Academy Award and BAFTA-nominated film Hacksaw Ridge leads the impressive line-up of nominees for the Australian Writers’ Guild’s 50th Annual AWGIE Awards.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2017, this year’s AWGIE Awards will be presented across 19 individual categories including feature film, television, documentary, theatre, animation and interactive media as well as the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Acclaimed Australian screenwriter Andrew Knight and US writer Robert Schenkkan are nominated for Hacksaw Ridge in the Feature Film – Original category alongside Ben Young, whose debut feature film Hounds Of Love had its premiere at the 73rd Annual Venice Film Festival.
In a record-breaking year for Theatre entries, Leah Purcell’s critically acclaimed The Drover’s Wife, which was recently awarded Book of the Year at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, is nominated in the Stage category alongside Catherine McKinnon’s Hurt, Andrew Bovell’s Things I Know To Be True and Stephen Carleton’s The Turquoise Elephant.
Tasmanian-based playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer is also dominant, having picked up three nominations in the Children’s Theatre and Theatre For Young Audiences categories. Other nominees include writers from Australian dramas Wentworth, The Wrong Girl, Seven Types of Ambiguity and Janet King, as well as comedies Rosehaven, Please Like Me and No Activity.
Individual category winners will be eligible for the Major Award, given to the most outstanding script of the year. Past winners have included writers of The Code (2014 and 2016), The Water Diviner (2015), The Sapphires (2012), Animal Kingdom (2010) and Cloud Street (1999).
Individual theatre category winners are also eligible for the David Williamson Prize for Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre, which was last year awarded to Angus Cerini for The Bleeding Tree.
The 50th Annual AWGIE Awards will be announced in Sydney at Cockle Bay Wharf on Friday 25 August 2017. For more information, visit: www.awg.com.au for details.
Image: Sam Worthington stars in Hacksaw Ridge
Nominees for 50th Annual AWGIE Awards are:
FEATURE FILM – ORIGINAL
Hacksaw Ridge – Andrew Knight with Robert Schenkkan
Hounds of Love – Ben Young
FEATURE FILM – ADAPTATION
Only one nomination and the winner will be announced on the night
SHORT FORM
Big City – Jordan Bond
Creswick – Christian White with Natalie Erika James
Going Vego – Christopher Burke
Tender – Rebecca Greensill
DOCUMENTARY – PUBLIC BROADCAST OR EXHIBITION
Paris or the Bush: ‘The Story of the Cods’ – Wayne Groom with Carolyn Bilsborow
Streets of Your Town: Episode 2 – Sally Aitken
The Panther Within – Edoardo Crismani
DOCUMENTARY – COMMUNITY, EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING
Cyber Security – The Internet – Sam Meikle
Demons to Please – Jim Shomos with Amelia Walters
TELEVISION – SERIAL
Home and Away: Episode 6510 – Faith McKinnon
Neighbours: Episode 7414 – Sam Meikle
Neighbours: Episode 7477 – Sue Hore
Neighbours: Episode 7492 – Peter Mattessi
TELEVISION – SERIES OR MINISERIES (MORE THAN 4 HOURS DURATION)
Janet King: ‘Playing Advantage’ – Greg Haddrick
Seven Types of Ambiguity: ‘Alex’ – Jacquelin Perske
The Wrong Girl: Episode 3 – Michael Lucas
Wentworth: ‘Seeing Red’ – Pete McTighe
TELEVISION – TELEMOVIE OR MINISERIES (LESS THAN 4 HOURS DURATION)
Deep Water – Kris Wyld and Kym Goldsworthy
High Life – Glen Dolman
Hoges: Part 1 – Keith Thompson
CHILDREN’S TELEVISION – P CLASSIFICATION (PRESCHOOL – UNDER 5 YEARS)
Digby Dragon: ‘Mungo’s Flight School’ – Tim Bain
Guess How Much I Love You: ‘Little White Fawn’ – Melanie Alexander
Hoot Hoot Go!: ‘Giggle Fangs is Too Good at Hoot and Seek’ – Wendy Hanna
CHILDREN’S TELEVISION – C CLASSIFICATION (CHILDREN’S – 5–14 YEARS)
Oh Yuck!: ‘Gastrov Flatulinsky’ – Timothy Lee
The Deep: ‘Beware the Sentinels’ – Thomas Duncan-Watt
The Deep: ‘Finn Comes Aboard’ – Rachel Spratt
The Skinners: ‘Carpathian Cook Book’ – David Witt
COMEDY – SITUATION OR NARRATIVE
No Activity: ‘Silent Night’ – Trent O’Donnell
Please Like Me: ‘Burrito Bowl’ – Josh Thomas, Thomas Ward and Liz Doran
Rosehaven: Episode 4 – Luke McGregor and Celia Pacquola
Rosehaven: Episode 6 – Luke McGregor and Celia Pacquola
COMEDY – SKETCH OR LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
Fancy Boy: ‘Three Wishes’ – Declan Fay and Anne Edmonds with John Campbell, Stuart Daulman, Greg Larsen, Jonathan Schuster and Henry Stone
Sammy J’s Playground Politics – Sam McMillan and Chris McDonald with James Pender
Suspect Moustache: Episode 1 – Fabian Lapham
RADIO
No nominees in 2017
STAGE
Hurt – Catherine McKinnon
The Drover’s Wife – Leah Purcell
The Turquoise Elephant – Stephen Carleton
Things I Know To Be True – Andrew Bovell
COMMUNITY AND YOUTH THEATRE
Michael Swordfish – Lachlan Philpott
Teacup in a Storm – Noëlle Janaczewska
Trailer – Vanessa Bates
Uprising – Patricia Cornelius and Melissa Reeves
THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES
Gorgon – Elena Carapetis
The Big Dry – Mark Kilmurry, adapted from the novel by Tony Davis
Where Words Once Were – Finegan Kruckemeyer
CHILDREN’S THEATRE
Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories – Dan Giovannoni with Luke Kerridge
Egg – Angela Betzien
The Snow – Finegan Kruckemeyer
You and Me and the Space Between – Finegan Kruckemeyer
MUSIC THEATRE
Only one nomination and the winner will be announced on the night
INTERACTIVE
Ghosts of Biloela – Que Minh Luu, Christopher Burke and Anna Barnes
VR Noir: A Day Before The Night – Mike Jones
ANIMATION
Counterfeit Cat: ‘Room of Panic’ – Tim Bain
Motown Magic: ‘My Girl’ – John Armstrong
Winston Steinburger and Sir Dudley Ding Dong: ‘Adventures in Holo Sitting’ – Charlotte Rose Hamlyn
Winston Steinburger and Sir Dudley Ding Dong: ‘Happy Birthday Dear Dark Lord’ – Thomas Duncan-Watt