The Best Limited Series/TV Movie Writing category has 111 submissions on the 2023 Emmys ballot, giving us six nominees this year. With the same number of nominees last year, they were “Dopesick” (“The People vs. Purdue Pharma” by Danny Strong), “The Dropout” (“I’m in a Hurry” by Elizabeth Meriwether), “Maid” (“Snaps” by Molly Smith Metzler), “Station Eleven” (“Unbroken Circle” by Patrick Somerville), “Impeachment: American Crime Story” (“Man Handled” by Sarah Burgess), and the winner “The White Lotus” (Mike White).
What makes last year interesting is that half of the shows in the category were not nominated for Best Limited Series, something that perhaps could repeat itself to a degree with this year’s potential nominees. Another thing of note is that almost all of the top contenders this year that had the option to submit multiple episodes only went with one, preventing any possibility of vote-splitting.
Take “Beef” for example,...
What makes last year interesting is that half of the shows in the category were not nominated for Best Limited Series, something that perhaps could repeat itself to a degree with this year’s potential nominees. Another thing of note is that almost all of the top contenders this year that had the option to submit multiple episodes only went with one, preventing any possibility of vote-splitting.
Take “Beef” for example,...
- 6/28/2023
- by Christopher Tsang
- Gold Derby
Editor’s note: The following interviews were done outside of the FYC event series, as there was no panel or screening.
Between the time when playwright-director Tina Satter’s revelatory and innovative account of real-life whistleblower Reality Winner went from a Broadway stage to the screen, the title changed from the vaguely surreal Is This a Room to the more documentary-like — though no less evocative — Reality.
The title change was just one of the topics discussed when Deadline spoke recently with Satter and Reality star Sydney Sweeney as part of the Deadline FYC House + HBO Max event series.
The change, in a way, is telling. The HBO film Reality, which debuted on May 29, uses the exact same words as the play — and both use the exact same words of the actual Reality Winner: The dialogue for the screenplay, co-written by Satter and James Paul Dallas also is taken directly from...
Between the time when playwright-director Tina Satter’s revelatory and innovative account of real-life whistleblower Reality Winner went from a Broadway stage to the screen, the title changed from the vaguely surreal Is This a Room to the more documentary-like — though no less evocative — Reality.
The title change was just one of the topics discussed when Deadline spoke recently with Satter and Reality star Sydney Sweeney as part of the Deadline FYC House + HBO Max event series.
The change, in a way, is telling. The HBO film Reality, which debuted on May 29, uses the exact same words as the play — and both use the exact same words of the actual Reality Winner: The dialogue for the screenplay, co-written by Satter and James Paul Dallas also is taken directly from...
- 6/13/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Just days after it premiered on May 29, 2023, “Reality” is now predicted to receive a top Emmy nomination for Best TV Movie. In the 82-minute telefilm, former two-time Emmy nominee Sydney Sweeney (“Euphoria” and “The White Lotus”) portrays Reality Winner, the American intelligence specialist who, in 2017 at the age of 25, was arrested for allegedly leaking a report about potential Russian interference in the 2016 election to the media.
“Reality” made its initial debut at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year to great fanfare. It’s based on the play “Is This A Room” by Tina Satter, who now co-writes (with James Paul Dallas) and directs the movie. Co-stars include Josh Hamilton as Agent Garrick and Marchánt Davis.
SEESydney Sweeney offers a very brief tease for ‘Euphoria’ Season 3
According to Gold Derby’s updated Emmy predictions, the five nominees for Best TV Movie will be “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” at 82/25 odds,...
“Reality” made its initial debut at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year to great fanfare. It’s based on the play “Is This A Room” by Tina Satter, who now co-writes (with James Paul Dallas) and directs the movie. Co-stars include Josh Hamilton as Agent Garrick and Marchánt Davis.
SEESydney Sweeney offers a very brief tease for ‘Euphoria’ Season 3
According to Gold Derby’s updated Emmy predictions, the five nominees for Best TV Movie will be “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” at 82/25 odds,...
- 6/11/2023
- by Marcus James Dixon
- Gold Derby
On the afternoon of June 3, 2017, Reality Winner parked her car in front of her modest home in Augusta, Georgia. A former member of the U.S. Air Force who was fluent in three Middle Eastern languages — Farsi, Dari, and Pashto — she’d worked as a linguist before getting a contracting job with the Nsa. Two FBI agents are there to greet her in the driveway. They have a warrant to search the premises, her car, her phone, her person. Is there anybody else inside the house? Suddenly, more cars and more Feds show up.
