Kettering, Wentworth win AACTA gongs

FremantleMedia Australia’s prison drama Wentworth was named Best TV Drama

Australian dramas The Kettering Incident and Wentworth won major TV prizes at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) awards.

Commissioned by Foxtel and produced by Porchlight Films and Sweet Potato Films, The Kettering Incident was named Best Telefeature or Miniseries and its star, Elizabeth Debicki, collected best lead actress in a TV drama.

FremantleMedia Australia’s Wentworth, which airs on Foxtel’s Soho, was judged Best TV Drama.

Samuel Johnson received the prize for Best Lead Actor in a Drama for the Seven Network’s Molly, produced by Mushroom Pictures.

Gristmill Productions’ Upper Middle Bogan, which airs on pubcaster ABC, was named Best Comedy Series.

CJZ’s Gruen (ABC) took the gong for Best Light Entertainment series, while Destination Flavour Scandinavia, an in-house production at pubcaster SBS, received the inaugural award for Best Lifestyle Programme.

Endemol Shine Australia’s MasterChef Australia (Network Ten) was Best Reality Series for the second year in a row.

Sarah Scheller and Alison Bell won Best TV Screenplay for the ABC Comedy Showroom’s The Letdown.

Eva Orner’s Chasing Asylum, a searing indictment of successive Australian governments’ policies that have banished thousands of asylum seekers to remote Pacific islands and Cambodia, was deemed Best Feature-Length Documentary.

The AACTA Trailblazer Award was presented to actress Isla Fisher, who attended the ceremony with her husband Sacha Baron Cohen.