The 2013 Annual AWGIE Awards Winners

30 August, 2013

WINNERS OF THE PRESTIGIOUS AWGIE AWARDS ANNOUNCED

It was a fairytale finish for the winners of the Annual AWGIE Awards, which were held last Friday night 4 October at the Plaza Ballroom, Melbourne. Hosted by Sammy J, the awards now in their 46^th year, celebrate the integral role of the writer in Australian film, television, theatre radio and interactive media. The AWGIE Awards are the only Australian awards judged solely by writers on the basis of the script – the writer's own vision.

President of the Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG) Jan Sardi said, “The calibre of this year’s nominees is testimony to the outstanding achievement of this year's AWGIE Award winners, judged by their peers as being the best in what has been a top shelf year for Australian performance writing”.

The Sydney Morning Herald called it "Valentine's Day" after playwright Alana Valentine was the toast of the evening picking up three awards including the Major AWGIE Award for Most Outstanding Script of 2013 and the inaugural David Williamson Prize. David Williamson AO was in attendance, as Senator the Hon. George Brandis QC, Attorney-General, Minister for the Arts presented Valentine with the $25,000 prize. As David Williamson explained in a TV interview with Alana Valentine on ABC Weekend Breakfast the morning after, the Prize was established by the AWG to promote and reward the production of quality new Australian works for the stage.

Although the evening belonged to Valentine, it was a memorable night for the Good News Week writing team who received a ninth AWGIE for their final season of the much-loved series.

International imaginings in non-English languages 'wrote the AWGIEs foreign-language chapter' and made headlines in Variety Magazine. In the Film categories Kim Mordaunt picked up best Feature Film: Screenplay Original for his award winning film The Rocket, and in the Feature Film: Adaptation category Cate Shortland with Robin Mukherjee picked up the gong for their haunting film, Lore.

In the Documentary Public Broadcast category, the runaway hit about the popularity of wine in China, Red Obsession, won the AWGIE for David Roach and Warwick Ross.

In the television categories, The Canberra Times reported that 'One deadly world downed another ' with Underbelly again winning best Mini Series Original and Robert Connolly’s Underground: The Julian Assange Story won best adaption.

Another highlight of the evening was when multi-award winning writer, Andrew Bovell delivered a touching presentation of The Dorothy Crawford Award for Oustanding Contribution to the profession to director Neil Armfield.

The winner of $25,000 FOXTEL Fellowship awarded in recognition of a significant and impressive body of work in Television went to Jacquelin Perske for a career that has delivered a multi-award winning repertoire of television and film including The Secret Life of Us, Love My Way, Spirited and Little Fish.

WINNERS OF THE 46TH ANNUAL AWGIE AWARDS

DAVID WILLIAMSON PRIZE

Alana Valentine

MAJOR AWGIE

Alana Valentine

DOROTHY CRAWFORD AWARD:

For outstanding contribution to the profession

Recipient: Neil Armfield

RICHARD LANE AWARD:

For outstanding service and dedication to the Australian Writers' Guild

Recipient: Simon Hopkinson

HECTOR CRAWFORD AWARD:

For outstanding contribution to the craft via a body of script editing work

Recipient: Kym Goldsworthy

FRED PARSONS AWARD:

For outstanding contribution to Australian Comedy

Recipient: Guy Rundle

JOHN HINDE AWARD FOR SCIENCE FICTION

Exchange Student Zero - Shayne Armstrong, Bruce Kane & S.P. Krause

TELEMOVIE: ADAPTATION

Underground: The Julian Assange Story - Robert Connolly

TELEVISION: MINI-SERIES ORIGINAL

Underbelly: Badness - Niki Aken, Peter Gawler, Felicity Packard and Jeffrey Truman

TELEVISION: SERIES

Rake 2: R v. Floyd - Andrew Knight

TELEVISION: SERIAL

Home & Away 5714 - Gary Sewell

COMEDY: SKETCH OR LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT

Good News Week: The Second Going - Mat Blackwell, George Dodd, Simon Dodd, Warwick Holt, Paul Livingston and Ian Simmons

COMEDY: SITUATION OR NARRATIVE (JOINT WINNERS)

A Moody Christmas: Separate Seats - Phil Lloyd and Trent O'Donnell

Please Like Me: Portuguese Custard Tarts - Josh Thomas with Liz Doran and Thomas Ward

FEATURE FILM: ORIGINAL

The Rocket - Kim Mordaunt

FEATURE FILM: ADAPTATION

Lore - Robin Mukherjee and Cate Shortland

RADIO: ORIGINAL

See How The Leaf People Run - Michele Lee

RADIO: ADAPTATION

Cross Sections– Suzie Miller

INTERACTIVE MEDIA

The Opera House Project– Sam Doust 

ANIMATION

The Adventures Of Figaro Pho: Fear Of Unfamiliar Toilets - Bruce Griffiths

DOCUMENTARY: PUBLIC BROADCAST

Red Obsession - David Roach with Warwick Ross

DOCUMENTARY: CORPORATE & TRAINING

Your Choice– Ken Wallace

THEATRE: FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES

Truck Stop - Lachlan Philpott

THEATRE: COMMUNITY & YOUTH THEATRE

Grounded - Alana Valentine                               

THEATRE: STAGE

Medea - Kate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks

THEATRE: CHILDREN’S

Starchaser - Lally Katz

SHORT FILM

The Amber Amulet - Genevieve Hegney and Matthew Moore

CHILDREN’S TELEVISION: P CLASSIFICATION

Guess How Much I Love You: I Promise - David Evans

CHILDREN’S TELEVISION: C CLASSIFICATION

Dance Academy: A Perfect Storm - Samantha Strauss

MONTE MILLER AWARD: LONG FORM

Fury - Charlotte McConaghy

MONTE MILLER AWARD: SHORT FORM

Trunk - Derek Foster