Helpmann Award Winners Include Mona Foma, Prince, Kylie

Mona Foma has won the Best Australian Contemporary Music Festival at the Helpmann Awards tonight, beating fellow nominees Future Music Festival, Bluesfest and Vivid LIVE.

The Hobart festival, which was first staged in 2009, is curated by former Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie and celebrates the leftfield and avant-garde. PJ Harvey headlined this year's event, while David Byrne and St Vincent are booked for the 2013 festival.

Prince Welcome 2 Australia has won the Best International Contemporary Concert. The tour was presented by Van Egmond Group and Chugg Entertainment and took Australia by storm. Not only were the shows commercially successful, they were also a critical hit. Inpress Assistant Editor Bryget Chrisfield wrote of the Melbourne Rod Laver Area show on 14 May: “Sell everything you've got to experience Prince's Welcome 2 Australia tour. And bring extra coin for extravagant merch.” Read here.

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Kylie Minogue's Aphrodite Les Folies Tour has won the Best Contemporary Concert, beating out Cold Chisel and Keith Urban. Check out Kylie before the opening of the first show of the Australian leg tour from within the 'Splash Zone' in Brisbane.

Tim Minchin has been named Best Comedy Performer. Meow Meow took home the prize for Best Cabaret Performer for Little Match Girl, which premiered at the Malthouse Theatre.

The big awards went to A Chorus Line for best musical, Moby Dick for Best Opera, Can We Talk About This? For Best Ballet Or Dance Work and Best Play went to the Melbourne Festival show Ganesh Versus The Third Reich, which made worldwide headlines after Hindu protests erupted during its Melbourne Festival run.

Angela's Kitchen, the Paul Capsis show first performed at Griffin Theatre, won two awards. Capsis took out Best Male Actor In A Play and Best New Australian Work. The show is currently on tour, opening this Wednesday 26 September at the Brisbane Powerhouse as part of the Brisbane Festival.

We spoke to Capsis about Angela's Kitchen, read our chat here.

Robyn Nevin has won Best Female Actor In A Supporting Role In A Play for her portrayal of Emma Leech in Belvoir's production of Ray Lawler's Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll.  Best Male Actor In A Supporting Role went to Bob Hornery for the MTC production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Horney reprised his role of Canon Chasuble, which he originally played in the 1988 production. 

Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett has taken home Best Female Actor In A Play for Sydney Theatre Company's Gross und Klein (Big and Small) with Benedict Andrews winning Best Direction Of A Play for the same production. 

Brisbane troupe Circa won Best Visual Or Physical Theatre Production; Inpress reviewer Simon Eales called Circa “As good as it gets… entrancing from the first pratfall to the last group frenzy.”

Best Lighting Design went to Paul Jackson - twice nominated in the category - for Little Match Girl.

Toni Maticevski and Richard Nylon have won the Best Costume Design for their creation of birds in Melbourne Festival and Ballet Lab's Aviary: A Suite For The Bird.

The full list of winners is available here.