Dealing with the political machinations and active sex life of the young King Henry VIII, The Tudors was the big winner at the 5th annual Irish Film & Television Academy (Ifta) awards ceremony last night.
The show was staged at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, where getting guests seated was an organisational chore given the amount of air-kissing that went on at the entrance, on the staircases and in the bars beforehand.
The Tudors took seven Ifta awards, including the prize for best TV drama series or soap. That statuette was accepted by its executive producer Morgan O'Sullivan, and there was sustained applause when he thanked the Irish government for extending the Section 481 tax incentive scheme for investment in film and TV production.
The Tudors received three of the four TV acting awards: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (best actor), who began his acceptance speech with the words, "Go raibh míle maith agaibh"; Maria Doyle Kennedy (best supporting actress) and Nick Dunning (best supporting actor). And the series took prizes for best production design (Tom Conroy), costume design (Joan Bergin) and hair and make-up (Jennifer Hegarty and Dee Corcoran).
The most popular winner of the night was Pat Shortt, who was loudly cheered as he came on stage to take the best film actor award for his intense, understated performance in Garage.
"This is fantastic," he said, giggling uncontrollably. "I haven't a clue what to say." Garage was voted best Irish film, an award accepted by its producers, Andrew Lowe and Ed Guiney. And there were two more accolades for Garage when Lenny Abrahamson was named best director and Mark O'Halloran received the prize for best screenplay.
Abrahamson and O'Halloran each pulled off a double, winning the same awards in the TV categories for their series, Prosperity, dealing with working-class lives in the Celtic Tiger era.
Dealing with the troubled lives of Irish emigrants who went to work in London in the 1970s, the bilingual drama Kings, which is predominantly in Irish, collected five of the Ifta film awards: best supporting actor (Brendan Conroy), original score (Pol Brennan), editing (Dermot Diskin), sound (Ken Galvin, Ronan Hill and Dominic Weaver) and Ifta's special Irish-language award.
Irish-language productions took several other Ifta awards last night, including best TV drama serial for the edgy political satire, The Running Mate; best children's/youth programme for Aifric; and best TV animation for Skunk Fu. The award for best single TV documentary went to producer Alison Millar for the controversial production, At Home with the Clearys, dealing with the secret domestic life of the late Fr Michael Cleary. The priest's son, Ross Hamilton, came on stage with the producer and thanked her for "setting the record straight".
Director Alan Gilsenan received the award for best documentary series for the Hospice, and he paid special tribute to "the dear departed" who contributed to the series "from their deathbeds". The prize for best current affairs TV programme went to the Prime Time Investigates special, Not Seen Yet Heard, dealing with children who have psychiatric difficulties.
The TV awards winners included Aisling O'Sullivan, named best actress for The Clinic; Tall, Dark and Ó hAilpín for best sports programme; Kathryn Thomas, voted TV personality of the year; Diarmuid Gavin, accepting for best factual entertainment (Diarmuid's Pony Kids); and The Podge & Rodge Show for best entertainment. Podge and Rodge could not attend the ceremony, we were told, because "it's bath night at the manor".
Ryan Tubridy, the urbane host for the ceremony, mischievously introduced Pat Kenny as "the presenter of one of the top two TV chat shows in Ireland", before Kenny announced that the best news TV programme award was going to BBC Northern Ireland's Newsline.
Colin Farrell took the stage to declare 13-year-old Saoirse Ronan, an Oscar nominee this year, as the winner of the Irish Film Board's rising star award, for her performance in Atonement. Because she is filming in New Zealand, the award was accepted by her grandparents.
The best cinematography award went to her fellow Oscar nominee, Armagh native Seamus McGarvey for the same film; he could not attend because he is shooting in Los Angeles.
The ceremony culminated in a standing ovation for Mel Gibson, the star and director of the Oscar-winning Braveheart, which he made primarily in Ireland.
He was presented with Ifta's honorary award for outstanding contribution to world cinema.
"I'm no good at writing speeches," he said, "so boo me when you've had enough". The glitzy audience was much too polite for that, and they cheered again when Gibson expressed his "great fondness of my time here", and said that "my old Mom", a native of Longford, "would love to have been here for this."
As the edited programme of the awards ceremony started transmission on RTE at 9.30pm, the guests trooped down to the nearby Shelbourne hotel for a reception and "a buffet of culinary delights".
Daniel Day-Lewis, who stars as a deranged oil prospector in Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, has become used to waving statuettes at adoring crowds, writes Donald Clarke.
Nonetheless, he still appeared visibly moved when veteran producer Arthur Lappin handed him a Volta Award, the Jameson Dublin Film Festival's honour for career achievement, following a screening of There Will Be Blood at the Savoy cinema on Saturday night. Lappin, who worked on My Left Foot, the picture for which Day-Lewis won his Oscar, managed to incorporate the title of virtually every one of the actor's films into his oration.
The audience, which included such luminaries as former boxer Barry McGuigan and snooker player Ken Doherty, did the decent thing and gave the star of My Left Foot a standing ovation.
"I have to thank Dublin as a city and also the mighty Brown clan," Day-Lewis, who lives in Roundwood, Co Wicklow, told a capacity crowd.
And the winners are. . .
Best Irish film: Garage
Best international film: The Lives of Others
Best film director: Lenny Abrahamson for Garage
Best script for film: Mark O'Halloran for Garage
Best actor in a lead film role: Pat Shortt for Garage
Best actor in a supporting role: Brendan Conroy for Kings
Best actress in a supporting role: Saoirse Ronan for Atonement
Best international actor: Daniel Day-Lewis for There will be Blood
Best television drama series: The Tudors
Best director for television: Lenny Abrahamson for Prosperity
Best script for television: Mark O'Halloran for Prosperity
Best actor in a leading television role: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers for The Tudors
Best actress in lead role in television: Aisling O'Sullivan for The Clinic.
Best documentary series for television: The Hospice
Best single documentary for television: At Home with the Clearys
TV personality of the year: Kathryn Thomas RTÉ
Best costume design: Joan Bergin for The Tudors
Best director of photography: Seamus McGarvey for Atonement
Best editing: Dermot Diskin for Kings
Best original score: Pol Brennan for Kings
Best production design: Tom Conroy for The Tudors
Best youth and children programme: Telegael Media Group for Aifric
Best current affairs: Prime Time Investigates
Best entertainment in television: The Podge and Rodge Show
Best factual entertainment: Diarmuid's Pony Kids
Best sport programme: Tall, Dark and Ó hÁilpín by Telegael Media Group
Best short film: New Boy
Best international actress: Hillary Swank for PS I Love You.
Outstanding contribution to world cinema: Mel Gibson