Atas Establishes Nonfiction Award

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has created a new Primetime Emmy Award category encompassing nonfiction filmmaking.

The juried award for exceptional merit in nonfiction filmmaking was designed to recognize primetime specials and episodes of nonfiction series that fall outside of the reality or documentary arena. One example of a show that would fall into the new category would be the long-running PBS natural history series "Nova."

The new award is a juried award, meaning that the nominees and winners will be determined by a panel of qualified experts. The award may not be handed out each year, depending on the volume of submissions and the views of the judging panel. If a winner is selected during this year's Primetime Emmy derby, the award will be presented as part of the Creative Arts ceremony, to be held Sept. 11 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

The new Emmy category was announced Tuesday by Shari Cookson and Susan Lacy, members of the ATAS board of governors and the academy's nonfiction programming peer group.

"Candidates for nomination will be selected from entries that demonstrate profound social impact, significant innovation of form and/or remarkable mastery of filmmaking techniques that perpetuate the power of the art form," Cookson said.