space available again. This story first appeared in a July stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.