- 6/1/2023
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Former enlisted U.S. Air Force member and Nsa translator Reality Winner, who was arrested by federal authorities in 2017 for leaking classified information, has a fortuitous first name for a dramatist looking to interrogate both the state of our world and the lines between fiction and document, between script and transcript. Hence the straightforward title of Tina Satter’s Reality, the resonances of which hardly need further explanation.
The dialogue in Satter and James Paul Dallas’s screenplay is drawn directly from recordings the F.B.I. made as they executed a search warrant on Reality’s home in Augusta, Georgia, and interviewed the young woman about her illegal leak of intelligence on Russian interference in the 2016 election to online news publication The Intercept. This would seem to include all the awkward pauses, the uncomfortable small talk, and the sudden coughs and throat clears that become such unsettling features of Satter’s portrait of Winner’s ordeal.
The dialogue in Satter and James Paul Dallas’s screenplay is drawn directly from recordings the F.B.I. made as they executed a search warrant on Reality’s home in Augusta, Georgia, and interviewed the young woman about her illegal leak of intelligence on Russian interference in the 2016 election to online news publication The Intercept. This would seem to include all the awkward pauses, the uncomfortable small talk, and the sudden coughs and throat clears that become such unsettling features of Satter’s portrait of Winner’s ordeal.
- 5/28/2023
- by Pat Brown
- Slant Magazine
Just because the week is shorter, doesn’t mean that there’s any less stellar programming on the horizon, with new seasons of “I Think You Should Leave,” “Dark Side of the Ring,” “Nancy Drew” and “Painting with John,” plus the series finales of “Barry” and “Succession.” And that’s to say nothing of a ripped-from-the-headlines HBO movie (starring Sydney Sweeney no less), a documentary about the American Gladiators and a LeBron James biopic. A jam-packed week, even with one fewer day!
On with the television!
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“I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson”
Tuesday, May 30, Netflix
Netflix
Television’s most deliriously funny series returns. If you’ve never seen “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson,” it springs from the deranged mind of star and creator Tim Robinson, who worked as a performer...
On with the television!
Get TheWrap’s TV Watchlist newsletter in your inbox every Friday by signing up here.
“I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson”
Tuesday, May 30, Netflix
Netflix
Television’s most deliriously funny series returns. If you’ve never seen “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson,” it springs from the deranged mind of star and creator Tim Robinson, who worked as a performer...
- 5/27/2023
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
Reality Winner returns home from grocery shopping and finds two men waiting for her. They slowly identify themselves as FBI agents, and they say they want to talk to Reality about classified documents. What follows is taken verbatim from the transcript of an FBI interview that went on for over an hour at Reality Winner's home. Tina Satter previously used the transcript for the play "Is This a Room," and now Satter brings the story to the screen with the almost unbearably tense "Reality." Here is a film that's essentially three people having a long conversation in a bare, dirty room, and I was on the edge of my seat nearly the entire time. There's an intensity to this material almost from the jump — if two FBI agents show up at your house, things are going to get anxiety-inducing real quick, no matter how faux-polite those agents may be.
Working with co-writer James Paul Dallas,...
Working with co-writer James Paul Dallas,...
- 5/22/2023
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
Sydney Sweeney stars as a real-life whistleblower in director Tina Satter’s forthcoming drama Reality.
Sweeney stars in the film as Reality Winner, who pleaded guilty following her June 2017 arrest for leaking a U.S. intelligence report that detailed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The HBO Films project hits streaming service Max on May 29 after premiering earlier this year at the Berlin International Film Festival.
With a script from Satter and James Paul Dallas, the movie adapts Winner’s FBI interrogation transcript. Satter previously staged the transcript as the play Is This a Room, which landed a Broadway run in 2021. Reality’s cast includes Marchánt Davis and Josh Hamilton.
The tense trailer shows Winner, a former enlisted member of the U.S. Air Force, getting interrogated at her home in Georgia. “I’m trying to deploy,” Sweeney says in the footage. “I’m not trying to be a whistleblower. That’s crazy.
