‘MasterChef Australia’ 2016 latest news: Hit culinary competition scores back-to-back win as best reality TV series at AACTA

For the second consecutive time, “MasterChef Australia” was named the Best Reality Television Series at the 2016 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards held on Dec. 7.

This is the show’s third recognition under the same category from AACTA, the country’s highest film and television awards and Australia’s equivalent of the Oscars and the BAFTAs. Channel Ten’s hit culinary competition, which first won the award in 2013, bested three other reality shows this year, namely “My Kitchen Rules” and “First Dates” from Seven Network and “The Recruit” from Foxtel.

“MasterChef Australia” hosts George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston took to social media to express their elation over their victory. On the show’s official Facebook page, Gary delivers the good news while they were on set, filming for the upcoming season. [READ: “Fans get a first glimpse of the upcoming season; judges take on the mannequin challenge”]

He announces, “We were so excited to get up this morning because last night, we won an AACTA for best reality show on TV and voted by our peers!” Matt, on the other hand, proudly holds the trophy and thanks the editors, the crew, the producers and “everyone who makes us look good every single day.” George only has one thing to say: “Two years in a row, baby!”

In other TV categories, the big winners were prison series “Wentworth,” which won the Best Drama award, as well as supernatural thriller “The Kettering Incident,” which was named Best Miniseries. ABC’s “Upper Middle Bogan” was also recognised in the Best Comedy category while “Gruen” received the Best Light Entertainment accolade.

The AACTA, now on its sixth year, also gave out awards to movies. Biographical war film “Hacksaw Ridge” swept numerous awards, namely Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Direction for Mel Gibson, Best Lead Actor for Andrew Garfield and Best Supporting Actor for Hugo Weaving. Earlier, it also won Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound and Best Production Design.

“Hacksaw Ridge” tells the true story of Desmond Doss, an American pacificist combat medic during the World War II. While the movie is set in the US and Japan, it was shot entirely in Australia and most of its cast and crew are locals.