Six new Showcase projects have been announced as the shortlist for the Australian Writers’ Guild’s 2019 Monte Miller Awards, to be presented later this month in Melbourne.
At a time when demand for top-quality television content and opportunities for writers with an authentic voice is thriving, television and web series concepts have dominated the shortlist of the Monte Miller Awards, the premier awards for unproduced scripts in Australia.
The six outstanding projects (see below) were selected from a pool of over 390 entries across two categories, with scripts ranging from dramas and sci-fi thrillers to comedies and an online horror series.
The winners will be announced at the annual Monte Miller Awards night in Melbourne, a February fixture where producers and industry decision-makers are invited to mix with the talented cohort of shortlisted writers whose projects are now available on AWG’s prestigious Pathways Showcase.
There will be added incentive for writers and producers to attend this year, with Scripted Ink. coming on board to invest $35k of script development funding across the two successful projects as part of its ongoing commitment to supporting the development of great writers and commercially viable scripts.
The final judging panel for the competition praised the quality of entries across both categories, commenting that “with the standard of entries so high, coming up with a shortlist for this year’s Monte Miller Awards was no easy task,” they said.
“The selected writers and their projects demonstrate a level of skill and craft, as well as imagination, that sets them apart as the very best of Australia’s up-and-coming creatives, a sign of exciting times to come for our industry.”
The winners of the Monte Miller Awards will be announced at a dedicated industry event in Melbourne on Tuesday 25 February 2020. For more information, visit: www.awg.com.au for details.
Image: Anomaly (production still)
The 2019 Monte Miller Shortlist:
Long Form category:
Keeping House by Jasper Garner Gore and Rebecca Moret [Television]
Two disaffected millennials house-sitting a mansion discover that the owners have died in a plane crash and steal their identities, and the house.
Dark State by Justin Caruana, Matteo Zingales and Nikki Waterhouse [Television]
In a secret world, only the determined will prevail.
Anomaly by Philip Tarl Denson [Television]
Three astronauts return from the International Space Station only to discover that they had already returned 12 years earlier…
Short Form category:
Nobody’s Perfect by Emme Hoy [Television]
Halfway through her uni degree, a highly-strung perfectionist accidentally kills her Ritalin-dealing tutor and realises that once you start killing, it’s hard to stop.
Blooded by James Cripps [Web Series]
A bullied teen learns he can save his dying mother by becoming a human blood runner in the ruthless vampire underground.
The Black Tulip by Lâle Teoman [Web Series]
Sahika, a somnambulist, discovers a secret passage in a mountainside that leads her to a mysterious lake where memories of those passed are imprinted in the water.