Sweeney stars in the film as Reality Winner, who pleaded guilty following her June 2017 arrest for leaking a U.S. intelligence report that detailed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The HBO Films project hits streaming service Max on May 29 after premiering earlier this year at the Berlin International Film Festival.
With a script from Satter and James Paul Dallas, the movie adapts Winner’s FBI interrogation transcript. Satter previously staged the transcript as the play Is This a Room, which landed a Broadway run in 2021. Reality’s cast includes Marchánt Davis and Josh Hamilton.
The tense trailer shows Winner, a former enlisted member of the U.S. Air Force, getting interrogated at her home in Georgia. “I’m trying to deploy,” Sweeney says in the footage. “I’m not trying to be a whistleblower. That’s crazy.
- 5/12/2023
- by Ryan Gajewski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The FBI has it out for Sydney Sweeney in the trailer for “Reality,” Tina Satter’s gripping biopic-docudrama about the America intelligence whistleblower Reality Winner.
The upcoming HBO film stars Sweeney as Winner, who was imprisoned for releasing classified information about Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The film also stars Marchánt Davis and Josh Hamilton.
“Reality” is based on Satter’s play, “Is This a Room,” and the FBI’s transcript of their 2017 interrogation of Winner, which took place in her home just days prior to her arrest.
“Truly, when I first stumbled upon the transcript for the interrogation just through reading it I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is like a movie thriller.’ I really felt that,” Satter told Variety.
Sweeney, on the other hand, didn’t fall as easily into the role. She felt differently playing Winner than she has about previous characters. “Reality,...
The upcoming HBO film stars Sweeney as Winner, who was imprisoned for releasing classified information about Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The film also stars Marchánt Davis and Josh Hamilton.
“Reality” is based on Satter’s play, “Is This a Room,” and the FBI’s transcript of their 2017 interrogation of Winner, which took place in her home just days prior to her arrest.
“Truly, when I first stumbled upon the transcript for the interrogation just through reading it I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is like a movie thriller.’ I really felt that,” Satter told Variety.
Sweeney, on the other hand, didn’t fall as easily into the role. She felt differently playing Winner than she has about previous characters. “Reality,...
- 5/11/2023
- by Sophia Scorziello
- Variety Film + TV
HBO has unveiled the first look at “Euphoria” breakout Sydney Sweeney as Nsa leaker Reality Winner in the upcoming film “Reality.” Tina Satter writes and directs the feature based on her 2019 play “Is This a Room,” and the dialogue in the film is directly from the transcript of the tense conversation between Reality Winner and the FBI agents who arrived at her home to question her.
The HBO original film takes place on June 3, 2017, when the 25-year-old former American intelligence specialist was confronted about the leak of an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, which ran on The Intercept. The shocking report showed how Russian hackers accessed voter registration roles in the United States.
This is Sweeney’s next major leading role after breaking out on the HBO series “Euphoria,” previously having starred in the HBO limited series “Sharp Objects,” Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and...
The HBO original film takes place on June 3, 2017, when the 25-year-old former American intelligence specialist was confronted about the leak of an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, which ran on The Intercept. The shocking report showed how Russian hackers accessed voter registration roles in the United States.
This is Sweeney’s next major leading role after breaking out on the HBO series “Euphoria,” previously having starred in the HBO limited series “Sharp Objects,” Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and...
- 4/28/2023
- by Adam Chitwood
- The Wrap
Sydney Sweeney is being stalked by the FBI.
The “Euphoria” Emmy nominee leads HBO film “Reality,” based on writer-director Tina Satter’s 2019 play “Is This A Room.”
On June 3, 2017, 25-year-old former American intelligence specialist Reality Winner (Sweeney) is confronted by FBI agents, played by Josh Hamilton and Marchánt Davis, arriving at her home to question her suspected role in the mishandling of classified information. Reality Winner is an ex-Air Force member and Nsa translator who later received the harshest sentence, five years and three months in prison, for the unauthorized release of government information to the media leading to FBI director James Comey being fired for the investigation into how Russian interference affected the 2016 election.
Based on true events, the film’s dialogue, as with the acclaimed Off-Broadway play, comes directly from the transcript of their tense and transfixing conversation.
“Reality” debuted at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival, marking Satter...
The “Euphoria” Emmy nominee leads HBO film “Reality,” based on writer-director Tina Satter’s 2019 play “Is This A Room.”
