Betty Gilpin roasted Sam Altman at the Emmys and the crowd went wild
The Creative Arts Emmys handed out 102 trophies this weekend - and 'Widow's Bay' ran away with eight of them, Rob Reiner got a posthumous standing ovation, and Spider-Noir won five awards despite getting canceled.
In brief
Betty Gilpin roasted Sam Altman at the Emmys and the crowd went wild
Eight days out from the big show, the Emmy Awards are already delivering moments people will be talking about at the September 14 ceremony. This weekend's Creative Arts Emmy ceremonies at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles handed out craft and guest-acting trophies across two nights - and the results were genuinely surprising, occasionally emotional, and at least once, kind of political.
The night's most-clipped moment came from Betty Gilpin. Widow's Bay guest actress Gilpin won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for playing Sarah Westcott Warren, a tragic 18th-century character in the Apple TV horror-comedy, and took the stage on Night 2 to read a long poem she had written on her phone. The poem was largely absurdist - in keeping with the show's tone - but one line cut through: Gilpin got the TV Academy audience at the Peacock Theatre to cheer with the line "Let's all lean toward Sam Shepard and less toward Sam Altman," according to Variety. The room reportedly erupted. By Sunday night, the clip was everywhere.
Widow's Bay ran away with eight early Emmys for its debut season - the most of any show across the weekend's ceremonies - while The Pitt had a strong second-year showing with four of its own, and Rob Reiner posthumously won an acting Emmy nearly nine months after his death, according to The Globe and Mail.
DTF St. Louis, a canceled Amazon show, and a very deserved standing ovation
HBO Max's DTF St. Louis was second on the night with six total wins. The show landed both supporting acting categories for limited series - David Harbour and Linda Cardellini - while creator Steven Conrad swept both the directing and writing awards. It was the first Emmy win for both Harbour and Cardellini, according to Variety.
Then there was Spider-Noir. Prime Video's canceled animated series conquered in stunt coordination, title design, special visual effects, cinematography and sound editing, per Deadline - five trophies for a show that no longer exists. That's not a consolation prize situation; those were competitive categories. The TV Academy tends not to punish cancellations, and Sunday proved it.
The evening's most emotional moment, though, belonged to the late Rob Reiner, who received a posthumous Emmy for his guest role on The Bear and a standing ovation from the audience, according to Gold Derby. Elsewhere, Remarkably Bright Creatures was named Best Movie, and South Park scored Best Animated Program for the first time since 2013.
Night 1 was its own spectacle. The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny dominated Saturday, taking seven trophies including Best Variety Special (Live) and six technical awards, according to Gold Derby. Mariska Hargitay won two trophies for her documentary My Mom Jayne, for Best Documentary or Nonfiction Special and Best Directing. And Antiques Roadshow won its first Emmy ever, after 24 nominations, for Best Structured Reality Program. Twenty-four nominations. First win. Make of that what you will.
The Oscar race just got loud
While Hollywood's Emmy crowd was filling the Peacock Theater, the film world was doing its annual thing in the mountains. The 2026 Telluride Film Festival kicked off Friday, September 5, in Colorado, according to Deadline. And the title generating the most heat is Martin McDonagh's Wild Horse Nine.
McDonagh's film landed Venice its first raucous standing ovation of 2026, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It features a stacked cast including Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and Parker Posey, and is set amid the Easter Island Moai statues in the 1970s. Searchlight Pictures will release the film in U.S. theaters on November 6.
The film is expected to put Malkovich right in the heart of the Oscar Best Actor race, according to Deadline. His competition revealed itself the same night in Telluride, with the world premiere of Focus Features' Elsinore - Simon Stone's film starring Andrew Scott as the actor Ian Charleson, who performed Hamlet at the National Theater while battling AIDS.
Both Malkovich and Hüller received Silver Medallion honors at Telluride this year, along with director Andrew Haigh - a tribute the festival has turned into one of awards season's more reliable leading indicators, per Variety.
Jesse Eisenberg also returns behind the camera with The Debut, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti, while Mike Leigh arrives with Tender Loving Care and Andrew Haigh premieres A Long Winter, starring Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Caitríona Balfe, Kit Connor and Fred Hechinger, according to thefilmgordon.com.
The Venice competition jury, led by Maggie Gyllenhaal, will reveal the festival's Golden Lion winners at a ceremony on September 12, per The Hollywood Reporter. Toronto's festival opens September 10, which means the next ten days will flood the conversation with new Oscar contenders almost daily. The Emmys main show airs September 14 on NBC and Peacock. The two events will collide on the entertainment calendar for the first time in years, with this year's Emmy nominations led by HBO Max medical drama The Pitt with 25 nods, while Hacks picked up 24 nominations for its fifth and final season - a new single-year record for a comedy, according to TVLine.
Gilpin's Sam Altman line will probably get replayed on a loop when the cameras roll at the Peacock Theater on the 14th. That, or someone will try to top it.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
