Twelve exciting new projects by 14 emerging writers have been shortlisted for the Australian Writers’ Guild’s 2026 Emerging Writers’ Awards. Included on the shortlist are two stage plays, multiple television pilots, feature films and a short film from some of Australia’s best up-and-coming writing talent, selected from over 500 entries.
The winning writers in both categories will be announced at an industry event in Melbourne in late July, alongside the winners of the AWG’s John Hinde Award for Excellence in Science-Fiction Writing. Each prize winner will take home $5,000 in script development funding, generously provided by Scripted Ink as part of its ongoing commitment to supporting the growth of Australian writers and commercially viable projects. The shortlist will have the opportunity to meet and network with senior AWG writers, producers, and executives.
The shortlisted projects will soon be available to explore on AWG’s prestigious Pathways Showcase, where they join a curated collection of screen, theatre and audio projects currently available for development.
Together with all of our judges, the AWG wishes to thank all writers who entered these awards. It is a pleasure and a privilege to read your work.
2026 SHORTLIST
SHORT FORM CATEGORY
Countrymen by Patrick George [Television]
The year is 58 BC. General Julius Caesar wages constant war in an ambitious campaign against the Celtic tribes of Gaul to expand the glory and wealth of Rome. A campaign that could be disrupted by one idiot.
Flow Lands by Rebecca Ingram [Television]
When Australian detective Callie Fern finds a woman’s body in northern Scotland, the land itself tells her it was murder — and warns her another is coming.
I’m Just Here to Make Friends by Diane Vu [Television]
A charming social predator adopts a naive doormat as her new project, but as their friendship intensifies, secrets bubble to the surface, and it’s unclear who’s the predator… and who’s the project.
Poles by Millie Pitcher [Television]
Reeling from a break-up with her bff-turned-girlfriend, a directionless and mildly self-obsessed young woman snowploughs through her 20s while working as a stripper.
What’s Between Your Legs by Kylie Aoibheann [Short Film]
While recovering from gender-affirming surgery, a sexually frustrated trans woman gets one of her dilators trapped in her new vagina.
LONG FORM CATEGORY
Adonia by Marcus Khoudair and Veniamin Gialouris [Feature Film]
A solitary young man befriends his steroid dealer and discovers an audience online for their bodybuilding—but the more he chases fame, the further he drifts from his friends, family, and mortal reality.
Bad Taste by Jason Reed [Feature Film]
A struggling comedian discovers that he gets funnier when he accidentally ingests a piece of a promising young comic—now he has to decide how much he wants fame and what he’s willing to swallow.
Esperance by Robert Frantzeskos and Thomas Moody [Feature Film]
On the desolate and lawless frontier of the 19th century gold rush, two Irish miners are embroiled in a daring heist to avoid ruin. Together they must risk everything to escape both the law, and the harrowing, mythic vengeance that pursues them.
Gravida Five by Anna Lyon [Theatre]
A doctor presents her five pregnancies as a clinical case, using humour to impose order on loss – until her narrative begins to slip.
Mumma by Courtney Cavallaro [Theatre]
On a sweltering Christmas Day, a mother and her lesbian daughter fight to salvage both the roast and their bond — confronting love, legacy, and what it means to be a “real mother”
My Sister, The Wind by Ranima Montes [Feature Film]
Days before immigrating overseas, a duty-bound woman must smuggle her sister’s exhumed bones for her impulsive mother, uncovering a secret that threatens the future she’s promised her pregnant daughter.
Phenomenon by Charlie Clausen [Television]
Amid a media frenzy, an ambitious journalist attempts to salvage his failing career by exposing a supposed haunting in Darwin, but his pursuit of the truth reveals the danger lies not in the unknown, but in humanity’s ruthless exploitation of one another.
