By BERNICE FOX
Special to Circling the News
We have a winner!
A Palisadian has won during the first of several nights of Emmy awards.
Jeanne Elfant Festa produced “The Apollo,” the winner for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.
When Festa’s documentary was announced Monday night, her brother – Noel Elfant, a lawyer near Chicago — took to Twitter, writing: “Congrats to my sister, Jeanne Elfant Festa, for winning her first Emmy for producer of ‘The Apollo’ – Best Documentary!”
This winning HBO documentary tells the story of the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem, along with its power and influence.
“The Apollo” had some tough competition: “Becoming” with Michelle Obama, “Beastie Boys Story,” “The Great Hack” and “Laurel Canyon: A Place in Time.”
Festa is the Head of Documentaries and Director of Features at White Horse Pictures in Beverly Hills. She lives in Pacific Palisades and is married to Rich Festa of the Festa Insurance Agency in the Village.
Before and during her tenure at White Horse Pictures, she worked on other music-related documentaries, including “Foo Fighters: Back and Forth,” “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years” and “Pavarotti.” She currently is working on an authorized documentary about the Bee Gees.
This year’s Emmy Awards – both the Creative Arts Emmys and the Primetime Emmys that follow — are taking a different form because of the pandemic.
In normal years, the Creative Arts Emmys ceremonies would be held over two evenings, crowded with folks from the TV industry celebrating everything from documentaries to reality shows, costumes, hairstyling, sound editing and more.
Instead, most of this year’s Creative Arts Emmys are online only and spread over several nights this week, Monday through Thursday. There are no crowds, just a festive host, Nicole Byer, standing in front of the TV Academy in North Hollywood with some pre-recorded material.
The link for Wednesday’s show is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVc9lp8fbuw. Thursday’s awards are at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68UEfY1VD0s
The final group of Creative Arts categories is Saturday night when this part of the awards will move from online to the FXX Channel.
All this leads up to the final event: the Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night. Jimmy Kimmel will host the show on ABC. Like the Emmy events earlier in the week, there will be no in-person audience.
So there’s a good chance stars – including the several Palisadians who are up for Emmy awards — will be watching the show just like fans, from the couch.
So proud of Jeanne. She works hard and award is well deserved. Thanks for the article. Kit Festa
Your father Alan Elfant would have been very proud of you. Bill Snyder