2025 News and Doc Emmys Nominees

Here’s a breakdown of the top documentary categories for the 2025 News and Doc Emmys Nominees.

Nat Geo has a staggering 46 nominations. Here’s how the rest of the distributer stacked up:

• 46 Nat Geo

• 37 PBS

• 33 CNN

• 30 ABC (w/ Hulu)

• 29 Netflix

• 28 CBS

The most nominated doc is Nat Geo’s Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana van Zeller, a series that earned a whopping 29 nominations.

A very competitive Outstanding Direction - Documentary category with two of the films premiering at Sundance. The first, Daughters, took home the Festival Favorite and Audience Choice: U.S. Documentary. While the second Frida, took the U.S. Editing Award. Both were shortlisted for Best Doc Oscar but didn’t make the final nominations.

Queendom, up for Best Documentary, was also Oscar shortlisted.

Here are the nominees:

Best Documentary

• American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders (Netflix)
  Producers: Stardust Frames, Duplass Brothers Productions
  Trailer

• The Commandant's Shadow (HBO | Max)
  Producers: Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO Documentary Films, Snowstorm Productions, Creators Inc., New Mandate Films
  Trailer

• The Grab (Various Platforms)
  Producers: Center for Investigative Reporting Studios, Rocklin | Faust, Magnolia Pictures, Participant Media, Impact Partners
  Trailer

• Hollywood Black (MGM+)
  Producers: Radical Media, Culture Machine, Significant Productions
  Trailer

• Mammals (BBC America | BBC+)
  Producers: BBC Studios Natural History Unit, France Télévisions, ZDF
  Trailer

• Queendom (Galdanova Film)
  Trailer

• The Sing Sing Chronicles (MSNBC)
  Producers: NBC News Studios, MSNBC Films, Trilogy Films
  Trailer

• The Sixth (A24)
  Producers: Change Content
  Trailer

• The Truth vs. Alex Jones (HBO | Max)
  Producers: HBO Documentary Films, AMOS Pictures
  Trailer

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Outstanding Direction – Documentary

• Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (National Geographic)
  Producers: Silverback Films
  Trailer

• Daughters (Netflix)
  Producers: XTR, Object & Animal, Epoch Films, Park Pictures, OPC, World of HA, Simpson Street, Two One Five
  Trailer

• Frida (Prime Video)
  Producers: Imagine Documentaries, TIME Studios
  Trailer

• Madu (Disney+)
  Producers: Disney Branded Television, Hunting Lane Films
  Trailer

• Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal (PBS)
  Series: American Experience
  Producers: GBH, Madrona Productions
  Trailer

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Outstanding Writing – Documentary

• Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (National Geographic)
  Producers: Silverback Films
  Trailer

• Join or Die (Netflix)
  Producers: Delevan Street Films
  Trailer

• King Coal (PBS)
  Series: POV
  Producers: Drexler Films, Cottage M, Fishbowl Films, Narrow Vision Endeavors, King Coal Productions LLC, American Documentary | POV
  Trailer

• The Night Won't End (Al Jazeera International USA)
  Series: Fault Lines
  

• Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal (PBS)
  Series: American Experience
  Producers: GBH, Madrona Productions
  Trailer

• The Space Race (National Geographic)
  Producers: National Geographic Documentary Films, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Alegria Films, Cortés Filmworks, Diamond Docs
  Trailer

Outstanding Historical Documentary

• An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th (HBO | Max)
  Producers: HBO Documentary Films, Blowback Productions
  Trailer

• Fly With Me (PBS)
  Series: American Experience
  Producers: GBH, Sarah Colt Productions
  Trailer

• The Sixth (A24)
  Producers: Change Content
  Trailer

• Tsunami: Race Against Time (National Geographic)
  Producers: Blast Films
  Trailer

• Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War (Netflix)
  Producers: Luminant Media
  Trailer

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Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary

• Anand Varma: Hidden Wonders Photographer (National Geographic)
  Producers: Little Monster Films

• Trailer

• Apollo 13: Survival (Netflix)
  Producers: Insight TWI Films, Fee Fie Foe
  Trailer

• Hunt for the Oldest DNA (PBS)
  Series: NOVA
  Producers: Handful of Films, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, NOVA/GBH, ZDF, DR Danish Broadcasting Corporation
  Trailer

• The Space Race (National Geographic)
  Producers: National Geographic Documentary Films, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Alegria Films, Cortés Filmworks, Diamond Docs
  Trailer

• What's Next? The Future with Bill Gates (Netflix)
  Producers: Tremolo Productions
  Trailer

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Outstanding Nature Documentary

• Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster (PBS)
  Series: Nature
  Trailer

• Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (National Geographic)
  Producers: Silverback Films
  Trailer

• Grizzly 399: Queen of the Tetons (PBS)
  Series: Nature
  Producers: Lucky 8 TV, The WNET Group
  Trailer

• Our Living World (Netflix)
  Producers: Wild Space, Freeborne Media
  Trailer

• Patrick and the Whale (PBS)
  Series: Nature
  Producers: Terra Mater Studios, The WNET Group
  Trailer

• Paul Nicklen & Cristina Mittermeier: Win or Die Photographer (National Geographic)
  Producers: Little Monster Films
  Trailer

• Silverback (PBS)
  Series: Nature
  Producers: Off the Fence Studios, BBC, France Télévisions, Featuristic Films, The WNET Group
  Trailer

Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary

• Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown (National Geographic)
  Producers: 72 Films
  Trailer

• Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
  Producers: Tripod Media LLC, Denver & Delilah
  Trailer

• Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer (Hulu)
  Producers: Campfire Studios, Lewellen Pictures, Invited by Girls, Rebecca Halpern Productions
  Trailer

• Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal (PBS)
  Series: American Experience
  Producers: GBH, Madrona Productions
  Trailer

• The Truth vs. Alex Jones (HBO | Max)
  Producers: HBO Documentary Films, AMOS Pictures
  Trailer

Full list here.