Offspring writer wins NSW Premier’s Literary Award

Debra Oswald, creator of Offspring, has won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Scriptwriting.

She was awarded the prize of $30,000 over:
Glen Dolman – Hawke
Michael Miller – East West 101 S3: The Hero’s Standard
John Misto – Sisters of War
Samantha Strauss – Dance Academy. Episode 13: Family
Shirley Barrett – South Solitary

This is the third time Oswald has won a NSW Premier’s Literary Award.

The Judges said: “Offspring is a very interesting screenplay from an accomplished writer. It is both a feature length telemovie and the first or pilot episode of a TV series and sometimes the competing demands of these two can lead to compromise. Not so here.

“While setting up characters and situations capable of being mined at length in the course of an ensuing series, it also stands up well as a feature film written for television. The craft skills necessary to accomplish these dual aims are both evident and impressive. And yet it is not just craft that we are seeing here.

“The writer immediately grabs us by the lapels and drags us into the world of Nina our obstetrician heroine, a world which is by turns confused, quirky, funny and sad. The characters are three dimensional, the dialogue brisk, and the story takes us with it as it drives forward. Dickens said ‘make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait.’ Offspring fulfils all of these dicta.