New Zealand’s television industry gathered in Auckland tonight to celebrate the sector’s collective achievements during
an extraordinary year. One of only a few physical screen award ceremonies to be held globally amidst the COVID-19
pandemic, the New Zealand Television Awards tonight presented trophies across 40 categories at the sell-out event.
In the news and current affairs categories, Three’s Newshub won this year’s award for Best News Coverage and Newshub’s
Investigations Reporter Michael Morrah was named Reporter of the Year; The Hui’s Mihingarangi Forbes (Three) received the award for Best Presenter: News and Current Affairs; The Spinoff won Best
Sports Programme for its documentary series Scratched: Aotearoa’s Lost Sporting Legends; and Stuff Circuit won Best Current Affairs Programme.
Seven Sharp’s Hilary Barry (TVNZ 1) was named TV Personality of the Year, in the only award category decided by public vote, while
veteran television executive Andrew Shaw was honoured as 2020 TV Legend.
The Luminaries, produced by Southern Light Films and Working Title TV and aired on TVNZ 1 in New Zealand, dominated the drama craft
categories with multiple wins including Best Script: Drama for Eleanor Catton, who adapted her Man Booker Prize-winning
book for television, Screen Auckland Best Director: Drama for Claire McCarthy, Best Cinematographer: Drama for Denson
Baker, Best Production Design for Felicity Abbott and Daniel Birt, Best Costume Design for Edward K. Gibbon, Best Makeup
Design for Jane O’Kane and Best Post Production Design for Alana Cotton. Lead actor Himesh Patel, who played Emery
Staines in the series, won the award for Best Actor.
Great Southern Television’s One Lane Bridge (TVNZ 1) was named NZ On Air Best Drama Series and the team from Images & Sound was awarded Best Contribution to a Soundtrack for their work on the Queenstown noir drama series. Runaway Millionaires, Fearless Productions’ dramatisation of Kara Hurring’s incredible true story, was named Images & Sound Best Feature Drama and the telefeature’s composer Claire Cowan also won the award for Images & Sound Best Original Score.
Paul Yates, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi won the award for Best Comedy/Comedy Entertainment Programme for season 2
of Wellington Paranormal (TVNZ 2) and Paul Yates also won Best Script: Comedy for the same programme.
Elsewhere in the scripted categories, Miriama McDowell won the award for Best Actress for her role in South Pacific
Pictures’ drama series Head High (Three), her co-star Jayden Daniels was named Best Supporting Actor, and Anna Jullienne won Best Supporting Actress for
her role in South Pacific Pictures/Three comedy series Mean Mums. Jochen Fitzherbert received the award for Best Editing: Drama for his work on The Gulf, produced by Screentime NZ, Lippy Pictures and Letterbox Produktion for Three in New Zealand.
Hyundai Country Calendar (TVNZ 1), New Zealand’s longest-running television programme, was named Best Factual Series and Peter Young received the gong for
Best Camerawork: Documentary/Factual for his work on the series. Rogue Productions’ rugby doco By the Balls (TVNZ 1) won NZ On Air Best Documentary while Three’s Patrick Gower was named Best Presenter: Entertainment for the
top-rating Patrick Gower: On Weed and his director, Justin Hawkes, was named Best Director Documentary/Factual. James Brown and Prisca Bouchet received
the award for Best Editing: Documentary for Funny As (TVNZ 1), Augusto’s look at the story of New Zealand comedy.
Great Southern Television’s RNZ series NZ Wars – Stories of Waitara won the Te Māngai Paho Best Māori Programme Award, and Waka Huia (Scottie Douglas Productions for TVNZ 1) was named Te Māngai Paho Best Reo Māori Programme. Tikilounge’s Marks of Mana documentary for The Coconet TV won the NZ On Air Best Pasifika Programme Award.
Other winners on the night included: animated series Kiri and Lou, produced by Stretchy for TVNZ 2, which was named NZ On Air Best Children’s Programme; TVNZ 1’s Unbreakable, produced by Storymaker, which received the award for Best Original Reality Series; My Restaurant Rules (Great Southern Television for TVNZ 2) which won Best Format Reality; Off the Grid with Pio, produced by Scottie Douglas Productions for Māori Television, which received the gong for Best Lifestyle Programme;
Pango Productions’ Aotearoa 250 (TVNZ 1) which was awarded Best Live Event Coverage and Glen Broomhall who was named Best Director: Multi Camera for
his work on the TVNZ 2 series Pacific Island Food Revolution.
