Top 10 Documentary Or Nonfiction Specials To Keep An Eye On For The 2025 Emmy Awards Season

If voters in the Documentary Branch of the Motion Picture Academy are notorious for turning up their collective noses at the idea of nominating a celebrity doc, Emmy voters have no such compulsion. In fact, nonfiction specials centering on famous sports and entertainment figures have become a staple in the race for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special in recent years. Indeed, four of the five nominees in the category last year were celebrity oriented, including the eventual winner, Disney+’s “Jim Henson Idea Man.”

This is not to say Emmy voters in this category ignore historical or issue-oriented films. In the last decade, docs focusing on Scientology, sexual predators and the American penal system have all won the Emmy, and this year’s crop of contenders finds serious documentaries vying for the crown side by side with starry celebrity profiles.

Although in 2021, the Television Academy announced that films nominated for Oscars will be ineligible for Emmy consideration, several high-profile non-nominees from the 2024 Oscar race (including such acclaimed docs as “Will & Harper” and “I Am: Celine Dion”) are Emmy-eligible and promise to be strong contenders.

So if you’re swamped trying to catch up on new episodes of your old favorites and find yourself running behind on your Emmy homework, here is a list of ten of the most promising documentary or nonfiction specials to put on your radar, along with a few comments as to where their awards strength (or weaknesses) lie.

BEATLES ’64 – Now Streaming on Disney+This chronicle of the memorable year that The Beatles conquered America is a dynamic blend of restored historical footage, remixed sound and contemporary interviews, including those from surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, who offer their perspective on the cultural whirlwind they set off more than 60 years ago. Produced by Martin Scorsese, the David Tedeschi-directed doc smartly expands its focus from just the on-stage Beatles performances to examine the legendary impact that the group and its music had on the culture at large.

EMMY OUTLOOK: Promising. Scorsese won this category in 2012 with the Beatle-themed doc “George Harrison: Living in the Material World,” which was edited by Tedeschi, who also earned an Emmy nomination for his work. Clearly, Academy voters responded to both the subject and the sensibility guiding the Harrison doc, and there’s little reason to doubt their latest doc will have a similar appeal.

DEAF PRESIDENT NOW! – Now Streaming on Apple TV+Filmmakers Nyle DiMarco and Oscar-winner Davis Guggenheim focus on a week in the spring of 1988 when the students of Gallaudet University, the world’s only institute designed for the deaf, had had enough. The school had never had a deaf president, and the students had hoped this would be the year. Once again, however, the college’s board of directors passed over two qualified deaf candidates from within Gallaudet in favor of a non-deaf selection from the outside. In response, the students took to the streets and the airwaves, bringing worldwide attention to their grievances. DiMarco and Guggenheim shrewdly center the story through the eyes of the four student ringleaders, protesting in archival footage back then and ruminating on their success in interviews today.

EMMY OUTLOOK: Very strong. Guggenheim is an Emmy powerhouse in this category, winning it in both 2021 (“Boys State”) and 2023 (“Stiil: A Michael J. Fox Movie”) for which he also won a directing Emmy. That track record, plus the story of the inspiring courage of the Gallaudet students, makes for an awards package that will likely be irresistible to Emmy voters.

I AM: CELINE DION – Now Streaming on Prime VideoThis profile of the renowned Canadian singer may have begun as a hagiographic look at her distinguished career, but when Dion learns that she has been diagnosed with stiff-persons syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that results in chronic pain and impaired mobility and one that could suddenly end of the singer’s legendary career, director Irene Taylor had to suddenly switch gears. The film she had planned went out the window, and together with Dion’s complete cooperation, she finds herself forced tell a new story, chronicling the singer’s struggle to fight back. Taylor captures moments in the film that are raw and uncomfortable as Dion, often shown without makeup, works through the pain and is even caught on film suffering through a harrowing seizure that required paramedics to intervene to save her life.

EMMY OUTLOOK: Good. Critics recognized the challenges that Taylor faced and praised the doc’s fly-on-the-wall realism that took the film from being a mere celebrity doc to another level — the story of a woman whose primary joy in life (singing) has suddenly been stolen from her, a joy that she is determined to get back at any cost. By digging into the details, Taylor has made a specific story universal, which could offer enormous appeal to Emmy voters.

LAST TAKE: RUST AND THE STORY OF HALYNA – Now streaming on HuluIn part, director Rachel Mason took on “Last Take” as a tribute to her friend, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed on the set of the indie Western “Rust” when a prop gun held by actor Alec Baldwin and loaded with live ammunition rather than blanks discharged. Mason praises the beauty (as critics have) of Hutchins’ work on the film, while at the same time detailing the political and industry ramifications of the case, as well as the unexpected turns taken by the prosecution in their attempt to convict Baldwin (among others). Just below the surface, the film also argues how budgetary concerns on indie films can sometimes result in shortcuts to safety.

This doc, directed by Laurent Bouzereau, is less of a critical analysis of the work of the 5-time Oscar-winning composer and more of a tribute to the important cultural influence that his film scores have had over the past half-century. From his first dreams of being a jazz musician and his early work with Robert Altman to his fateful first meeting with his champion Steven Spielberg, Williams’ story is presented chronologically, with one score after another — from rousing superhero anthems to poignant dramatic themes — evoking many of our fondest memories from childhood and beyond.

EMMY OUTLOOK: Possible. Look, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but the Academy nominates straight celebrity docs all the time, and given its pedigree — being executive produced by both Spielberg and Ron Howard — and the affection the industry has for its subject, don’t count it out just yet.

