Loads more Dagger Award Categories...

The CWA have released a press statement today about their collaboration with ITV3, Cactus TV and Specsavers and details of new Dagger awards:

Specsavers, Cactus TV and ITV3 in partnership with the Crime Writers’ association (CWA) are pleased to announce they will join forces to celebrate the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2009. Following the success of last year’s naugural event on ITV3, the 2009 event will be merged with the Crime Writers’ Association Daggers and the new combined “Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards on ITV3” will take place on Wednesday, 21st October, 2009.

The exciting new partnership is a 3 year deal between the four parties. The initiative has the support of leading publishers and high street retailers and will have posters and stickered books in shops and supermarkets and coverage in the press, reinforcing the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards as a major industry event.

The culmination of a six-week season of ITV3 crime and drama programming, the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards (“Daggers”) will be a glittering occasion at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. The awards ceremony will celebrate the crème de la crème of Crime & Thriller fiction with awards focusing on the best of British and International crime thriller novels. Literary Awards presented will include the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller, the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger for a new author of note, and the Hall Of Fame Dagger, which honours the achievements of the genre’s greatest exponents, past and present. In addition, the evening will introduce a brand new award – the ITV3 Bestseller Dagger, sponsored by Specsavers – voted for by ITV3 viewers.

The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards will also celebrate crime fiction off the page with awards focusing on the greatest crime and thriller films and TV dramas of the year – along with the actors who brought the characters to life. Each award of the evening will be presented by celebrity faces with a connection to the world of crime fiction.

In the run-up to the glittering awards, ITV3 will broadcast weekly documentaries, profiling six of the greatest crime writers working today: Colin Dexter, Ian Rankin, P D James, Lynda La Plante, Val McDermid and Ruth Rendell. In 2008, the series reached 3.12m viewers. These documentaries will also highlight the shortlists for the new literary awards as well as interviews with the shortlisted writers for the ITV3/Specsavers Bestsellers Dagger.

The televised ceremony which will transmit on ITV3 later in October will combine the Crime Writers’ Association’s most prestigious awards with the major categories featured in 2009’s Thriller Awards:

· The CWA Gold Dagger for the best Crime Novel of the year.
· The CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger – for first books by previously unpublished writers, awarded in memory of CWA founder John Creasey.
· The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger – for the year’s best thriller.

· The ITV3 Bestseller Dagger, sponsored by Specsavers – voted for by ITV3 viewers.
· The Hall of Fame – honouring the achievements of the genre’s greatest exponents, past and present.
· The Film Dagger – for the best big-screen crime thriller story.
· The TV Dagger – for the best small-screen crime thriller drama.
· The International TV Dagger – for the best TV crime thriller drama from around the world.
· The Best Actress Dagger – for the female star of a crime thriller drama.
· The Best Actor Dagger - for the male star of a crime thriller drama.

The shortlists for each of these award categories will be announced to the public on 4th September, 2009.

The full press release can be read here (pdf format).

I can't say I'm completely clear about what's going on but I'm sure it'll become more obvious once the shortlists are out in a few days time. I wonder whether the other Daggers such as the International one will be integrated into the mainstream in 2010?