The complete list of 2020 New Zealand Television Awards winners is as follows:
NZ On Air Best Drama Series
One Lane Bridge
Philip Smith, Carmen J Leonard , Deb Cope
Great Southern Television Limited (TVNZ 1)
Images & Sound Best Feature Drama
Runaway Millionaires
Carmen J Leonard, Deb Cope, Danny Mulheron
Fearless Productions (TVNZ 1)
Best Factual Series
Hyundai Country Calendar
Julian O'Brien, Dan Henry
TVNZ (TVNZ 1)
NZ On Air Best Documentary
By the Balls
Charlotte Purdy
Rogue Productions Ltd (TVNZ 1)
Best Original Reality Series
Unbreakable
Rachel Currie
Storymaker (TVNZ 1)
Best Format Reality Series
My Restaurant Rules
Simon Fleming, Anna Lynch, Philip Smith
Great Southern Television Limited (TVNZ 2)
Best Lifestyle Programme
Off the Grid with Pio
Meg Douglas
Scottie Douglas Productions Ltd (Māori Television)
Best Current Affairs Programme
Stuff Circuit
Toby Longbottom, Paula Penfold, Phil Johnson, Eugene Bingham
Stuff Circuit (Stuff.co.nz)
NZ On Air Best Children’s Programme
Kiri and Lou
Fiona Copland
Stretchy (TVNZ 2)
Te Māngai Paho Best Māori Programme
NZ Wars - Stories of Waitara
Mihingarangi Forbes, Annabelle Lee-Mather, Mahanga Pihama, Philip Smith, Deb Cope
Great Southern Television Limited (RNZ)
Te Māngai Paho Best Reo Māori Programme
Waka Huia
Whatanui Flavell, Meg Douglas, Ani-Piki Tuari
Scottie Douglas Productions Ltd (TVNZ 1)
NZ On Air Best Pasifika Programme
Marks of Mana
Lisa Taouma
Tikilounge Productions (The Coconet TV)
Best News Coverage
Newshub - Samoa Measles Outbreak
The Newshub and AM Show production teams
Newshub (Three)
Best Sports Programme
Scratched: Aotearoa’s Lost Sporting Legends
Amber Easby, Duncan Greive, Scotty Stevenson, Natalie Wilson
Hex Work Productions (The Spinoff)
Best Live Event Coverage
Aotearoa 250
Bailey Mackey, Blake Ihimaera, Matiu Sadd
Pango Productions (TVNZ 1)
Best Comedy/Comedy Entertainment Programme
Wellington Paranormal Series 2
Paul Yates, Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi
New Zealand Documentary Board (TVNZ 2)
Best Director Documentary / Factual
Justin Hawkes
Patrick Gower: On Weed
Ruckus (Three)
Screen Auckland Best Director Drama
Claire McCarthy
The Luminaries
Southern Light Films & Working Title TV (TVNZ 1)
Best Actress
Miriama McDowell
Head High
South Pacific Pictures (Three)
Best Supporting Actress
Anna Jullienne
Mean Mums
South Pacific Pictures (Three)
Best Actor
Himesh Patel
The Luminaries
Southern Light Films & Working Title TV (TVNZ 1)
Best Supporting Actor
Jayden Daniels
Head High
South Pacific Pictures (Three)
Reporter Of The Year
Michael Morrah
Newshub (Three)
Best Presenter Entertainment
Patrick Gower
Patrick Gower: On Weed
Ruckus (Three)
Best Presenter News And Current Affairs
Mihingarangi Forbes
The Hui
Great Southern Television Limited (Three)
Television Personality of the Year
Hilary Barry
Seven Sharp (TVNZ 1)
Television Legend
Andrew Shaw
Best Editing: Documentary/Factual
James Brown, Prisca Bouchet
Funny As
Augusto (TVNZ 1)
Best Editing: Drama
Jochen Fitzherbert
The Gulf
Screentime New Zealand Ltd, Lippy Pictures, Letterbox Produktion (Three)
Best Camerawork: Documentary/Factual
Peter Young
Hyundai Country Calendar
TVNZ (TVNZ 1)
Best Director: Multi Camera
Glen Broomhall
Pacific Island Food Revolution
Pacific Island Productions Ltd (TVNZ 1)
Best Cinematography: Drama
Denson Baker, ACS NZCS
The Luminaries
Southern Light Films & Working Title TV (TVNZ 1)
Best Contribution to a Soundtrack
Tom Miskin, Mike Bayliss, Matt Stutter, Steve Finnigan
Images & Sound
One Lane Bridge
Great Southern Television Limited (TVNZ 1)
Images & Sound Best Original Score
Claire Cowan
Runaway Millionaires
Fearless Productions (TVNZ 1)
Best Postproduction Design
Alana Cotton
The Luminaries
Southern Light Films & Working Title TV (TVNZ 1)
Best Production Design
Felicity Abbott APDG BFDG, Daniel Birt BFDG SDSA
The Luminaries
Southern Light Films & Working Title TV (TVNZ 1)
Best Costume Design
Edward K. Gibbon
The Luminaries
Southern Light Films & Working Title TV (TVNZ 1)
Best Makeup Design
Jane O'Kane
The Luminaries
Southern Light Films & Working Title TV (TVNZ 1)
Best Script: Comedy
Paul Yates
Wellington Paranormal - Series 2 Episode 2.4
New Zealand Documentary Board (TVNZ 2)
Best Script: Drama
Eleanor Catton
The Luminaries
Southern Light Films & Working Title TV (TVNZ 1)
Of the winners tonight, the following 18 productions received funding from NZ On Air:Aotearoa 250 (TVNZ 1)By the Balls (TVNZ 1)Funny As (TVNZ 2)The Hui (Three)Head High (Three)Hyundai Country Calendar (TVNZ 1)Kiri and Lou (TVNZ 2)Marks of Mana (The Coconet TV)Mean Mums (Three)NZ Wars – Stories of Waitara (RNZ)Off the Grid with Pio (Māori Television)One Lane Bridge (TVNZ 1)Patrick Gower: On Weed (Three)Runaway Millionaires (TVNZ 1)Scratched: Aotearoa’s Lost Sporting Legends (The Spinoff)Stuff Circuit (Stuff.co.nz)Unbreakable (TVNZ 1)Wellington Paranormal (TVNZ 2)
The following two award-winning productions received funding from Te Māngai Paho:Aotearoa 250 (TVNZ 1)Waka Huia (TVNZ 1)
Two award-winning productions were recipients of the NZ Screen Production Grant:The Luminaries (TVNZ 1)The Gulf (Three)