On June 3, 2017, 25-year-old former American intelligence specialist Reality Winner (Sweeney) is confronted by FBI agents, played by Josh Hamilton and Marchánt Davis, arriving at her home to question her suspected role in the mishandling of classified information. Reality Winner is an ex-Air Force member and Nsa translator who later received the harshest sentence, five years and three months in prison, for the unauthorized release of government information to the media leading to FBI director James Comey being fired for the investigation into how Russian interference affected the 2016 election.
Based on true events, the film’s dialogue, as with the acclaimed Off-Broadway play, comes directly from the transcript of their tense and transfixing conversation.
“Reality” debuted at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival, marking Satter...
- 4/19/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Following a buzzy world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, HBO Films has acquired the U.S. rights to the docudrama “Reality,” starring Sydney Sweeney.
In the film, directed by Tina Satter, Sweeney portrays Reality Winner, a woman convicted of leaking a confidential report on Russian election interference to the media. The film contains verbatim dialogue from the unedited transcript of a FBI audio recording, capturing a tense 90 minutes as the FBI interrogates Winner at her home in 2017. The whistleblower — a former U.S. Air Force member and National Security Agency translator — was sentenced to five years in prison.
Satter makes her feature directorial debut with the film, based on her 2019 stage play “Is This a Room.” She also executive produced the project and co-wrote the screenplay with James Paul Dallas.
While HBO hasn’t set a release date yet, Sweeney has a dedicated fanbase among the network’s audience after...
In the film, directed by Tina Satter, Sweeney portrays Reality Winner, a woman convicted of leaking a confidential report on Russian election interference to the media. The film contains verbatim dialogue from the unedited transcript of a FBI audio recording, capturing a tense 90 minutes as the FBI interrogates Winner at her home in 2017. The whistleblower — a former U.S. Air Force member and National Security Agency translator — was sentenced to five years in prison.
Satter makes her feature directorial debut with the film, based on her 2019 stage play “Is This a Room.” She also executive produced the project and co-wrote the screenplay with James Paul Dallas.
While HBO hasn’t set a release date yet, Sweeney has a dedicated fanbase among the network’s audience after...
- 2/25/2023
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
As the 73rd Berlin Film Festival rolls into its first weekend, one of the buzziest titles on the ground is the taut political thriller Reality, starring Euphoria and White Lotus breakout Sydney Sweeney.
The film debuted in the festival’s sidebar Panorama section Saturday evening and has since received widespread acclaim from critics and the wider festival crowd. In Deadline’s review, Damon Wise described the pic as an “astonishingly effective docu-drama hybrid.”
The story follows the real-life U.S. whistleblower Reality Winner, a former intelligence officer who was given the longest prison sentence ever imposed for the unauthorized release of classified material (five years and three months). Winner had passed documents to the media in 2018 about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.
Sweeney portrays Winner in the film from director Tina Satter, who adapted the screenplay with James Paul Dallas from her own 2021 Broadway play Is This A Room.
The film debuted in the festival’s sidebar Panorama section Saturday evening and has since received widespread acclaim from critics and the wider festival crowd. In Deadline’s review, Damon Wise described the pic as an “astonishingly effective docu-drama hybrid.”
The story follows the real-life U.S. whistleblower Reality Winner, a former intelligence officer who was given the longest prison sentence ever imposed for the unauthorized release of classified material (five years and three months). Winner had passed documents to the media in 2018 about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.
Sweeney portrays Winner in the film from director Tina Satter, who adapted the screenplay with James Paul Dallas from her own 2021 Broadway play Is This A Room.
- 2/19/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Acclaimed New York-based theater director Tina Satter has worked on productions on and off Broadway for more than a decade. Now, in her first ever venture into film, Satter makes her directorial debut with “Reality,” starring Sydney Sweeney, based on Satter’s play “Is This a Room.” The film premiered Saturday at the Berlin Film Festival with Variety critic Jessica Kiang calling it a “clever, gripping docudrama.”
For Satter, who co-wrote the screenplay with James Paul Dallas, making this movie was always in the books. The film, based on the real-life FBI interrogation transcript of whistleblower Reality Winner, is one Satter could envision the first time she came across the documents of the conversation between Winner and the Federal Bureau.
