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Rugby, marijuana, period dramas and investigative journalism took center stage at the New Zealand Television Awards on Wednesday night.
The awards celebrated documentaries such as Patrick Gower: on marijuana, as well as dramas including The luminaires at a star-studded event in Auckland.
the Newshub team collected the awards for the best presenter of news and current affairs, going to The HuiMihingarangi Forbes, and also Best Entertainment Host, who went to Gower for his In marijuana documentary film.
David White / Stuff
Patrick Gower has won an award for his documentary on cannabis.
Gower missed the awards due to being in managed isolation when he returned from reporting on the US elections. Patrick Gower: on marijuana director Justin Hawkes also won the Best Documentary Director award for the show.
Hawkes said that making documentaries with Gower (they’ve also made a series on Covid-19 since) had been an incredible experience.
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“He really did everything for that show, he trusted me 87 percent for that show. He’s just my best friend, working with him was very good, ”he said.
By accepting her award for Best News Anchor, Mihingarangi Forbes (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Paoa) challenged the state and its broadcasters, RNZ and TVNZ, to put Maori programming on prime time.
His speech drew a strong response of support from the crowd. The haka He died welcomed him to the stage. She dedicated her award to the Maori wāhine, saying that she wanted to show that “it is okay for a Maori woman to rise above her station for Te Tiriti and for a place in broadcasting for all of us.”
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
Mihingarangi Forbes attends the 2020 New Zealand Television Awards.
Forbes presents The Hui on Three, and has worked for RNZ. Backstage, he told her Things Public broadcasters had no excuse not to broadcast more Maori stories.
“Look, we have a long way to go in broadcasting. We have state broadcasters that don’t share platforms with us, that’s a fight we’re prepared for, and I will always be like that.”
“When you watch TVNZ and RNZ platforms in primetime, we are not there. We have been in gang land on Sunday mornings since I started in 1984, like Te Karere,” he said.
But Forbes said there were glimmers of hope. Other Maori broadcasters ran for awards, like Pio Terei. Miriama McDowell and Jayden Daniels won best actor awards for their roles in Head up high.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
Gigi Barclay and Jayden Daniels NZ TV Awards 2020 red carpet
“Mai rā nō, we’ve been here from the beginning. Henare Te Ua, all those RNZ guys when it was called NZ Broadcasting. The Maori have always been broadcasting, we’re not leaving.”
The luminaires, which was filmed in New Zealand as a co-production between TVNZ and the BBC, has received awards in the technical, acting and screenwriting categories.
Eleanor Catton, the Man Booker Award-winning author and screenwriter behind the series, won the Best Drama Screenplay award. Himesh Patel, an English actor known for his role in EastEnders, won the Best Actor award for playing Emery Staines in The luminaires.
It also dominated the craft categories, including Best Director of Photography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup Design, and Best Post-Production Design.
The soap opera was written by Catton and the show’s director, Claire McCarthy, an Australian filmmaker who also won Screen Auckland’s Best Drama Director award. It was shot in Auckland and on the west coast of the South Island.
The New Zealand Television Awards will be held on Auckland’s waterfront, with Personality of the Year and Best Show Awards to be announced later tonight.
