Prime Minister won the top prize of best documentary at the 2026 News & Documentary Emmy Awards on Thursday.
The documentary, which hails from HBO Documentary Films and CNN Films, tracked Jacinda Ardern’s pathway to becoming New Zealand’s 40th Prime Minister.
Other top honors of the night went to Simon Schama: The Holocaust, 80 Years On, for outstanding historical documentary; Tiler Peck for outstanding arts and culture documentary for Tiler Peck: Suspending Time; and National Geographic’s Secrets of the Penguins with the outstanding nature documentary award.
The documentary winners were handed out at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall on Thursday night, where Michael Ian Black hosted. Emmy-winning documentarian and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sam Pollard was recognized with a lifetime achievement honor.
Presenters at Thursday night’s awards ceremony included Serena Davies (National Geographic, NASA), Producer Stephanie Jenkins, Cynthia Lopez (CEO of New York Women in Film & Television), Tiler Peck (NYC Ballet, Tiler Peck: Suspending Time) and Simon Schama (Simon Schama’s Story of Us). Christina Ruffini also moderated discussions with nominees about the challenges of documentary filmmaking.
