Battle of the Bastards is a movie.
`` Battle of the Bastards '' is the ninth episode of the sixth season of HBO 's fantasy television series Game of Thrones , and its 59th episode overall . `` Battle of the Bastards '' was praised as one of the series ' best episodes , with several reviewers hailing it as a `` masterpiece '' . Its eponymous battle took 25 days to film and required 500 extras , 600 crew members and 70 horses . It earned Game of Thrones several Primetime Emmy Awards ( including Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Writing ) , and was Harington 's choice to support his nomination for the Outstanding Supporting Actor ; Sapochnik also won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for the episode .