Russell Baillie: Appraising a prize fight

Tonight - as Sir Rod of Stewart once famously said - is the night. And everything's going to be all right ... Well, it is if you are or ever were a Naked Samoan, ever worked with a Naked Samoan, or, if you are an wise and aged foreign film actor with a New Zealand stamp in your passport.

For tonight they are all possible winners at the Air New Zealand Screen Awards 2006, the combined film and television industry prizegiving of 47 gongs in many and various categories.

Forty-seven? Wow. That's 28 television awards and 19 film awards. Yep, it's our very own Emmys and Oscars combined. And for the second year in a row after the big-screen and small-screen guys have spent a decade or two in an on-again off-again relationship at prizegiving time.

It appears to be back on for a while. This year it would seem to make sense - especially as those Naked Samoan guys are up for Sione's Wedding on the film side and the second series of bro'Town on the telly. They'll be that really loud table - the one with the wheelbarrow beside it.

Film-wise, 10 nominations for Sione's Wedding: 10 nominations makes it second equal to Roger Donaldson's World's Fastest Indian.

At the top of the list are the 12 nominations for Toa Fraser's No. 2, which gets its extra nods from dominating the supporting actor and supporting actress slots. In past years, local film award nominations have been a case of one runaway or critical hit and some consolation nods to honourable failures.

This year though, it's all on. In effect, it's an arm-wrestle between local box-office biggies Sione's and Indian. Or Grey Lynn v Invercargill - with Mt Roskill and Wanganui in with a chance.

The nominations for both No. 2 (acclaimed but modestly successful) and River Queen (a film whose production difficulties could affect its standing among industry voters) should give an edge to the envelope-opening. Especially when you consider the imported talent up for the main acting awards - Sir Anthony Hopkins for Indian, veteran African-American actress Ruby Dee for No. 2, and curiously, given how much of River Queen's difficulties have been blamed on her, Samantha Morton. Now there's an acceptance speech we'd like to hear ... but probably never will.

While his flick is up for best picture, Vincent Ward isn't up for best director. Though River Queen's director of photography Alun Bollinger, who took over from Ward, is surely a front-runner for the cinematography prize, and with it another intriguing acceptance speech.

If it's been a year worth celebrating on the local flick front, the television award nominations feel like a re-run of previous years. Especially in the drama and comedy sections where it's basically a case of substituting Insiders Guide to Love for its predecessor Insiders Guide to Happiness, the further series of Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby, Facelift, and bro'Town.

Among the acting and drama noms are some short-lived little-seen and low-budget newcomers - Interrogation and The Market - getting some recognition.

And of course there was last year's first season of Outrageous Fortune which got nine nominations, though they somehow forgot to give one to cast linchpin Robyn Malcolm.

Among the documentary awards it seems the industry didn't much like the ponderous New Zealand history lesson Frontier of Dreams any more than viewers. But surely the top prizes were always going to lose to Off the Rails - A Love Story. Unlike the film categories, there aren't many Kiwi classics among the television nominees. The Marcus Lush-presented joy-of-trains travelogue, which has three nominations, definitely was.

Let's finish with a reminder about tonight's greatest conundrum, the nominees for best reality series - Border Patrol, Miss Popularity and The Big Experiment. Yes, quite. Like you, I'm just glad they're leaving the voting on that one to the experts.

* The full list of nominations is at the Screen Directors' Guild website