Last year, The Handmaid’s Tale deservedly swept the Emmys. Because many of last year’s awards tackled moments from season two and season three had a late release (June), it was unclear whether or not the Gileadean series would have a presence at the ceremony this year without much newly eligible content.
Considering season three (after a very disappointing moment where WE WERE ROOTING FOR YOU, JUNE, but I’m fine.) won’t be back until June, the new episodes are ineligible for the 2019 awards. While most of season two was nominated for key awards — and won — during last year’s ceremony, technically a few are still eligible for this year.
To be considered eligible as a TV series, typically shows must have aired prior to the nomination window. However, “hanging episodes,” which are episodes that air after the nomination window has closed for the previous year, are an exception.
According to the Television Academy ruling, “If an ongoing series has enough episodes in the current eligibility year to qualify as a series and has one or more episodes that are part of the series season, including the season/series finale, that fall into the subsequent eligibility year, the hanging episodes that are in a contiguous rollout on the same distribution platform join in eligibility the already-qualified-as-eligible episodes of the series, as long as the hanging episodes air prior to the start of nomination-round voting.” Whew.
Since the final three episodes fell outside of last year’s eligibility window, Hulu announced that it will submit those episodes for consideration this year. The series will submit directors Daina Reid and Mike Barker for episodes 211 and 213, writers Bruce Miller and Kira Snyder for episode 211, and guest actors Cherry Jones (June’s mother Holly) and Bradley Whitford (Commander Lawrence) for consideration, according to Variety.
The program will also submit for cinematography, fantasy/sci-fi costumes, music composition, hairstyling, makeup, sound editing, single-camera picture editing, and prosthetic makeup categories, as well.
Submissions for the 71st Emmys are now open. Nominations will be announced on July 16 prior to the ceremony, which will be held on Sept. 22.
The third season of The Handmaid’s Tale debuts on June 5 on Hulu.
Photo: George Kraychyk/Hulu
