Five Minutes With…Last Year’s Monte Miller Award Winner James Cripps

James Cripps received the long form Monte Miller Award last year for his series High Rotation, and since then has worked on the upcoming NCIS: Sydney and been a finalist in the 2021 AACTA Pitch: Bite competition. When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?I was in Year 7 and I thought it was time to decide…

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Australian Writers’ Guild rejects unregulated AI in the creative sector

The Australian Writers’ Guild has taken a firm stand against the unregulated use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Australia’s creative industries, issuing a position paper outlining the imminent threat posed by AI and an extensive framework for the appropriate regulation of its use to protect workers and audiences. As the world learns that the Writers…

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Australian books and plays used to train AI systems

Earlier this week, the Atlantic published a search tool that allowed authors to search for their books in a dataset that has been used to train generative-AI systems. The search tool can be accessed here. The dataset – ‘Books3’ – contains approximately 183,000 pirated books, plays and other literary works. Generative AI systems have been developed or trained by scraping, or…

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Australian Writers’ Guild rejects unregulated AI in the creative sector

The Australian Writers’ Guild has taken a firm stand against the unregulated use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Australia’s creative industries, issuing a position paper outlining the imminent threat posed by AI and an extensive framework for the appropriate regulation of its use to protect workers and audiences. As the world learns that the Writers…

Continue reading

Australian books and plays used to train AI systems

Earlier this week, the Atlantic published a search tool that allowed authors to search for their books in a dataset that has been used to train generative-AI systems. The search tool can be accessed here. The dataset – ‘Books3’ – contains approximately 183,000 pirated books, plays and other literary works. Generative AI systems have been developed or trained by scraping, or…

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What’s On: 25 September – 1 October

AWG EVENTS JoJo Zhou in Conversation with Ellen JurikIn the lead up to Melbourne International Games Week, we’re embracing all things Narrative Design! All are welcome to this enlightening and timely conversation between two playwrights-turned-narrative-designers, JoJo Zhou and Ellen Jurik. Monday 25 September 2.30pm AEST, online – BOOK HERE Narrative Direction – Get Pitch ReadyMelbourne International…

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AWG welcomes tentative agreement between WGA and AMPTP

The President of the Australian Writers’ Guild, Shane Brennan has welcomed the tentative agreement between the WGA and the AMPTP which could end the long running writers’ strike in the U.S. ‘Australian writers join with film and television industry workers everywhere in applauding both the WGA and the AMPTP in hammering out an agreement to…

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What’s On: Writing for Games and Narrative Design

As we head into Melbourne International Games Week, there are so many upcoming events and opportunities at AWG for anyone with an interest in Narrative Design and Writing for Games.  Please note: these events are not just for existing games writers. If you are a screenwriter or playwright curious about the world of narrative design,…

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Vale Tom Hegarty

Tom Hegarty, an admired pioneer of Australian television writing, has died in Sydney at the age of 88.  In an era when dramatic writing was not considered a proper career, Tom wrote in the evenings while working as a traveling salesman for Lever Brothers in Queensland. Like many in the 1960s, Tom got his first…

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High-quality screen projects shortlisted for premier Awards for emerging Australian writers

Fifteen new projects have been announced as the shortlist for the Australian Writers’ Guild’s 2023 Monte Miller Awards, to be presented next month in Melbourne. The shortlisted projects were selected from over 400 entries across two categories, with scripts ranging from animated dramas and thrilling features to sharp television and web concepts and short horror films. For the first time in three years, the winners…

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