Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese received his first Academy Award nomination in directing for “Raging Bull” in 1981. 26 years later he won his first Oscar in that category for “The Departed.” Will Scorsese face another long wait for his first Emmy Award?
The Television Academy has honored Scorsese five times previously including Outstanding Cultural Program for “Eric Clapton: Nothing But the Blues: An ‘In the Spotlight Special’ in 1995 as a producer, outstanding nonfiction series for “The Soul of A Man” also as a producer in 2003 and as an editor for “AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Robert De Niro” in the same year. His other previous nods were both in 2006 as a producer for “American Masters” and for directing nonfiction in “No Direction Home: Bob Dylan.”
This year, Scorsese’s acclaimed series “Boardwalk Empire” landed 18 nominations including outstanding dramatic series and, most intriguingly, outstanding directing for a drama series. Scorsese helmed the “Boardwalk Empire” pilot and finds himself up against Neil Jordan for an episode of “The Borgias,” Jeremy Podeswa for the “Anastasia” episode of “Boardwalk Empire,” Tim Van Patten for “Game of Thrones,” “Winter is Coming” (Pilot) and Patty Jenkins for the pilot of “The Killing.” At first glance, Scorsese has an excellent shot of taking home his first directing Emmy on name recognition alone. As an executive producer he should be in line to reap an Emmy for “Boardwalk’s” series nod, but the Television Academy hasn’t finalized the producer credits on nominated shows yet.
Additionally, Scorsese was nominated for co-directing the American Masters documentary “A Letter to Elia/Reflecting on Kazan,” along with Kent Jones, in the outstanding directing for nonfiction programming category.
Scorsese also has won best directing awards from the Cannes Film Festival (“After Hours”), the DGA (“The Departed”), BAFTA (“Goodfellas”) and two Golden Globe Awards (“The Departed,” “Gangs of New York”).
The 2011 Emmy Awards winners will be revealed on Sept. 18.