TEMPLE GRANDIN (HBO)

It isn’t every day that you see a biopic about a genuine autistic heroine. In fact, TEMPLE GRANDIN may be the first, telling the true life tale of a woman who shuns social contact and can’t read expressions but whose limitations with people proves a boon with livestock. Call it EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES. Fortunately, a film that could have gotten mired in bathos and cliché’ proves instead a triumphant testament to the human spirit thanks to a transcendent performance by Claire Danes as the Temple of the title. Just hand the woman that Emmy now and nobody gets hurt. As for the film itself, it has to be seen as a heavy favorite to take the biggest movie prize, too. This is no "Temple" of doom but a "Temple" of brilliance.

YOU DON'T KNOW JACK (HBO)

Here we have a second HBO bio that delivers the goods, the goods in this case bringing life to the topic of death. It’s all about a Jack who refused to hit the road, the one named Dr. Kevorkian, and his crusading, controversial embrace of assisted suicide for the terminally ill. It wisely doesn’t smack us with Kevorkian’s entire protracted life story but only the juiciest parts, picking the doc up in middle age and mid-combat. It inspires pitch-perfect work from Al Pacino in the lead (hello, Emmy), and the extended cast is equally star-studded with Susan Sarandon, John Goodman and Brenda Vaccaro. If YOU DON'T KNOW JACK is a bit partisan in its depiction of the right-to-die debate, it’s also a thought-provoking journey to the heart of the euthanasia issue.

AMISH GRACE (Lifetime Movie Network)

What makes this film a top Emmy pick is its sensitively wrought examination of a culture too often mischaracterized and misunderstood. Based on the true story of a gunman who on Oct. 6, 2006, went on a rampage through a one-room schoolhouse in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Amish country – killing five innocent young girls and injuring five others before taking his own life – AMISH GRACE doesn’t linger over the unspeakable crime itself. It’s most interested instead in the aftermath and the equally shocking notion of unconditional forgiveness from the Amish themselves. Here is a movie that’s about something powerful and galvanizing: coming to terms with a senseless crime not with eyes for vengeance but with hearts of compassion. With poignant performances by Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Emmy winner Tammy Blanchard (LIFE WITH JUDY GARLAND: ME AND MY SHADOWS), this film truly impresses.

HALLMARK HALL OF FAME: WHEN LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH (CBS)

OK, so if love isn’t enough, then what is? Let’s just hope the answer doesn’t involve alcohol. Actually, in this long-delayed companion film to the 1989 made-for-TV classic MY NAME IS BILL W., Hallmark peers at the other side of the dawn of Alcoholics Anonymous. That would be the journey taken by founder Bill Wilson’s wife, Lois (portrayed here by Oscar nominee Winona Ryder) in launching Al-Anon, her own fellowship of the recovering alcoholic’s loved ones. Barry Pepper portrays Wilson with soul and sensitivity, and Ryder makes the most of her doe-eyed gaze. The issues addressed run deep, clear to the heart of human recovery and absolution. That’s far more than we generally get in network prime time these days.

CHRISTMAS IN CANAAN (HALLMARK)

Not just any run-of-the-mill yuletide movie, this one is based, no less, on a book co-written by Kenny Rogers, who looks an awful lot like Santa Claus when you think about it. The flick is set in 1960s Texas and stars country crooner Billy Ray Cyrus (best known these days as Miley’s pop) as the father of an ignorant white farm boy who regularly clashes with an African American kid. Over one special Christmas, the guys will form an improbable bond that transcends race, thanks to their mutual interest in a wounded puppy. And if Christmas is about anything, it’s wounded puppies. If CHRISTMAS IN CANAAN sounds a mite clichéd, it also surmounts its shortcomings by addressing racism inside a holiday movie whose genre rarely touches anything weightier than North Pole perils and misanthropic misers.