The Great, created and written by AFTRS alum and multi-award-winning screenwriter Tony McNamara (Bachelor of Arts (Film & Television) Scriptwriting, 1995) is vying for three awards at the 78ᵗʰ Golden Globe Awards. The Hulu series, which stars Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult is up for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy, and has secured its lead actors nods for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy and Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy.
Competing against some of last year’s biggest television productions in the Musical or Comedy category, The Great is up against The Flight Attendant (HBO Max, Schitt’s Creek (Pop TV) and Ted Lasso (Apple TV+) and Emily in Paris (Netflix).
The series, which made its debut in 2020, is a genre-bending, “anti-historical” ride through 18th-century Russia, loosely based on the rise to power of Catherine the Great, the longest-running female ruler of Russia. The highly-acclaimed series has since earned an Emmy nomination for Best Writing for a Comedy Series and secured a second season, which is currently in production.
McNamara worked on The Great with executive producer and former AFTRS lecturer Marian MacGowan. They both feature in an episode of AFTRS’ online talks series discussing their collaboration and work on the series.
In 2019 McNamara earned a Golden Globe nomination for his work on Yorgos Lanthimos’ feature film, The Favourite, which, in its awards season sweep, also earned Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild nominations and BAFTA and AACTA wins.
Hosted remotely coast-to-coast by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the 2021 Golden Globes award ceremony is being held from 5 pm to 8 pm PT/8 pm – 11 pm ET on Sunday 28 February, with nominees to appear from various locations around the world.
See more details on the 2021 edition and see the full list of nominees here.
