Award-winning multilinear narrative experience Eleven Eleven takes home Australia’s richest sci-fi screenwriting prize
19 November, 2019
Lucas Taylor’s AWGIE Award-winning multilinear narrative Eleven Eleven has won the 2019 John Hinde Award for Excellence in Science-Fiction Writing, with Steve Mitchell’s Cowtown taking home the prize in the unproduced category.
On a night celebrating creative teamwork and boundary-pushing storytelling, there was no better place to be than the Powerhouse Museum’s Apollo 11 Exhibition, a testament to the importance of collaboration and imagination, for the Australian Writers’ Guild’s Powerhouse Mixer and the presentation of the 2019 John Hinde Award.
The inaugural event invited key creatives and decision-makers from across the industry, including representatives from Screen Australia, Create NSW, Foxtel, ABC, SBS, talent agencies and production companies, to meet and mix with a talented cohort of screenwriters, some with projects available for development on AWG’s prestigious Pathways Showcase, and the John Hinde Award shortlist.
AWGIE Award-winning screenwriter Lucas Taylor was awarded the $10,000 prize in the John Hinde Award produced category for the multilinear narrative Eleven Eleven, a VR and AR experience set on a fictional planet that is 11 minutes and 11 seconds away from an extinction-level event. Glen Dolman’s series Bloom was highly commended.
‘Science fiction was one of my first loves,’ said Taylor, ‘Ever since George Orwell terrified and exhilarated me as a teenager I've wanted to tell stories in this fascinating genre.’
‘I am deeply humbled to receive this award, and I would like to sincerely thank the AWG and the estate of the late John Hinde for the generous bequest and their continued support of Australian sci-fi creators.’
In the unproduced category, Steve Mitchell took home the prize with his script Cowtown, a sci-fi comedy following acynical insurance investigator and an American UFO enthusiast who lock horns over a farmer's crazy claim for abducted cows. Cowtown has been inducted onto AWG’s Pathways Showcase, with Mitchell receiving up to $5000 in professional development support.
The John Hinde Award was established as part of a bequest from the late Australian film critic John Hinde, whose vision it was to see future generations of Australian science-fiction screenwriters nurtured through industry opportunities.
Past winners in the produced category include the late Cris Jones in 2017 for The Death and Life of Otto Bloom and Michael Miller in 2016 for episode five of the acclaimed Indigenous series Cleverman.
In the unproduced category, 2017 winner C.S. McMullen’s The Other Lamb was on the Black List, Hit List and Blood List as one of Hollywood’s best unproduced scripts and recently had its premiere at Toronto International Film Festival. Last year’s winner Georgina Love continues to develop her John Hinde Award-winning script Pig, and in 2018 was awarded a scholarship by Final Draft to attend the Rocaberti Writers retreat in the south of France, and won the Screencraft Screenwriters Fellowship.
The inaugural Powerhouse Mixer was made possible with support from Screen Australia.
2019 John Hinde Award shortlist
Love Limits by Katharine McPhee
Saucer by Stuart Mannion
The Jesus Machine by David Vincent Smith
God Therapy by Ted Janet
