2013 Foxtel Fellowship Presented to Jacqueline Perske

20 August, 2013

Writer Jacquelin Perske has been named as the recipient of the 2013 Foxtel Fellowship at the 46th annual AWGIE Awards held at the Plaza Ballroom in Melbourne on Friday 4th October.

Presented by the Australian Writers’ Foundation (AWF) with the generous sponsorship of FOXTEL, the esteemed $25,000 Fellowship is awarded to a writer who has created a body of work that is impressive in its craft, scope and impact. The Fellowship is now in its seventh year.  It was established to reward excellence with creative freedom, and is one of three partnership projects between FOXTEL and the AWF.  This important partnership recognises television’s important contribution to the Australian cultural landscape and the screenwriters who shape that contribution through their exceptional work.

FOXTEL’s CEO Richard Freudenstein said “We are thrilled to present the 2013 FOXTEL Fellowship to Jacquelin in recognition of the key role she has played in creating some of the best loved Australian television programs in recent years. Many of these iconic programs have helped to develop notions of modern Australian identity and have continually raised the bar for quality Australian drama. We are proud to continue our work with the Australian Writers’ Foundation which supports talented and creative Australians, like Jacquelin, as well as the industry in which we all work.”

Jacquelin Perske is one of Australia’s most celebrated and awarded writers. She is the producer, co-creator and writer of acclaimed series Spirited which received an Australian Writers Guild Award (AWGIE) in 2010 in the  'Television: Series' category.

Her  much lauded series Love My Way (Producer/Co-creator/Writer) received 14 awards  including an AFI Award for Best Screenplay in a Television Series which was the first non-network drama series in Australia to ever receive this level of recognition. Jacquelin was also part of an international team of writers working on George Lucas’ live action series for television, Star Wars: Underworld.

She has worked extensively in television as a writer and script producer. Her credits include Big Sky, Raw FM, Fireflies and the AFI award-winning The Secret Life of Us.

Jacquelin is also the writer behind one of Australia’s most highly acclaimed films of 2005, Little Fish which starred Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving and received an astonishing 13 AFI award nominations. Reviews reserved special praise for Jacquelin’s complex, compelling script, consolidating her position as one of the country’s most gifted storytellers.

Most recently, Jacquelin has been Script Producer on a new mini-series for Matchbox Pictures and FOXTEL, Gallipoli, and creator of Wildlife, a new drama fantasy for the ABC.

Jacquelin said, “It is a wonderful honour that my work as a writer has been judged worthy of the FOXTEL Fellowship and I am excited by the prospect of what it may enable me to create.”

The annual FOXTEL Screenwriter’s Address will be given this year by Leah Purcell on 18th November at the Sydney Opera House in the Utzon room.

The Australian Writers’ Foundation is the charitable arm of the Australian Writers’ Guild, the peak professional body for Australia’s film, television, theatre, radio and new media writers.

TO ARRANGE AN INTEVIEW WITH JACQUELIN PERSKE, PLEASE CALL DEBBIE MCINNES ON 02 9550 9207 OR CLICK HERE TO EMAIL.