Media News – NEW ZEALAND TELEVISION AWARDS ANNOUNCES 2023 WINNERS

Source: New Zealand Television Awards | Ngā Taonga Whakaata O Aotearoa

(Auckland / Tāmaki Makaurau – December 5, 2023)  Aotearoa’s television industry celebrated the best of the  sectors’ achievements tonight with the announcement of the 2023 New Zealand Television Awards | Ngā Taonga Whakaata O Aotearoa winners. Hosted by actor and comedian Kura Forrester, the sold-out red carpet gala event was held at Auckland’s Viaduct Events Centre.

1News broke Newshub’s four-year winning streak taking out the 2023 award for Best News Coverage for their reportage on the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle. TVNZ’s Sunday was named Best Current Affairs Programme and 1News’ Thomas Mead won the award for Reporter of the Year.   For Warner Bros. Discovery ANZ, Patrick Gower won Best Presenter: News and Current Affairs for his work across Newshub Live at 6pm, Paddy Gower Has Issues, AM, The Project NZ and Paddy Gower On…, while Gower’s co-star Karen O’Leary won Best Presenter: Entertainment for her work on Paddy Gower Has Issues.

Bravo New Zealand & Hayu NZ’s Below Deck Down Under’s Kiwi star Aesha Scott won the publicly-voted Television Personality of the Year, and, as previously announced, acclaimed multi-hyphenate creative Oscar Kightley was honoured as the 2023 TV Legend award with his trophy presented by long-time friend and collaborator Teuila Blakely.

The Gone, produced by Kingfisher Films, Keeper Pictures and Southern Light Films for TVNZ 1 and TVNZ+ in New Zealand, took out the most awards of the evening with a total of five wins including: NZ On Air Best Drama,  Images & Sound Best Cinematography: Drama / Comedy Drama (Dave Cameron NZCS ACS),  Images & Sound Best Original Score (Mahuia Bridgeman-Cooper), Best Costume Design (Pauline H Pohatu) and Best Makeup Design (Kelly Mitchell).  

Other programmes that won multiple awards tonight include:

Chaos Films Ltd, Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Ltd, Augusto Ltd’s TVNZ telefeature Princess of Chaos which won the awards for Best Editing: Drama / Comedy Drama (Carly Turner), Best Post Production Design (Alana Cotton) and Screen Auckland Best Director: Drama / Comedy Drama (Kiel McNaughton);

Great Southern Television’s TVNZ drama series One Lane Bridge whose lead actor Dominic Ona-Ariki was named Best Actor, and which also won the award for Best Production Design (John Allan);

South Pacific Pictures’ TVNZ+ comedy Educators which took out Best Comedy with Rick Donald named Best Supporting Actor;

and Stuff’s Fire and Fury, whose director and editor Toby Longbottom won dual awards for Best Editing: Documentary or Factual and  Best Director: Documentary / Factual.

Of this year’s 37 judged award categories and one publicly-voted category, content screened on TVNZ channels won 25 awards, content played on Warner Bros. Discovery ANZ channels won five awards, programming shown on Whakaata Māori won three awards (including one shared with The Coconet), while The Coconet and Stuff’s programming each won two awards and Sky and RNZ content received one award apiece.  Programmes funded by NZ On Air received 19 awards across this year’s categories, two recipients of Te Puna Kairangi – Premium Productions for International Audiences Fund won six awards between them, and Te Māngai Paho funded three of this year’s award-winning programmes.