The Newsreader, Deadloch and The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart were the big television award winners at the 13th AACTA Awards, held on Saturday night at the Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast, and broadcast on Network Ten and Arena, and an earlier Industry Awards presentation held on Thursday.
It was the first AACTA Awards presentation since 2022, with the awards moved from a late-year to early-year event.
The Newsreader, centred around a commercial television newsroom in the 1980s, won five awards including Best Drama Series, Best Lead Actress (Anna Torv), Best Supporting Actor (Hunter Page-Lochard) and Best Direction (Emma Freeman).
Deadloch, a murder comedy/mystery created by Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney (The Katering Show, Get Krack!n), also won five awards including Best Acting in a Comedy (Kate Box), Best Screenplay in Television and Best Original Score in Television.
Amazon Prime series The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart won four awards including Best Mini-Series.
There were also wins for The Australian Wars, MasterChef Australia, Bluey, Colin From Accounts, Hard Quiz, Old People’s Home For Teenagers, Gardening Australia, Love Me, Hannah Gadsby: Something Special, SBS‘ coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final and a posthumous win for Cal Wilson, co-host of The Great Australian Bake Off.
TELEVISION
AACTA Award for Best Drama Series
The Newsreader
Joanna Werner, Michael Lucas
Werner Film Productions / ABC
AACTA Award for Best Miniseries
The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart
Jodi Matterson, Bruna Papandrea, Steve Hutensky, Barbara Gibbs, Sarah Lambert, Glendyn Ivin
Made Up Stories, Amazon Studios, Fifth Season / Amazon Prime Video
AACTA Award for Best Narrative Comedy Series
Colin From Accounts
Ian Collie, Rob Gibson, Patrick Brammall, Harriet Dyer
Easy Tiger / Binge, Foxtel
AACTA Award for Best Comedy Entertainment Program
Hard Quiz
Chris Walker, Kevin Whyte, Tom Gleeson, John Tabbagh
Thinkative Television and ABC / ABC
AACTA Award for Best Entertainment Program
Eurovision Song Contest 2023 – Grand Final
Paul Clarke, Emily Griggs
Blink TV Production Pty Ltd / SBS
AACTA Award for Best Factual Entertainment Program
Old People’s Home for Teenagers
Tony De La Pena, Tara McWilliams, Emily Potts
Endemol Shine Australia / ABC
AACTA Award for Best Lifestyle Program
Gardening Australia
Gill Lomas
ABCTV / ABC
AACTA Award for Best Reality Program
MasterChef Australia
David Forster, Simon Child, Eoin Maher, April Mackay
Endemol Shine Australia / Network Ten
AACTA Award for Best Documentary or Factual Program
The Australian Wars
Darren Dale, Rachel Perkins, Belinda Mravicic
Blackfella Films Pty Ltd / NITV, SBS
AACTA Award for Best Children’s Program
Bluey
Joe Brumm, Charlie Aspinwall, Sam Moor, Daley Pearson
Ludo Studio / ABC
AACTA Award for Best Stand-Up Special
Hannah Gadsby: Something Special
Hannah Gadsby, Kevin Whyte, Kathleen McCarthy, Jenney Shamash, Frank Bruzzese
Guesswork Television Pty Ltd / Netflix
AACTA Award for Best Lead Actress in a Drama presented by BINGE
Anna Torv
The Newsreader
AACTA Award for Best Lead Actor in a Drama presented by BINGE
Hugo Weaving
Love Me
AACTA Award for Best Comedy Performer presented by Network Ten
Cal Wilson
The Great Australian Bake Off
AACTA Award for Best Acting in a Comedy
Kate Box
Deadloch
AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama
Heather Mitchell
Love Me
AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama
Hunter Page-Lochard
The Newsreader
AACTA Award for Best Direction in Drama or Comedy
The Newsreader – Episode 4
Emma Freeman
AACTA Award for Best Screenplay in Television
Deadloch – Episode 1
Kate McCartney, Kate McLennan
AACTA Award for Best Direction in Nonfiction Television
The Australian Wars – Episode 1
Rachel Perkins, Dylan River, Tov Belling
AACTA Award for Best Cinematography in Television
The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart – Episode 1
Sam Chiplin
AACTA Award for Best Costume Design in Television
The Newsreader – Episode 4
Zed Dragojlovich
AACTA Award for Best Editing in Television
Deadloch – Episode 1
Angie Higgins
AACTA Award for Best Production Design in Television
The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart – Episode 1
Melinda Doring
AACTA Award for Best Original Score in Television
Deadloch – Episode 1
Amanda Brown
AACTA Award for Best Sound in Television
The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart – Episode 6
David Lee, Robert MacKenzie, Leah Katz, James Ashton
AACTA Award for Best Casting in Television presented by Casting Networks
Deadloch
Alison Telford, Kate Leonard
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
Trailblazer Award Recipient: Margot Robbie
Byron Kennedy Award Recipient: Bruna Papandrea
Brian Walsh Award Recipient: Ngali Shaw
Reg Grundy Award Recipient: Rachel Berger (Seriously Funny)
The full list of awards, including Film, Short Film, Documentary, Online, Additional Awards, Individual Awards and Audience Choice Award categories are on the AACTA website.
Source: AACTA