“Truly, when I first stumbled upon the transcript for the interrogation just through reading it I was like, oh my god, this is like a movie thriller. I really felt that,...
For Satter, who co-wrote the screenplay with James Paul Dallas, making this movie was always in the books. The film, based on the real-life FBI interrogation transcript of whistleblower Reality Winner, is one Satter could envision the first time she came across the documents of the conversation between Winner and the Federal Bureau.
“Truly, when I first stumbled upon the transcript for the interrogation just through reading it I was like, oh my god, this is like a movie thriller. I really felt that,...
- 2/19/2023
- by Shayeza Walid
- Variety Film + TV
Playwright Tina Satter’s Is This a Room is one of the more anomalous standouts of recent New York theater seasons. A 65-minute verbatim docudrama molded entirely out of FBI interrogation transcripts leading to the arrest of Nsa whistle-blower Reality Winner, it was propelled by stellar reviews from a small downtown space to a leading Off Broadway house, before landing on Broadway for a short run in 2021 that consolidated its critical success even if it struggled commercially.
Showing the same uncanny ability to draw suspense out of a ripped-from-the-headlines situation with a known outcome, Satter has adapted the play as a feature that makes for a forceful gut punch of cinema vérité.
By swapping the stage production’s minimalist design for a scrupulously realistic representation of the house in Augusta, Georgia, that Winner was renting in 2017, Reality, as the film has been retitled, risks diminishing the uncomfortable convergence of the...
Showing the same uncanny ability to draw suspense out of a ripped-from-the-headlines situation with a known outcome, Satter has adapted the play as a feature that makes for a forceful gut punch of cinema vérité.
By swapping the stage production’s minimalist design for a scrupulously realistic representation of the house in Augusta, Georgia, that Winner was renting in 2017, Reality, as the film has been retitled, risks diminishing the uncomfortable convergence of the...
- 2/18/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sydney Sweeney passed through the Berlin Film Festival Saturday evening alongside playwright and director Tina Satter to debut their new feature Reality.
The film follows the story of real-life U.S. whistleblower Reality Winner, a former intelligence officer who was given the longest prison sentence ever imposed for the unauthorized release of classified material (five years and three months). Winner had passed documents to the media in 2018 about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.
The Euphoria actor portrays Winner in the film, and she told press corps in Berlin that she studied many clips of Winner’s past interviews to nail her mannerisms.
“When I was auditioning, I went and found as many interviews as I could of Reality so that I could watch how she speaks, moves, and her different mannerisms,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney continued to say that she took all of her visual research into her audition,...
The film follows the story of real-life U.S. whistleblower Reality Winner, a former intelligence officer who was given the longest prison sentence ever imposed for the unauthorized release of classified material (five years and three months). Winner had passed documents to the media in 2018 about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.
The Euphoria actor portrays Winner in the film, and she told press corps in Berlin that she studied many clips of Winner’s past interviews to nail her mannerisms.
“When I was auditioning, I went and found as many interviews as I could of Reality so that I could watch how she speaks, moves, and her different mannerisms,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney continued to say that she took all of her visual research into her audition,...
- 2/18/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Euphoria and White Lotus star Sydney Sweeney is starring in Tina Satter’s debut feature about whistleblower Reality Winner.
She’ll play Winner in a cast that features Josh Hamilton and Marchánt Davis.
Winner was a former American intelligence specialist. She was given the longest sentence ever for the unauthorized release of government information to the media for leaking an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections via an email phishing operation.
On June 3, 2017, while employed by the military contractor Pluribus International Corporation, Winner was arrested on suspicion of leaking an intelligence report about Russian meddling in the 2016 election from the National Security Agency to news website The Intercept.
The project is inspired by Satter’s acclaimed play Is This A Room, which had a critically lauded Broadway run last fall. The script was...
She’ll play Winner in a cast that features Josh Hamilton and Marchánt Davis.
Winner was a former American intelligence specialist. She was given the longest sentence ever for the unauthorized release of government information to the media for leaking an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections via an email phishing operation.
On June 3, 2017, while employed by the military contractor Pluribus International Corporation, Winner was arrested on suspicion of leaking an intelligence report about Russian meddling in the 2016 election from the National Security Agency to news website The Intercept.
The project is inspired by Satter’s acclaimed play Is This A Room, which had a critically lauded Broadway run last fall. The script was...
- 6/8/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
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