TVNZ shows dominated the Qantas Film and Television Awards 2009 winning 17 out of 25 possible accolades in the General Television categories. Among the big winners were three Sunday Theatre dramas, Until Proven Innocent, Piece Of My Heart, and the film Apron Strings.

A finalist in ten categories, Lippy Pictures' Until Proven Innocent won five awards, including Best Drama, Best Editing and Best Camera work. Best Actor went to Cohen Holloway for his portrayal of David Dougherty, and Peter Elliot won Best Supporting Actor.

MF Film's Piece Of My Heart was nominated in seven categories with young talent, Emily Barclay and Keisha Castle-Hughes winning Best Performance by an Actress and Best Performance for a Supporting Actress respectively. It also took top honours for Production Design.

In the Film Category, another Sunday Theatre Drama, Apron Strings, produced by Great Southern Television, received four awards, including Best Lead Actor in a Feature Film for Scott Wills, and Best Lead Actress going to Jennifer Ludlam.

Jeff Latch, Head of Television, says the weekend's awards recognise the quality of shows that TVNZ is delivering to New Zealanders.

"TVNZ is extremely pleased with the success of Until Proven Innocent, Apron Strings and Piece Of My Heart. The high production values, strong scripts and stellar casts, created compelling Sunday Theatres that captured the hearts of Kiwis.

"I'd like to pay tribute to the great work of the TVNZ drama commissioning and programming teams, who worked closely with New Zealand's leading production companies to create these shows.

"To win awards and to be judged the very best by our peers in the industry is a great achievement. However, the public response is just as important, and the ratings for these local dramas was exceptional. We look forward to seeing a lot more New Zealand drama on our screens.

"As New Zealand's local content leader, it is fantastic to see the excellence of our local programming recognised across such a wide range of genres and subjects, from the inspiring Hunger For The Wild, the irreverent Eating Media Lunch, and the highly entertaining Dancing With The Stars, to our top class dramas."

At the craft awards presented on Friday, TVNZ shows won seven of the nine craft awards, including Best Original Music for Pacific Screen's Lost In Libya. For the second consecutive year, Claire Palmer won Best Contribution to Design for her work on Dancing With The Stars, and Steve Jamieson won Best Multi-Camera Direction award for the IRB World 7s in Wellington.

Latch says, "Viewers have plenty to look forward to as TVNZ plans to continue to lead the way in the commissioning of high quality New Zealand drama, both series and one-off productions."

Starting shortly on TV2 is the new local drama series The Cult, while in the coming 12 months TVNZ will have This Is Not My Life, created by Gavin Strawhan and Outrageous Fortune co-creator Rachel Lang, who also have a second series of TV2's Go Girls in production; and one-off Sunday dramas, Spies And Lies, starring Antony Starr; Nights In The Garden Of Spain adapted from a Witi Ihimaera script; Bloodlines; and the Katherine Mansfield story, Bliss.

"This will be the richest slate of local drama that TVNZ and New Zealanders have seen in many years," says Latch.

TVNZ News And Current Affairs shows also won 11 out of the possible 12 Qantas Awards available, including Best News; Best News And Current Affairs Presenter; Best Current Affairs Series; Journalist of the Year; and Investigation of the Year.

TVNZ'S QANTAS FILM AND TELEVISION AWARDS 2009 GENERAL TELEVISION CATEGORY WINNERS

Images & Sound Best Drama Programme Until Proven Innocent - Paula Boock and Donna Malane, Lippy Pictures Ltd, TV ONE

Best Information/Lifestyle Programme Hunger For The Wild - Peter Young, Fisheye Films Ltd, TV ONE

Best Entertainment Programme Dancing With The Stars - Debra Kelleher, TVNZ, TV ONE

Best Sports Broadcast International Netball Series 2008 - Barbara Mitchell, TVNZ, TV ONE

Best Observational Reality Series Rescue 1 - Martin Cleave, Great Southern Television, TV2

Best Performance by an Actress - General Television Piece of My Heart - Emily Barclay, MF Films Ltd, TV ONE

Best Performance by a Supporting Actress - General Television Piece Of My Heart - Keisha Castle-Hughes, MF Films Ltd, TV ONE

Best Performance by an Actor - General Television Until Proven Innocent - Cohen Holloway, Lippy Pictures Ltd, TV ONE

Best Performance by a Supporting Actor - General Television Until Proven Innocent - Peter Elliott, Lippy Pictures Ltd, TV ONE

Best Presenter Entertainment/Factual Programme Dancing With The Stars - Jason Gunn, TVNZ, TV ONE

Best Director - Factual/Entertainment Programme Eating Media Lunch - Paul Casserly, Great Southern Television, TV2

Best Multi Camera Direction in General Television IRB World Sevens Series Wellington - Steve Jamieson, TVNZ, TV ONE

Best Camera Work - Drama/Comedy Programme Until Proven Innocent - David Paul, Lippy Pictures Ltd, TV ONE

Images & Sound Best Editing - Drama/Comedy Programme Until Proven Innocent - Paul Sutorius, Lippy Pictures Ltd, TV ONE

Best Original Music in General Television Lost In Libya - David Ironside, Pacific Screen, TV ONE

Best Production Design in General Television Piece Of My Heart - Tracey Collins, MF Films Ltd, TV ONE

Best Contribution to Design in General Television Dancing With The Stars - Claire Palmer, TVNZ, TV ONE

FILM CATEGORY WINNERS 2009

Best Lead Actor in a Feature Film Apron Strings - Scott Wills, Great Southern Television Best Lead Actress in a Feature Film Apron Strings - Jennifer Ludlam, Great Southern Television

Best Cinematography in a Feature Film Apron Strings - Rewa Harre, Great Southern Television

Best Production Design in a Feature Film Apron Strings - Johnny Hawkins, Great Southern Television