She played Grandin, a livestock expert who has autism - a Ph.D. who travels constantly to bring dignity and understanding to those with the condition. Grandin herself stood up and waved to the rest of the audience as Danes and Strathairn accepted their Emmys. Then she hugged executive producer Emily Gerson Saines onstage when the film won the best-movie prize and got her mother to stand up in the audience.
Mick Jackson, the movie's director, also got an Emmy.
In the network sweepstakes, ABC was second with 18. Fox had 11, CBS had 10, and NBC had eight.
For the first time, the Emmy show was divided into five segments - comedy, reality, drama, variety, and movies and miniseries - with clips from each genre summarizing the past TV season's highlights. The structure allowed lots of the big Emmys to come out much earlier in the evening than usual and was one factor making the show itself unusually entertaining.
Comedy came first. Jim Parsons, geek of the week from CBS's The Big Bang Theory, and Edie Falco (Showtime's Nurse Jackie) won as best lead actor and actress in a comedy series. They were the only two to break the perfecta of Glee and Modern Family.
Family executive producers Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd won for best comedy writing, and Eric Stonestreet, who plays the show's outgoing gay father, won for supporting actor in a comedy series.
Glee's Jane Lynch was probably the surest winner among all the nominees. "Outlandish," she said, accepting the Emmy for best supporting actress in a comedy series. Glee executive producer Ryan Murphy (best comedy director) said he created the show to stress the importance of arts education: "I would like to dedicate this to all my teachers who taught me how to sing and finger paint."
