The estate of Michael Jackson is condemning the victory of the Leaving Neverland documentary at the Creative Arts Emmys on Saturday.
The doc, which aired in March on HBO, won best documentary or nonfiction special at the ceremony. It tells the story of Wade Robson and James Safechuck, two men who alleged that Jackson sexually abused them as children.
“For a film that is a complete fiction to be honored in a nonfiction Emmy category is a complete farce,” the estate told Entertainment Weekly in a statement. “Not one shred of proof supports this completely one-sided, so-called documentary which was made in secrecy and for which not one person outside of the two subjects and their families were interviewed.”
Jackson’s estate filed $100 million suit against HBO and Time Warner over their distribution of the film on February, alleging it contravened a non-disparagement clause dating back from a previous contract.
The HBO documentary nabbed five nominations, including outstanding directing for a documentary/nonfiction program; outstanding documentary or nonfiction special; outstanding picture editing for a nonfiction program; outstanding sound editing for a nonfiction program; and outstanding sound mixing for a nonfiction program.
In his acceptance speech, Neverland‘s director Dan Reed praised Robson and Safechuck.
“None of this would have been possible without the incredible courage and determination of Wade and James and their families, and I wanted to salute that,” Reed said, according to Deadline. “This is one of the first times we’ve been able to shine light on child sexual abuse….the pattern of how it unfolds is not an easy story to tell….it often remains undisclosed for so many decades, so I thank them from the bottom of my heart.”
