Thursday 2 October 2025: In opening remarks to a Senate inquiry on Tuesday, Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG) and Australian Writers’ Guild Authorship Collecting Society (AWGACS) CEO Claire Pullen joined other creative leaders and Senators in criticising the Productivity Commission for failing to model the economic contribution of creative industries. Australia’s creative workers raised questions over the Productivity Commission’s Interim Report, including whether the Commission is fit to publish…
Monday 15 September 2025: Australian creative workers have strongly opposed any suggestion that Australia’s copyright laws should be weakened, calling on the government to first address the fundamental issue of copyright theft and the misuse of creative work at the core of Artificial Intelligence (AI) development. The Productivity Commission’s interim report “Harnessing data and digital technology”…
21 August 2025 – The David Williamson Prize for Excellence in Australian Theatre Writing has increased in 2025 to become the richest annual playwriting award in the country. The winning playwright will now receive $40,000, with a further $80,000 awarded to the theatre company who staged the winning work, taking the total prize to $120,000. The David Williamson…
Thursday 7 August 2025: Australian creative workers and their royalty collecting societies expressed disappointment at the Productivity Commission’s advocacy for a text and data mining (TDM) exception, a move that would retroactively legalise the theft of Australia’s creative workers’ intellectual property, voices, images, and work, by foreign multi-nationals. The interim report “Harnessing data and digital technology” seeks feedback…
The Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG) and Australian Writers’ Guild Authorship Collecting Society (AWGACS) have rejected the suggestion that a Text and Data Mining (TDM) Exception for the training of AI models be considered by the government, and expressed disappointment at the Productivity Commission’s interim report. The report “Harnessing data and digital technology” seeks feedback on…
Thursday 31 July 2025: Screen Australia and the Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG) have announced the seven participants selected for The Creators 2025, a dynamic career acceleration program for high-calibre Australian screenwriters. The seven participants in The Creators program are: Building on the success of Years one and two, this third year will provide participants with high-level showrunner training,…
The Australian Writers’ Guild congratulates screenwriters Mads McRae and Georgia Struckel, who have been announced as the winners of the 2025 Emerging Writers’ Awards. The Awards were announced tonight to a packed room of senior writers, producers, industry folk and Guild members, who spent the evening mixing with the talented cohort of winning and shortlisted writers. Mads McRae won the Long Form Award for her feature film Grave’s End. Following…
The Australian Writers’ Guild congratulates screenwriters Jesse Laurie and Charlie Milne, who have been announced as the winners of the 2025 John Hinde Award. Jesse Laurie took home the award in the produced category for his sci-fi feature Zero, a gripping drama in which a wounded astronaut grapples with disorientation, a dwindling air supply, and his inner demons. The judges described Zero as “a skillfully crafted feature film which…
A shortlist of eight outstanding writers has been chosen from hundreds of entries in the 2025 Emerging Writers’ Awards Eight emerging writers and their exciting unproduced projects have been shortlisted for the 2025 Emerging Writers’ Awards. Represented on the shortlist are gripping feature films, dramatic and comedic television pilots and a nail-biting short thriller. These eight…
Congratulations to the nine sci-fi writers who have been shortlisted from hundreds of entrants in the 2025 John Hinde Award. The shortlist – which covers entries across the produced and unproduced categories – includes seven feature films and two episodes of children’s television series Rock Island Mysteries. The winning writers will be announced at an industry…
