"How to Survive a Pandemic" Wins the Emmy

How To Survive a Pandemic, directed by acclaimed filmmaker David France and produced by HBO and Sandbox Films, took home the Emmy for Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary at the 44th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards. The News and Documentary Emmy Awards are presented by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, whose chairman, Terry O’Reilly, said of this year’s ceremony, “Tonight’s Emmy honorees take us behind the headlines to explore the many facets of our shared global reality and do so at the highest level of the craft.”

The film “takes an inside look at the historic, multi-national race to research, develop, regulate, and roll out COVID-19 vaccines in the war against the coronavirus pandemic.” Despite the strictures imposed upon filming due to health regulations caused by the pandemic, executive producers, Greg Boustead and Jessica Harrop, worked with David France and his team to follow “the work of researchers in their labs, scientists conducting volunteer trials and science journalists working to stay abreast of the fast-shifting landscape as the coronavirus continued its deadly onslaught.”

In addition to the scientific and public health stakes, How to Survive a Pandemic also addresses the social, political, and economic repercussions raised by the Covid-19 pandemic. HBO describes the film as “the definitive chronicle of the most consequential undertaking of the 21st century.” The film is available to stream on the Max platform.

Read the full press release here to find all of this year’s Documentary Emmy winners and nominees.