Michael J. Fox Documentary ‘Still’ Grabs 7 Emmy Nominations, Most For Any Nonfiction Contender:

Over his career Michael J. Fox has won five Emmys, and now an acclaimed documentary about him could win a bunch more.

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie from Apple TV+ earned seven nominations this morning, the most of any nonfiction film or series. It was recognized in the marquee category of Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series, as well as Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction for Davis Guggenheim – the Oscar-winning director of An Inconvenient Truth. The feature doc also scored nominations for cinematography, picture editing, sound editing, sound mixing and music for John Powell’s score.

The documentary examines Fox’s improbable rise from Canada to the heights of Hollywood fame, first on TV in Family Ties and later in films including the immensely successful Back to the Future franchise. And it chronicles his long struggle with debilitating Parkinson’s disease, a condition with which he was first diagnosed at age 29.

Guggenheim told Deadline he’s gratified for the Emmy love.

“It’s kind of wonderful, mostly because I think people are starting to really understand who Michael J. Fox is as a human being,” the director said. “He was so open in the movie, so emotional, so unafraid, so candid and so real — and that’s a big risk for someone to take to put himself in a documentary, and the world embraced him. I’m just so happy. I’m happy mostly for him.”

Guggenheim also said he was thrilled to be sharing the Emmy spotlight with so many fellow nominees from Still.

“The movie was a true creative collaboration, especially with me and Michael Harte, the editor,” Guggenheim noted. “He brought so much to this movie. Every article talks about how form-breaking the editing is. I’m happy he’s getting recognized. And John Powell’s score, which is not a typical documentary score. It’s very brave and it’s very bold. And my full creative team, all the producers and the sound team, it really is a full creative team effort. Too often it’s just the director that gets recognized. So that’s very gratifying for me to see everyone else be honored.”

Fox’s 2021 memoir Michael J. Fox: No Time Like the Future, described as “a moving account of resilience, hope, fear and mortality,” became a New York Times bestseller. At Sundance, where Still premiered, Fox told Deadline he didn’t hesitate when the Oscar-winning Guggenheim came calling.

“[When] Davis Guggenheim would like to do a documentary about you – whether you’re in the business or not – you’re going to want to do that, work with someone of that quality, and I certainly did,” Fox said in January. “He understood that the writing I’d done and what the feeling was behind it, it was not a ‘Oh, what terrible things happened to you with Parkinson’s’ story, it was a story about what great things happen to you when you’re alive.”

In the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series category, Still will face off against Being Mary Tyler Moore (HBO Max), Judy Blume Forever (Prime Video), My Transparent Life (Prime Video), and the Netflix Pamela Anderson doc Pamela, A Love Story.

“I’m in great company,” Guggenheim noted. “It’s just such an exciting time to be making documentaries because there’s a feeling of like, there are no more boundaries. You can try anything, and if you tell a good story and you tell it honestly, there’s nothing you can’t do.”

Guggenheim told us his daughter Stella made an important editorial contribution to the film.

“We were locking picture. That’s a nervous moment when you say, “Okay, this is it. No more changes,’” Guggenheim recalled. “And my daughter Stella said, ‘Hey, remember that shot where Michael J. Fox is looking straight to camera, very quietly, right into the lens?’ And I go, ‘Yeah.’ She goes, ‘Have you ever thought about putting that at the very end of the movie?’ And so me and the editor, Michael Harte, put it in. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s it. That’s our movie, and that’s our title, Still.’”

Guggenheim continued, “We put it in and it was perfect. It was the last thing we did. And it’s my favorite part of the movie because it just captures the essence of this movie. Michael’s always moving, moving, moving; the whole world is moving, moving, moving. But he has found something so meaningful in his life and that is being shared now through the movie.”

The documentary categories will be presented at the Creative Arts Emmys in Los Angeles, currently scheduled for two nights — September 9 and 10. A highlights show will be broadcast on FXX on Saturday, September 16, two nights before the Primetime Emmy show, scheduled to air live on Fox on Monday, September 18. Of course, all of this must considered tentative, because the ongoing Writers Guild strike and the possibility of an actors strike could force postponement.

Guggenheim said he has “no idea” about the likelihood of a delayed ceremony.

“Everyone is saying something a little different. I try not to get preoccupied by it,” he said. “When it’s time to show up, I’ll show up.”

View this article at Deadline.