NUMBER ONE ON THE CALL SHEET – Now Streaming on Apple TV+This two-part documentary takes a unique approach to its subject: an analysis of the state of the industry and the particular challenges that poses for Black actors in Hollywood. Part One, directed by Reginald Hudlin, centers on the men, including such Oscar-winners as Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman, and what’s most striking here is the veterans’ long-standing history of offering a leg up to the Black actors coming up behind them. Part Two, directed by Shola Lynch, focuses on female actors and the particular challenges that they face in a system that is often slow to accept change. While each of the two parts takes a deep dive on the particular career issues that faces each gender of Black actors, taken together the film manages to celebrate the gains of the pasts while emphasizing the need to keep striving in the future.

EMMY OUTLOOK: A contender. This doc may offer the best of all worlds to Emmy voters. For fans of celebrity docs, this has more stars than all of the other contenders combined. Yet at the same time, it has gravitas, tackling in detail the challenge of Black representation on screen, a long-time issue in the industry and one with which Emmy voters are well aware.

PEE-WEE AS HIMSELF – Now Streaming on Max

There’s a dynamism at work in Matt Wolf’s two-part doc on the life and career of Emmy Award-winning actor and comedian Paul Reubens that’s both unexpected and compelling. On the surface, the film adheres to the template of any celebrity doc, following a cradle-to-grave route in capturing Reubens’ childhood and the early days of his singular career. What’s unusual is that our guide to that career is Reubens himself, and he quickly proves to be a narrator who may be less than reliable, talking about his life and then asking us, “Is it true?” Reubens had a reputation of being private and doing his best to control what was being said about him, even hiding the six-year bout with cancer that eventually killed him shortly after making this film. He even tries to wrestle control of the doc’s content from Wolf on camera — one second you’re left laughing with Reuben’s Pee-Wee, and the next you’re stunned at the tug-of-war between filmmaker and subject.

EMMY OUTLOOK: A late-breaker that could take the whole prize. Reubens’ private life has always been a subject of fascination to many, particularly after his humiliating 1991 arrest for indecent exposure at a Miami porno theater. Even as he acknowledges his sexuality for the first time in public, Reubens’ unwillingness to tell all, even in his final weeks, creates a unique tension in the film that takes it to the next level, resulting in strong reviews at its 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere. Expect Emmy voters to follow suit.

ROAD DIARY: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E-STREET BAND – Now streaming on HuluThis music doc offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at just how the rock music legend puts together his fabled three-hour concerts. With the background of Springsteen’s 2023-24 tour of the U.S. and Europe, the film chronicles the work and camaraderie he shares with members of the band, many with whom he has shared a stage for the last half century or more. To see Springsteen majestically rocking out at age 75 is inspiring, as well as a bit moving. Though it’s left unspoken, the film reveals a subtle awareness on Springsteen’s part that the years are rapidly passing by, and the time to live your best life, on or off the stage, is now.

EMMY OUTLOOK: Likely a long shot. While the doc is undeniably entertaining, several of its celebrity doc competitors possess a deeper layer of gravitas, to which the Academy has traditionally responded. Still, Springsteen’s willingness to step up to criticize the policies of Donald Trump when so many others have folded has brought him added respect in many quarters, which may include Emmy voters as well.

SLY LIVES! (aka THE BURDEN OF BLACK GENIUS) – Now streaming on HuluDirector Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson follows up his Oscar-winning “Summer of Soul” with this ambitious new doc that centers on the life and career of music artist Sly Stone and operates on three different tracks. The first is as a celebrity doc, following Sly’s career from DJ to musician to the leader of Sly and the Family Stone, the legendary biracial, mixed-gender band that revolutionized music of the times, creating a unique blend of rock, soul, and gospel (with a pronounced psychedelic touch) that sounded like no other artist at the time. Secondly, the film works on a musicology level, as Questlove breaks down just what makes the group’s music so brilliant (and such an earworm). Finally, most intriguingly, he poses the concept of “Black genius” – a theory that Black artists in particular have a fear of major success because of the examination and judgment that would come with it – and suggests that this syndrome may have been behind Sly’s tragic descent into drug addiction.

EMMY OUTLOOK: Likely. Questlove’s doc has enough to star power to appeal to fans of celebrity docs, while the film’s detailed analysis of Sly’s music and its philosophical approach to his downfall gives the film that extra bit of necessary heft that lends importance to the project. With a little something to appeal to a wide range of Emmy voters, this looks to be a strong contender.

WILL & HARPER – Now streaming on NetflixWhen Will Farrell first learned that a SNL friend and collaborator had transitioned to become a trans woman, he wanted to reconnect. That friend, Harper Steele, was a longtime pal, so in order to process this new change in their relationship, Will proposes a two-week road trip across America so that they could talk and that Harper would be able to revisit the dive bars and greasy spoons she loved as a man, but now as herself. That journey of discovery is captured in Josh Greenbaum’s acclaimed film, which, though it has a celebrity relationship at its center, transcends the confines of the usual star-driven docs to celebrate the meaning of friendship and the importance of being able to live as one’s true self.

EMMY OUTLOOK:  Excellent. Although missing the Oscar nomination, the film has nevertheless been named the year’s Best Documentary by both Critics Choice and the National Board of Review, as well as earning a Peabody Award and a Television Academy Honors Award for its approach to important social issues. In addition, Ferrell himself is a bit of an Emmy magnet, having been nominated for 20 Emmys in the course of his career and winning six, all for producing. If there’s a front-runner in this category, “Will & Harper” may be the one.

Do you think that celebrity docs will dominate this year’s race for Outstanding Documentary Special? Or do the many issue-oriented docs have a chance to rule the day? Please let us know in the comments section below or over on our X account, and be sure to check out our latest Emmy predictions here. Please also be sure to subscribe to the Next Best Series Podcast where we are conducting a number of interviews with Emmy contenders throughout the awards season and discussing the race over the next couple of months.