The Television Academy announced additional 2018 changes in membership requirements as approved by its Board of Governors. On-air promo producers and directors are now eligible to join the Commercials Peer Group of the Academy. In addition, membership eligibility in the Performers Peer Group was expanded to include commercial performers and narrators. Eligibility requirements for all voiceover artists and commercial performers were also formally adopted by the Performers Peer Group.
“We are pleased to expand our membership with these talented groups of professionals working in the television industry,” said Hayma Washington, Television Academy chairman and CEO. “These membership changes are aligned with our ongoing efforts to be inclusive and recognize the many unique professionals who play vital roles in the television landscape.”
New membership eligibility rules changes
Active Status (voting) membership for the Commercials Peer Group now includes:
- Producers or directors employed on at least 20 national on-air promos with each promo having more than 50 percent original content.
Active Status (voting) membership for the Performers Peer Group now includes:
- Voiceover performers with eight (8) qualifying credits of nationally exhibited content within the past four (4) years. Voiceover is defined as a character voice, live action or animation, narration, in-show announcer, live announcer, promo announcer, and commercials.
- Commercial performers who have accrued any combination of eight (8) performing credits in principal roles within the past four (4) years.
All new Television Academy members will be eligible to vote in the first and second round of this year’s Emmys if they join by May 10, 2018.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More