Calling all sci-fi screenwriters! The John Hinde Award for Excellence in Science-Fiction Writing is now open, celebrating the development and showcasing of sci-fi screenwriting for feature film, television, web series, audio and interactive media. Funded by a bequest from the late Australian film critic John Hinde, the award offers $10,000 per year for the best produced script and…
Continue readingThe board and staff of the Australian Writers’ Guild wish you a safe and merry holiday season and a joyous new year! Thank you for your support throughout 2023. The Australian Writers’ Guild office will be closed for the holiday period from midday Friday 22 December 2023 until Tuesday 2 January 2024. Industrial services will resume on Tuesday 2 January 2024, with…
Continue readingWe are delighted to announce that screenwriter and executive producer Peter Mattessi has been elected AWG President by the Australian Writers’ Guild’s National Executive Council and has assumed his new office. Screenwriter Shanti Gudgeon will serve as Vice President. Mattessi has been a member of the Guild for over 20 years and recently co-created and executive produced Return to Paradise,…
Continue readingScreen Australia and the Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG) have announced applications are open for The Creators program. Now in its second year, The Creators is a career acceleration program for high-calibre, mid-career screenwriters to build toward the creation of their own shows. Through the program, up to six writers with existing episodic slates will be selected to travel…
Continue readingIt’s unfathomable to me that I’m writing this. That someone with such vivid, dynamic talent – whose ideas and stories felt limitless and unbounded by the laws of nature – might no longer be with us. “What do we want to see next?” was a regular question Alison asked when we were deciding on the…
Continue readingJames Davern died this week. I’m sorry, I don’t use euphemisms; I don’t think he was too keen on them either. He was my friend and mentor for nearly sixty years, and I will miss him greatly. As will his beloved family and so many, many others. Larger than life, that was Jim. Renaissance man,…
Continue readingWhen screenwriter Rhianna Malezer won the short form Monte Miller Award with her script The Stockman, her feelings about winning doubled as brilliant writing advice: ‘The story flowed directly from my spirit. It’s very affirming to know how much more impactful my work can be when I am true to my own voice.’ When did…
Continue readingMaxine Mellor is an award-winning playwright and teaching artist. In 2022, she received the David Williamson Prize for Playwriting and the AWGIE Award for Best Original Stage Play for ‘Horizon’ with Playlab Theatre. Her work has been performed nationally and internationally and is published by Playlab Press and Australian Plays Transform. When did you first realise you wanted to…
Continue readingScreenwriters Jane Jago and Kayti Murphy have been announced as the winners of the Australian Writers’ Guild’s Monte Miller Awards, the premier awards for unproduced scripts in Australia. Returning to Melbourne for the first time in three years, the Awards were announced to a packed room of buzzing industry decision-makers, producers and Guild members, who spent the evening…
Continue readingJames 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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