Josh Safdie Series Enters 10-Categories

HBO Max is going wide with its Emmy campaign for “Neighbors,” the Josh Safdie-produced docuseries that turned America’s pettiest property-line feuds into one of the most talked-about unscripted experiments of the season.

After being greenlit for a second season, the network is submitting the series in 10 categories at this year’s Emmy Awards, including a bid in the outstanding unstructured reality program category, Variety revealed exclusively. Created and directed by Harrison Fishman and Dylan Redford, the six-episode A24 production spent more than two years embedding with feuding neighbors across the U.S., framing their disputes over fences, surveillance cameras, backyard menageries and one now-infamous swimsuit as a verité window into a polarized nation.

The series marks a notable pivot for Josh Safdie, who produces “Neighbors” alongside frequent collaborators Bronstein and Bush following the well-documented professional split from brother Benny Safdie. It also continues HBO Max’s run of Safdie-aligned nonfiction swings, including “Telemarketers” and “Ren Faire,” trading those projects’ single-subject deep dives for an anthology rhythm that stacks multiple combustible stories into each half-hour.

Safdie is coming off his four Oscar nominations for best picture, director, original screenplay and editing for the Timothée Chalamet table-tennis dramedy “Marty Supreme.” Alongside the multihyphenate in the top submission race, the program enters with a producing roster that includes Ronald Bronstein (who also scored double Oscar noms for “Marty”), Eli Bush, John Paul Lopez-Ali, Jonathan Hausfater, Chris Bowyer, Harrison Fishman, Dylan Redford, Samuel Fishman and Brendan McHugh as executive producers, along with Andy Ruse and Max Allman as co-executive producers, Natalie Teter as producer and Rachel Walden with a produced by credit. The campaign coalesces around the jaw-dropping finale “Yellow Thong Bikini” (Episode 106), which carries into nearly every craft race.

There’s an interesting Hollywood bloodline embedded in the producer credits. Dylan Redford, who serves as co-creator, director, editor, cinematographer, production sound mixer, main title editor and motion design director on the series, is the grandson of the late Robert Redford, the Oscar-winning actor and Sundance Film Festival founder who died last year at 89.

A potential Emmy nod would also break a long dry spell for the network in the genre. HBO has rarely been a factor in the reality races, and “Neighbors” comes as a populist play centered on a relatable subject: the feud next door. A bid in unstructured reality would be HBO’s first reality series nom in six years, since “We’re Here” in 2020, and would make “Neighbors” only the fourth reality series the network has ever landed in the field following “Project Greenlight” (2016, 2004 and 2002) and “Taxicab Confessions” (2002 and 2001).

Emmy nomination-round voting runs from June 11-22, and the official 78th Primetime Emmy Awards nominations will be announced on July 8.

The full list of the Emmy submissions is below.

The first season of “Neighbors” is streaming on HBO Max.