Kōrero: Awards and prizes

Whārangi 4. TV, film, news media and radio awards

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Television and film awards

New Zealand’s first television awards, the National TV Awards, were run by the New Zealand Television Workshop in 1965 and 1966 to promote training for local production. An early winner was producer Shirley Maddock in 1965 for her documentary The distant shore.

From 1970 to 1985 a carpet manufacturer sponsored the New Zealand Feltex Awards, covering both film and television. From 1986 to 2003 these were superseded by the Guild of Film and Television Arts (GOFTA) awards. In 2000 the GOFTAs were run as two separate ceremonies, for film and television.

Oscar winners

The first New Zealander to win the world’s most prestigious film award, an Academy Award (also known as an Oscar), was Jonathan Hardy. In 1980 he shared the best adapted screenplay award for Breaker Morant. Jane Campion’s film The piano won three Oscars in 1994, and in 2022 she was named best director for The power of the dog. By 2014 Peter Jackson’s films had won 17 Oscars.

In 2005 two new award ceremonies were introduced. The Qantas Television Awards, honouring television and television journalism, were run by the NZ Television Broadcasters Council, later renamed ThinkTV. The New Zealand Screen Awards honoured film and television production, and were run by the Screen Directors Guild of New Zealand. The two sets of awards merged in 2008 as the Qantas Film and Television Awards. They became the Aotearoa Film and Television Awards in 2011. The following year the awards for television were again split off as the New Zealand Television Awards.

In 2013 TVNZ ceased supporting the New Zealand Television Awards. Instead the Moas, an alternative awards ceremony for the film industry first held in 2012 (later renamed the Rialto Channel New Zealand Film Awards), introduced an additional award for Best Television Feature or Drama Series. The 2019 New Zealand Television Awards were sponsored by Huawei.

News media awards

The annual Qantas Press Awards were first held in 1974 to recognise excellence in news photography. They were organised by the Newspaper Publishers Association and later expanded to include many other fields of journalism, including television and radio. In 1993 they became the Qantas Media Awards, and in 2010 they were renamed the Canon Media Awards. In 2017, now the Voyager Media Awards, they attracted 2,174 entries across 70 categories.

Radio awards

The New Zealand Radio Awards were first held in 1978 to support and recognise excellence in radio broadcasting in New Zealand. By 2012 the awards were administered by the Radio Broadcasters Association, and accepted entries from both commercial and non-commercial networks, including Māori and ethnic radio stations. In that year awards were presented in 21 categories, including Air Personality of the Year, Station of the Year and Sir Paul Holmes Broadcaster of the Year. In 2020 there were 16 award categories.

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārangi:

Mark Derby, 'Awards and prizes - TV, film, news media and radio awards', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/mi/awards-and-prizes/page-4 (accessed 29 March 2024)

He kōrero nā Mark Derby, i tāngia i te 22 Oct 2014, updated 1 Apr 2020