The Saturn Awards were created in 1973 by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films, to honor the year’s best work in genre television, film, and home entertainment. They have been given annually ever since. This year’s year’s awards ceremony, the 52nd, was held in the Hilton Universal City in Los Angeles, on February 2.
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON had three finalists in the television division.
EMMA D’ARCY was nominated as Best Actress in a Televsion Series, and MATT SMITH for Best Supporting Actor.
The show itself was up against AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER, FOR ALL MANKIND, THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES, LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER, and PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS for BEST FANTASY SERIES.
Our congratulations go out to Emma and Matt. It is an honor just to be nominated (as I’ve been told more times than I can count). It’s true. Matt and Emma did not win (this year), but they did outstanding work bringing Rhaenyra and Daemon to vivid life.
And there’s always next year.
I am pleased to say that HOUSE OF THE DRAGON itself did take home the prize, and claimed the Saturn for BEST FANTASY SERIES.
Here’s the full list of finalists and winners for the year, for those of you who like to keep track of these things.
I was not able to attend the awards ceremony, but I am happy we won. There was some tough competition, especially FOR ALL MANKIND, which is such a damn fine show, especially if you grew up during Mercury and Apollo, as I did.
Actually, I’ve managed to attend the Saturn Awards only once, and that was way way back in the 90s, where I went to one of their awards luncheons to represent BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. We didn’t win that year, but I got a nice lunch. The big winner was Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose acceptance speech was short and very very funny.
Looking back over the history of the Saturns between then and now, I was surprised to learn that GAME OF THRONES won six of them over its run. Our winners were:
2015 BEST LIMITED RUN TELEVISION SERIES
2015 BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUNGER ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES: MAISIE WILLIAMS
2019 BEST FANTASY TELEVISION SERIES
2019 BEST ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES: EMILIA CLARKE
2019 BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES: PETER DINKLAGE
2019 BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUNGER ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES: MAISIE WILLIAMS
That’s six Saturns for GAME OF THRONES and one for HOUSE OF THE DRAGON.
The weird thing is, this was the first I’ve heard of any of these. The Saturns were broadcast this year (on Roko), but that hasn’t been true for most of their run… but you’d think someone would have told us. No one did. At least they did not tell me. Maybe all the trophies are lined up on a shelf at HBO somewhere, surrounded by all the other awards HBO has won over the decades. There have been a lot of them.
In any case, belated congratulations to Maisie and Peter and Emilia, and the rest of our amazing team, to David and Dan and Bryan Cogman, to David Nutter and Alan Taylor and Miguel Sapochnik and all the other writers and directors who helped make GOT what it was… and to the cast and crew who worked beside them in 2015 and 2019. Take a (belated) bow.
Current Mood: 
pleased
