Sisterly love wins AWG TV script competition

09 December, 2015

A TV comedy about drugs, anarchy, alcohol, arson and sisterly love has won the 2015 Australian Writers’ Guild nationwide Think Inside the Box competition for unproduced scripts.Grow Up, by D'Arcy Foley-Dawson, is a comedy drama about two sisters with very extreme personalities trying to live together - despite a severe lack of life skills. When their alcoholic mother is hospitalised, an irresponsible wannabe comedian with anger issues is forced to take care of her neurotic twelve-year-old sister.D’Arcy spent many years as a director of music videos, short films and commercials before completing the Directing and Screenwriting courses at AFTRS. He is now focused on creating television projects that are “bold and adventurous, in that sweet spot between comedy and drama”.He will receive help turning his concept into a marketable script, with his original work read by the development team at leading independent production company Essential Media and Entertainment, the producers of such critically acclaimed series as Rake and The Principal.Entrants had to submit a three-page treatment outlining their original idea for an adult television drama series or mini-series, the first 13-15 pages of the script and one paragraph on the development history of the idea. An industry panel of judges then selected a long list by assessing the treatments for their ability to engage the reader in the writer’s vision, the potential for the project to be produced for television and the originality and excellence of the idea. The long listed entrants were then asked to submit the pilot episode of their original show and a shortlist was chosen.The short list included: CS McMullen (VIC) for Living Metal, Ryan Van Dijk (QLD)  & Alexei Mizin (VIC) for The Salesman, Eloise Healey & Jessica Brookman (VIC) for Impaired and Black Creek, and Vince Bailey (TAS) for Crash!The long list includes:White Heat Alexandra Edmondson, Jo-Anne BrechinThe Modernist Paul BernasconiOffline Fiona JohnsonSticks Alexander DuncanViewers Meegan MayThe Game Andrew MacDonaldThe Cost of Education Caroline CummingGrunts Eloise Healey, Jessica BrookmanFatale Miranda JohnsonThe Kindler Pete Monaghan, Ruth Estelle