‘Mountainhead’ ski jumps into top 5 for Best TV Movie Emmy, but its actors still have an uphill climb
Less than a week after HBO's original movie Mountainhead received a title and a premiere date, it's already ski jumped into the top five in Gold Derby's Best TV Movie Emmy predictions.
Why? The telefilm about a group of billionaire friends who deal with a financial crisis while at a swanky ski resort has an awards-worthy pedigree both behind the scenes and in front of the camera. Mountainhead is written and directed by Jesse Armstrong, the seven-time Emmy winner for Succession (four for writing, three for producing). This marks his directorial debut.
The cast is led by Steve Carell , Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, and Ramy Youssef as the four main billionaires. They're joined by Hadley Robinson, Andy Daly, Ali Kinkade, Daniel Oreskes, David Thompson, Amie MacKenzie, and Ava Kostia.
Recent Emmy history has been a wipeout for made-for-television movies, particularly in the acting categories, as the format has mostly been abandoned in favor of limited series. That's currently reflected in the Gold Derby odds, where Carell has the strongest chance of receiving a bid for Mountainhead, though he's down in 17th place among Best Movie/Limited Actor contenders.
The last actor to win an Emmy for a telefilm was Michael Douglas as Liberace in Behind the Candelabra (2013), while Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin in Game Change (2012) was the last female nominee to prevail. The two most recent supporting champions both hailed from Temple Grandin (2010): David Strathairn and Julia Ormond. (Note: Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman both won for Sherlock: His Last Vow in 2014, which was classified as a TV movie for Emmy purposes when it was really just a specific episode in the larger Sherlock series.)
But those were all winners. What about nominees?
In the past five years, only two performers have received Emmy nominations for traditional TV movies: Daniel Radcliffe for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2023) and Hugh Jackman for Bad Education (2020).
Then there's Tituss Burgess, who nabbed a supporting bid for his canceled show's interactive follow-up film, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend (2020).
Seven more actors were recognized in 2021 for the Broadway-to-television Hamilton special: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs, Jonathan Groff, Anthony Ramos, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and Phillipa Soo.
For the Mountainhead cast to receive Emmy nominations this year, they'd have to buck the recent trend of voters mostly overlooking TV movies. Carell's name being on the project certainly doesn't hurt, considering he's a beloved 10-time Emmy nominee for The Office (acting and producing) and The Morning Show (acting) who's still looking for his first win.
Here are Gold Derby's current top 10 contenders for Best TV Movie (five are expected to be nominated):
- Rebel Ridge — 9/4 odds
- Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy — 31/10 odds
- Out of My Mind — 6/1 odds
- Am I OK? — 11/1 odds
- Mountainhead — 15/1 odds
- The Parenting — 20/1 odds
- The Gorge — 28/1 odds
- The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat — 37/1 odds
- G20 — 85/1 odds
- Star Trek: Section 31 — 97/1 odds
Mountainhead premieres May 31 on HBO and Max, which is the last day of eligibility for the 2025 Emmys.
Are you excited for Armstrong's directorial debut? Be sure to sound off in Gold Derby's TV forum.
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