Dolly Parton Wins First Emmy Award for Netflix Christmas Movie
Multi-Grammy Awards winner Dolly Parton won her first Emmy Award on Sunday night (Sept. 12), during the third and final installment of the 2021 Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Parton won as an executive producer of Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square, a Netflix Original Film that received both of the honors for which it was nominated: Outstanding Television Movie and Outstanding Choreography for Scripted Programming. The latter award went to the project's choreographer, Debbie Allen, who is also set to be recognized by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences with a Governors Award at the upcoming 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards, which are set for Sunday (Sept. 19).
Christmas on the Square is a heartfelt, made-for-television holiday special in which a woman is visited by an angel while considering evicting her hometown's residents and selling the land to a small developer. The film was released on Netflix in October of 2020, and features performances from Parton, 15-time Emmy Awards nominee Christine Baranski and Roswell, New Mexico star Jeanine Mason.
Throughout her decades-long career Parton has won 11 Grammy Awards, including a 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award, and snagged a total of 50 Grammy Awards nominations. She has also been recognized with two Oscars nominations, for her original songs "9 to 5" — for the 1981 film of the same name — and "Travelin' Thru," for the 2005 film Transamerica.
Parton was also nominated for a Tony Award in 2009, for the score of 9 to 5: The Musical. Her first Emmy Awards nomination came in 1978, for her supporting role performance on the variety show Cher ... Special.
Parton has scored significant success through partnering with Netflix in the past. Her 2016 Netflix film Dolly Parton's Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love received an Emmy Awards nomination for Outstanding Television Movie, and the "These Old Bones" episode of her Netflix series Dolly Parton's Heartstrings was also nominated in that category in 2020. Her 2018 movie Dumplin' was also a hit for the streaming network.
See Dolly Parton's Life and Career in Pictures