Marking its 40th anniversary, The Telly Awards announced this year’s winners, including animated, environmentally-conscious standouts like Passion Pictures’ “There’s a Rang-Tan in my Bedroom” for Greenpeace, live streaming favorite DC Entertainment’s “DC Daily Live with Kevin Smith,” Netflix’s drag show music video of Dolly Parton’s legendary “Jolene,” and CBS Interactive’s viral juggernaut for “The Late Late Show with James Corden: The Biggest Baby Shark Ever” starring a crooning Josh Groban and Sophie Turner. A resurgence of documentary filmmaking also garnered top honors for a diverse range of companies: ESPN, AETN, AJ+, HBO Latin America, and PBS.
Also, for the first time ever, The Telly Awards has crowned a Telly Company of the Year: CBS Interactive–recognizing years of achievement across platforms with video content from its many properties like Chowhound, "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert," and CNET who created the widely shared video “Mark Zuckerberg explains the internet to old people.”
This year’s winners not only represent a further broadening of the online landscape to embrace more documentary, scripted and even episodic pieces, but an increased focus on branded content and innovative new platforms like VR and Social Streaming.
“We spend a lot of time listening to the creative community and our industry to better understand where the opportunities are for storytelling, and social and branded content rose head and shoulders above the rest,” said Telly’s managing director Sabrina Dridje. “CBS Interactive especially should be commended for its approach to social and online video. These are areas that take a specific set of skills to produce great work, and as an organization honoring video and television content, spotlighting their efforts is fundamental to our mission.”
Telly Award entries were evaluated by jury members from creative powerhouse Droga5, next generation motion picture studio Ryot, Condé Nast, Framestore, Vimeo, Vice, A&E Networks and more.
Indicative of their renewed multi-screen focus is the VR category, which recognized Google’s “Back to the Moon,” an animated fairytale adventure that celebrates the life and art of French illusionist and film director Georges Méliès, and BBDO Dublin’s “Consequences” which shows the tragic results of a night of drinking and driving. Tribeca and New York Film Festival favorite “Fire Escape” also won VR gold for its gripping story centered on solving a murder mystery.
Meanwhile, newer studios and networks also found success with Stept Studios, Blue Chalk Media, and SoulPancake picking up awards in various categories.
In online and social video, publishers made their mark with Wired, Vogue, Vanity Fair and Bon Appétit all being recognized. Additionally, Verizon Media earned four golds for their in-depth online video profiles “This Tattoo Artist Has Been Inking for 46 Years,” “Anthony Mancinelli: The World’s Oldest Barber” and webseries “Real Life Love”.
Additional 40th Annual Telly highlights from this year’s winners include:
Branded Content
- National Geographic won for “A Wild Lager Story” in Videography/Cinematography
- Passion Pictures & CNN won for “What is Beauty?” in 2D Animation
- Univision Communications Inc. won for “Target Holiday” in Commercials
- WeTransfer won for “Breaking The Circle” in Directing
- Dow Jones won for “Chasing Ambition” in Campaign: Branding
Social Video
- Condé Nast won for Wired’s “Former CIA Chief Explains How Spies Use Disguises” in General: Education & Discovery
- PBS Digital Studios won for PBS Digital Studios “It’s Okay to be Smart “ in Series: Education & Discovery
- AETN won for “Native American Campaign” in Series: Culture & Lifestyle
- AJ+ won for “Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women” in General: News & Information
Television
- AETN won for “We Are One” in Sports
- CBS Interactive won for “Paul McCartney Carpool Karaoke” in Comedy
- ESPN Films won for “30 for 30 Shorts: Locked In” in Documentary: Individual
- HBO Latin America won for “O Negócio” in Directing
- Adult Swim won for “Final Deployment 4: Queen Battle – Walkthrough” in Use of Humor
Online Series/Shows/Segments
- PBS Digital Studios won for “Do We Need a President of the United States | America From Scratch” in Social Issues
- Viacom Media Networks won for “Real Life Love” in Webseries: Documentary
- Culture Trip won for “Hungerlust” in Documentary: Series
- The Daily Show with Trevor Noah won for “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” in Entertainment
- Fast Company & Inc Magazine won for “Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper turned their chemistry into a side career” in Entertainment
For a full rundown of winners, click here.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More