F.Y.I.

The Sapphires wins most outstanding script at Australian Writers’ Guild awards

The Australian Writers’ Guild held its annual awards ceremony on Friday 24 August. The Sapphires and screenwriters Tony Briggs and Keith Thompson won most outstanding script. Michael Lucas won two awards, in the feature film original category for Not Suitable For Children and in the TV series category for an episode of Offspring.

The announcement:

The 45th Annual Australian Writers’ Guild AWGIE Awards were held on Friday 24th August at Doltone House in Sydney. The only Australian scriptwriting awards judged solely by writers on the basis of the script recognised a new crop of creative talent bringing Australian stories to our screens and stages.

The best of Australian performance writing across feature films, theatre, television, radio, interactive and animation were celebrated at a star-studded affair at Doltone House in Sydney last night as part of the golden 50-year anniversary of the Australian Writers’ Guild. The awards were hosted by iconic Australian comedian and screenwriter John Doyle AM, aka Rampaging Roy Slaven, and attended by industry figures.

The Major AWGIE Award for the most outstanding script of 2012 went to The Sapphires, with writers Tony Briggs and Keith Thompson also collecting the AWGIE for Feature Film Adaptation.

Michael Lucas proved that he is a star on the rise by winning two AWGIE Awards, for Not Suitable For Children in the Feature Film Original category, and Offspring: Episode 206 in the Television Series category. Michael, who wrote the film with his own cancer scare in mind, returned from climbing Mount Killimanjaro to collect his awards.

Susan Smith’s powerful Mabo won the AWGIE Award for the Telemovie Original category, cementing her place as an iconic Australian writer, with past credits including Brides of Christ and The Leaving of Liverpool.

The team of writers behind the absorbing Television Mini Series Adaption The Slap picked up the AWGIE Award while the team of writers behind The Straits were awarded the AWGIE for Television Mini Series – Original.

The sought-after AWGIE Award for Stage went to Lachlan Philpott’s Silent Disco.

Ian Simmons, head writer of Good News Week, was delighted to receive the Fred Parsons Award for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Comedy. Ian was also part of the Good News Week team who were awarded the AWGIE for Comedy – Sketch or Light Entertainment. The team behind Lowdown including Adam Zwar won the AWGIE for Comedy – Situation or Narrative for the hilarious episode One Fine Gay, from the second series of the popular comedy that will air on the ABC in September.

Academy Award nominee and President of the AWG Jan Sardi said, “This year, the 50 year anniversary of the Australian Writers’ Guild, has been the biggest AWGIES to date with over 30 awards being presented. The best of the best in Australian performance writing has been celebrated tonight, a mix of new talent whose star is rising and more established writers that have received the recognition they rightly deserve. Australian scriptwriters are world class and the 45th AWGIE Award winners reflect this.”

Other special awards for the evening included the Dorothy Crawford Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession, which went to Kim Williams AM, and the Richard Lane Award for Outstanding Service and Dedication to the Australian Writers’ Guild, which was awarded to Graeme Koetsveld. Graeme was also awarded the Hector Crawford Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Craft in the Field of Script Editing.

The $25,000 FOXTEL Fellowship for excellence in television writing, the $30,000 Kit Denton Disfellowship and the Monte Miller Awards for unproduced scripts were also announced.

The AWG would like to congratulate all of our AWGIE Award winners and nominees. The full list of winners is below.

2012 AWGIE WINNERS

Major Award
The Sapphires
Tony Briggs and Keith Thompson

Feature Film – Adaptation
The Sapphires
Tony Briggs and Keith Thompson

Feature Film – Original
Not Suitable For Children
Michael Lucas

Telemovie – Original
Mabo
Susan Smith

Television Mini Series – Original
The Straits
Blake Ayshford, Jaime Browne, Kristen Dunphy and Nicholas Parsons with Louis Nowra

Television Mini Series – Adaptation
The Slap
Emily Ballou, Alice Bell, Brendan Cowell and Kris Mrksa with Cate Shortland

Comedy – Sketch or Light Entertainment
Good News Week: The State of the Nation
Mat Blackwell, Dave Bloustien, Simon Dodd, Bruce Griffiths, Warwick Holt, Paul Livingston and Ian Simmons

Comedy – Situation or Narrative
Lowdown: One Fine Gay
Amanda Brotchie, Trudy Hellier and Adam Zwar.

Television – Serial
Home and Away: Episode 5391
Fiona Bozic

Television – Series
Offspring: Episode 206
Michael Lucas

Stage
Silent Disco
Lachlan Philpott

Community and Youth Theatre
The Sadness of Mister Saisson
Chris Thompson

Animation
Flea-Bitten! – Home Truths
Raymond Boseley

Interactive Media
SLiDE
Michelle Law, Anthony Mullins, Chris Somerville and Lucas Taylor

Short Film
Rarer Monsters
Shayne Armstrong and S. P. Krause

Children’s Television – P Classification
Guess How Much I Love You: Follow Me
David Evans

Children’s Television – C Classification
Dance Academy: The Second
Samantha Strauss

Children’s Theatre
Snow on Mars
Richard Tulloch with Kim Carpenter and Gale Edwards.

Radio – Original Broadcast
Random Red
Noëlle Janaczewska

Radio – Adaptation
Aurora’s Lament
Donna Abela

Documentary – Public Broadcast
The Curse of the Gothic Symphony
Anthony Mullins and Randall Wood

Documentary – Corporate and Training
Living The Values
Charles Hamlyn-Harris

2012 SPECIAL AWARDS

Australian Writers’ Guild
2012 RICHARD LANE AWARD
For Outstanding Service and Dedication to the Australian Writers’ Guild
Graeme Koetsveld

Australian Writers’ Guild
2012 DOROTHY CRAWFORD AWARD
For Outstanding Contribution to the Profession
Kim Williams AM

Australian Writers’ Guild
2012 FRED PARSONS AWARD
For Outstanding Contribution to Australian Comedy
Ian Simmons

Australian Writers’ Guild
2012 HECTOR CRAWFORD AWARD
Outstanding Contribution to the Craft in the Field of Script Editing
‘For an Outstanding Contribution to the Craft via a Body of Script Editing Work’
Graeme Koetsveld

Australian Writers’ Guild
2012 MONTE MILLER AWARD – LONG FORM
Ashes
Michael Jones

Australian Writers’ Guild
2012 MONTE MILLER AWARD – SHORT FORM
Love Hurts
Nigel Karikari

Source: Australian Writer’s Guild press release

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