Happiness cleans up TV awards

bro'Town won awards for Best Comedy and for Comedy Script Picture / Brett Phibbs

Keisha Castle-Hughes and Tem Morrison were among the celebrity presenters at last night's Screen Awards - and there was little variation in the names they were calling out.

TV2's The Insiders Guide to Happiness cleaned up the TV awards, winning seven of its 11 nominations, including Best Drama Series, Performance by an Actor (Will Hall), Performance by a Supporting Actor (Jason Whyte), and Achievement in Directing Drama/Comedy (Mark Beesley).

The darkly comedic drama is narrated by a dead man who watches as the lives of those he knows intersect in bizarre ways.

Work has begun on a prequel to the series, The Insiders Guide to Love, due to screen this year.

Robyn Malcolm won Best Performance by an Actress for her role in TV One's Serial Killers, but the programme lost to TV3's animated comedy bro'Town for Best Comedy and Comedy Script.

Best Documentary went to Keith Hunter for Murder on the Blade, an investigation into the Scott Watson murder case, while Haunting Douglas, a doco on the life of New Zealand dancer and choreographer Douglas Wright, won awards for Achievement in Directing (Leanne Pooley) and Editing (Tim Woodhouse).

TV3's night just got better as the channel's The Living Room Series II won Best Lifestyle/Entertainment Programme, Being Eve won Best Children's Programme, and the Maori youth show Pukana won Best Maori Language Programme.

TV One's Intrepid Journeys won Best Documentary/Factual Series.

Organised by the Screen Directors Guild, the awards were the first to be presented since the demise of the AFTA Film and Television Awards in 2003.

In the film category, the Maurice Gee adaptation In My Father's Den won 10 of its 12 nominations, including Best Picture, Performance by an Actor (Englishman Matthew MacFadyen), Performance by an Actress (Emily Barclay), Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Colin Moy) and Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Jodie Rimmer). Brad McGann won awards for Achievement in Directing and Best Screenplay.

The thriller follows a burned-out war photographer who returns to his small New Zealand hometown for his father's funeral.

Fracture, its biggest competition, was recognised for Achievement in Original Music (Victoria Kelly) and Costume Design (Amanda Neale).

Best Short Film went to Closer.

Organiser Dan Salmon said the screen awards not only recognised excellence in an industry of "growing maturity", but provided an important marketing tool that could help to push local product overseas.