2024 Emerging Writers' Awards winners announced
24 July, 2024
The Australian Writers' Guild congratulates screenwriters Evlin DuBose and Cameron Williams who have tonight been announced as the winners of the 2024 Emerging Writers' Awards.
The Awards were announced tonight to a packed and buzzing room of senior writers, producers, industry folk and Guild members, who spent the evening mixing with the talented cohort of winning and shortlisted writers.
Evlin DuBose took home the Long Form Award for her gripping drama series Former People. Set after the fall of the USSR, it follows a jaded journalist who investigates seventy years of tragedy and mysteries in one Soviet family, as told by the only survivor.
“Everytime it hits me I freak out—it's wild to think that complete strangers sorted my script from five hundred, and, without knowing me, went: yeah, here's a good bet,” said DuBose.
“Scripts are inherently an unfinished artform, so in my lovely curly delusions, if there's a remote chance my labour-of-love gets made, it puts a sparkle-tint on everything. The validation is so beyond lovely, and I'm so psyched to meet the other winners. Congratulations everyone: you're in the room where it happens!”
Cameron Williams received the Short Form Award for his series Mum Fell Off the Roof, a coming-of-age comedy about two children who are left with their ‘useless’ dad after their mum has an accident, and their estranged grandmother who arrives to take control.
“It’s an honour because there’s not many initiatives to support emerging screenwriters in Australia, especially in an industry obsessed with everything that’s not on the page,” said Williams.
“The Australian Writers’ Guild does a lot of heavy lifting to provide career pathways for emerging writers and I can’t thank them enough.”
“I’d watch all the shortlisted scripts and I can’t wait to see how each project travels. I hope there’s a hunger from producers to develop these projects, or get these scribes into a writers' room, because there should be a greater investment in scripted content from emerging writers in Australia.”
The two winners will now share in $10,000 in script development funding.
Allanah Avalon’s comedy feature film Scorpio was also commended as runner-up in the Long Form category.
The Emerging Writers’ Awards, formerly the Monte Miller Awards, are an Australian Writers’ Guild tradition going back to the 1970s. Each year they recognise excellence in screenwriting and playwriting among the Guild’s Associate and Student members, celebrating the exciting future of Australian storytelling.
The winning and shortlisted projects are now available to view on AWG's prestigious Pathways Showcase, joining an outstanding collection of projects available for development.
The Emerging Writers’ Awards will open for entries again in 2025.
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LONG FORM CATEGORY
Winner
Former People by Evlin DuBose [television, drama]
After the fall of the USSR, a jaded journalist investigates seventy years of tragedy and mysteries in one Soviet family, as told by the only survivor.
Runner-up
Scorpio by Allanah Avalon [feature film, comedy]
Between sex work, lesbians, Orthodox Russians, and a rising Melbourne property market, Scorpio has found herself in an irreconcilable cocktail ready to explode in her face; a comedydrama, Scorpio traces one young woman's experience dealing with family expectations, and the lies one must keep to sustain a myriad of lives.
Shortlist
Bells by Danny Lee [television, comedy]
When a successful early 40's professional suddenly dies, he is reincarnated as a toy elf and must prove to Santa his life's worth, under threat of permanent existential deletion.
Blue Print by Rob Draper [television, drama]
When Cathy joins the Ford marketing team in 1980, she winds up helping a gregarious team of Aussie Ford workers kickstart a new age in the Ford versus Holden rivalry.
The Night Bus by James McLaren [feature film, drama]
Two women, who haven't seen each other since high school, realise they are stuck on the same long bus trip home together. When polite chit chat suddenly reveals a violent intent, they must question who they thought they were and what they have become to make it to the end of the line.
SHORT FORM CATEGORY
Winner
Mum Fell off the Roof by Cameron Williams [television, comedy]
Mitch and Poppy are left in the care of their useless dad after their mum has an accident. But when dad's loose parenting skills land him in trouble, the siblings' estranged grandmother arrives to take control.
Shortlist
Hallow by Ryan Prestipino [short film, drama]
A young girl, convinced her elderly neighbour is God, sets out to receive his religious acknowledgment.
The Night of the Lonelies by Willy Brown [short film, drama]
A naive Australian backpacker reluctantly accepts to be shown a shortcut through a menacing London at night, only to find himself fearing for his life in his mysterious guide’s house.
Too Fabulous to Die Alone by Harry Sabulis [television, comedy]
Out of the closet but stuck in the world of his straight high-school friends, a 22-year-old gay man with Eastern European heritage goes headfirst into a messy journey of self discovery in the gay scene – while his Belarusian grandmother is hell-bent on finding him a boyfriend for his straight best friend’s wedding.
