Los Angeles (AFP)

HBO's "Watchmen" series, which explores America's racist past and police brutality, clearly dominated the 2020 Emmy Awards unveiled Tuesday, with 26 nominations in total.

The dark and tortured superheroes of "Watchmen" are followed by the comedy "The Fabulous Mrs. Maisel" (20 nominations), the thriller "Ozark" (18) on par with the black comedy "Succession" (18).

With 15 selections, "The Mandalorian", the first live-action series devoted to the Star Wars universe, completes the Top 5 of these nominations, unveiled during a brief, entirely virtual ceremony due to the Covid pandemic. 19.

Derived from a comic book series created in the 1980s by Briton Alan Moore, "Watchmen" seems to have a good chance of winning the Emmy Award, the equivalent of the Oscars for American television, in the mini-series category, where she will face off against "Little Fires Everywhere", "Mrs America", "Unbelievable" and "Unorthodox."

She will also be portrayed as an actor and actress in a drama series by Jeremy Irons and Regina King.

"Watchmen + is already a great series in itself, but it has taken on even greater significance in recent weeks," said Joyce Eng, price specialist for the Gold Derby website, told AFP before the publication of the selection of the Emmy Awards, equivalent to the Oscars of television in the United States.

Centered around the massacre of several hundred black inhabitants of the city of Tulsa (Oklahoma) in 1921 by white rioters, "Watchmen" indeed plunges into the heart of racist violence and police brutality, themes which are cruelly topical in United States since the end of May.

- "Amplify the voices" -

"2020 is not only a global health crisis. This year, we are also witnessing one of the greatest struggles for social justice in history," said the president of the Emmy Academy. Awards, Frank Scherma, in allusion to the protests that have been going on across the country for weeks.

"It is the power and responsibility of television, not only to offer a multitude of services or a little bit of a dream, but also to amplify the voices that need to be heard and to tell the stories that need to be told," he said. he said.

In the comedy category, the Amazon-produced series "La Fabuleuse Mme Maisel", featuring a scorned Jewish wife who embarked on stand-up in New York in the 1950s, was a favorite. Its lead actress, Rachel Brosnahan, is also selected.

Dramatic series side, Laura Linney and Jason Bateman will defend the colors of "Ozark" in particular against the duo of actors of "The Morning Show", newcomer to Apple TV +, Steve Carell and Jennifer Aniston.

It is however the Briton Olivia Colman, Oscar for the best actress for "The Favorite" in 2019, who leaves favorite with "The Crown" (Netflix) in this rather contested category.

Four of the eight nominations for best comedy series are newcomers, notes the Academy Emmy Awards: "Dead to Me", "Insecure", "The Kominsky Method" by Michael Douglas and the mock documentary on the lives of three vampires New Yorker "What We Do In The Shadows".

For this 72nd edition, the giant Netflix is ​​clearly ahead of its rival HBO with 160 nominations against 107, setting a new record.

The Emmy Awards will be presented on September 20, during a ceremony that is also likely to be entirely virtual, Los Angeles and its region being one of the main centers of Covid-19 on American soil.

© 2020 AFP