John Hinde Award: winners

Writers from ABC ME series Space Nova, feature film Monolith and an unproduced game, You Can Survive a Rip Current, have been named winners in the John Hinde Award for Science Fiction.

Susie Hamilton, AWG’s Director of Professional Development said, “We are thrilled to celebrate these talented writers for their outstanding science-fiction projects that demonstrate humour, suspense, warmth, authenticity and above all, originality. It’s also fantastic to see a games writer honoured in the unproduced category this year; the games sector is rapidly evolving and there is great potential for writers to display boundless creativity.”

Produced 2022 / 2023
Charlotte Rose Hamlyn wins the produced in 2023 category for her episode of the popular ABC Me series: Space Nova, sci-fi animation for kids, created by Thomas Duncan-Watt. Lucy Campbell’s debut feature screenplay Monolith wins the produced in 2022 category.

Hamlyn and Campbell will each receive $10,000 in prize money.

Charlotte Rose Hamlyn Hamlyn said, “Receiving Australia’s top science-fiction screenwriting prize is a huge surprise and an even bigger honour, and this second win for Space Nova is yet another nod to the quality of Australian Children’s television. Only in the genre of science-fiction and in the good humour of children’s television is a quirky concept about bioengineered bread doppelgängers even possible, and my heartfelt thanks go to the teams at ABC, SLR Productions, and head writer / script producer Thomas Duncan-Watt for not only making a stellar show (pun always intended) but for allowing and supporting our wildest ideas. I am immensely grateful to the AWG, the estate of John Hinde, and his vision to support science-fiction screenwriting in Australia. His legacy continues to inspire and uplift writers like me, and this has already inspired my next science-fiction project.”

Judges’ Remarks:
“A well-crafted, briskly paced script that has a lot of fun with its wacky sci-fi premise. The gags come thick and fast, the characters are well-defined and the writer has a clear understanding of their audience.”

Liucy Campbell said, “I’m so thrilled to win the John Hinde Award with Monolith. It’s been an incredible journey with the film and for my script to be recognised by the Australian Writers’ Guild with such a prestigious award is a brilliant way to cap off a wild ride. As a kid, science fiction movies gave me an escape into a thrilling, freaky, sometimes scary and often beautiful world of otherworldly possibilities, and I’m so pleased that sci-fi writers have a home with the John Hinde Award – sci-fi forever!”

Unproduced

Games writer Stephanie Westwood has been named winner in the unproduced category of the AWG’s John Hinde Award, for a moving and naturalistic sci-fi game. You Can Survive a Rip Current – the only interactive script in the shortlist – was chosen from seven outstanding science-fiction projects spanning film, TV and audio. Westwood will receive $5,000 in script development funding and mentorship meetings with an experienced genre producer selected specifically for her project.

From almost 200 entries, one winning script was selected from each of the three award categories (Unproduced, Produced in 2023 and Produced in 2022).

Aside from the winning projects, two shortlisted works were highly commended by judges:

The Borders by Adam Scullin (Television, Unproduced Category)
Latency by James Croke (Feature Film, Produced in 2022 Category)

The annual award, first presented in 2008, is funded by a bequest from the late film critic John Hinde. It was Hinde’s wish that future generations of Australian science-fiction screenwriters be nurtured through industry opportunities. The Australian Writers’ Guild is the professional association representing writers for stage, screen, audio and interactive and has protected and promoted their creative and professional interests for more than 60 years.