AWGIE Awards

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AWGIE Awards
Awarded forExcellence in stage, television, radio, and filmwriting
CountryAustralia
Presented by Australian Writers Guild
First awarded1968

The AWGIE Awards are annual awards given by the Australian Writers' Guild (AWG), for excellence in screen, television, stage, and radio writing. The 56th Annual AWGIE Awards ceremony is being held in Sydney on 15 February 2024.

Contents

History

The AWGIE awards were conceived in 1967, with the first event being held in 1968. [1] Bettina Gorton the wife of prime minister John Gorton was guest of honour at the event held at the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney on 22 March 1968, [2] Also in attendance was Sir Robert Madgwick, chairman of the ABC. There were 250 guests in attendance, only 35 of whom were AWG members. [3]

The AWGIES awards ceremony has become a prominent industry event, and has featured many well-known guests of honour and speakers in the past, including: Manning Clark; Ken Hall; Fred Schepisi; Tom Keneally; Gough Whitlam; Paul Keating; and Roy and HG. [4]

It was held in Melbourne for some years, [5]

Current/upcoming awards

The 56th Annual AWGIE Awards event is being held on 15 February 2024 at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney. [6] In most categories, the awards are given for works for which principal photography, production, or recording was completed in the 2022 calendar year. Stage productions must have had their first professional production in this year, while interactive media or gaming must have been commercially released in this year. [7]

Description

The awards are given annually at an awards event by the AWG for excellence in screen, television, stage, and radio writing. [1]

Categories

There is a large number of categories, as well as some special awards and industry fellowships. The awards are given specifically for the writing of the scripts and not the finished product. [1]

The Major AWGIE Award is awarded to the outstanding script of that year across all categories.

As of 2024 (56th Annual AWGIE Awards), the award categories are: [7]

Named awards and fellowships

Current

David Williamson Prize

The David Williamson Prize for Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre, [8] named after playwright David Williamson, was established in 2013. The annual prize is sponsored by David and Kristin Williamson, and Shane and Cathryn Brennan, and awarded "to the most outstanding script selected from the winners of each of the theatre categories at the AWGIE Awards". The purpose of the fund is "to encourage theatre companies to commission, develop and program a new Australian work". [9] From 2017, the value of the prize was increased to A$100,000, with $20,000 awarded to the playwright, and $80,000 to the theatre company that commissioned and staged the prizewinning play, "when they commission and program a new work by an Australian playwright within the following 12 months". [10]

Winners include:

Other named awards

As of 2023:

  • Dorothy Crawford Award – for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession and the Industry (1984-) [8] [1] (after Dorothy Crawford) [13]
  • Hector Crawford Award – for Outstanding Contribution to the Craft as a Script Producer, Editor or Dramaturg [8] (1991-) [1] (after Hector Crawford; not awarded every year) [13]
  • Fred Parsons Award – for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Comedy [8] (1988-) [1] [lower-alpha 1]
  • Australian Writers' Guild Life Membership [8]

Past

Notable winners

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Fred Parsons (1908-1987) was an English-born script writer, stage director, and author; for some years writer for Frank Neil's Tivoli Circuit Australia; [14] [15] friend of Graham Kennedy; subject of an episode of This Is Your Life [16]

Related Research Articles

The Australian Writers' Guild (AWG) is the professional association for Australian performance writers for film, television, radio, theatre, video, and new media. The AWG was established in 1962, and has conferred the AWGIE Awards since 1968, the Monte Miller Awards since 1972, and the John Hinde Award since 2008.

Tommy Murphy is an Australian playwright, screenwriter, adaptor and director. He created and was head writer for the 2022 TV series Significant Others. He is best known for his stage and screen adaptation of Timothy Conigrave's memoir Holding the Man. His most recent plays are a stage adaptation of Nevil Shute’s On The Beach, Mark Colvin's Kidney and Packer & Sons.

John Henry Romeril is an Australian playwright and teacher. He has written around 60 plays for theatre, film, radio, and television, and is known for his 1975 play The Floating World.

Adam Zwar is an Australian actor, voice artist, and writer. He is best known for co-creating the Australian comedy series Squinters, Lowdown, Wilfred and creating the critically acclaimed Channel 10 comedy Mr. Black as well as the popular factual series Agony Aunts, Agony Uncles, The Agony of Life, The Agony of Modern Manners and Agony. Zwar also presented and produced seminal cricket documentaries Underarm: The Ball That Changed Cricket and Bodyline: The Ultimate Test which took a forensic look at the infamous 1932–1933 Ashes series between Australia and England.

Dogstar is an Australian animated television series produced by Media World Pictures which first screened on the Nine Network in 2006, and then Disney Channel Australia. There are 26 episodes in each season.

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The Kit Denton Fellowship, later Kit Denton Disfellowship, is an Australian literary award presented at the AWGIE Awards by the Australian Writers' Guild (AWG) between 2007 and 2012.

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Margaret Wilson is an Australian television writer, who has also worked as a script editor and script producer. She currently works as a writer for Home and Away and Neighbours. Wilson won an AWGIE Award for Best Script for a Television Serial in 2008. She was also nominated in the same category the 2014 AWGIE Awards for her work on "Episode 6820" of Neighbours.

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Finegan Kruckemeyer is an Australian playwright.

The Major AWGIE Award is awarded by the Australian Writers Guild for the outstanding script of the year at the annual AWGIE Awards for Australian performance writing. It is selected from individual category winners across the range of performance writing categories, covering film, television, stage, radio and interactive media.

The AWGIE Award for Music Theatre is awarded by the Australian Writers Guild at the annual AWGIE Awards for Australian performance writing.

The AWGIE Award for Stage is awarded by the Australian Writers' Guild at the annual AWGIE Awards for Australian performance writing. The award is for the playscript. To be eligible, the play must have had its first professional production in the previous year.

Aubrey Mellor is an Australian theatre director, dramaturge and teacher.

Lucas Taylor is an Australian screenwriter and director. He is known for the 2019 virtual reality (VR) sci-fi feature film Eleven Eleven and the 2022 Stan TV drama series Black Snow. He has won several AWGIE Awards.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "AWGIE Awards". AustLit . Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  2. ↑ "Social roundabout". The Australian Women's Weekly . Vol. 35, no. 43. 27 March 1968. p. 10. Retrieved 22 December 2023– via National Library of Australia.
  3. ↑ "Australian Writers' Guild". about us. 2 May 1962. Retrieved 21 December 2023. Note: This source appears to list the year of the first awards
  4. ↑ "About the AWGIE Awards". Australian Writers' Guild. Archived from the original on 19 December 2002.
  5. ↑ "AWGIE Awards". Australian Writers' Guild. Archived from the original on 11 February 2005.
  6. ↑ "56th Annual AWGIE Awards Student Tix". Australian Writers' Guild. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  7. 1 2 "The 56th Annual Awgie Awards – Categories and conditions of entry" (PDF). Australian Writers' Guild. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Full List of Winners for the 55th Annual AWGIE Awards" (PDF). Australian Writers' Guild. 2023. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2023.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "David Williamson Prize-supported play Jailbaby announced for Griffin's 2023 season". Australian Writers' Guild. 19 September 2022. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  10. ↑ "$100K for Australian theatre: David Williamson Prize set to become one of Australia's richest literary awards". FilmInk. 24 August 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  11. ↑ "Suzie Miller awarded prestigious David Williamson Prize at the AWGIES". NIDA. 2 March 2023. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  12. ↑ "Playlab Theatre Shares David Williamson Prize 2022". Stage Whispers. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "AWGIE special awards 1973-2015" (PDF). AWG. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  14. ↑ "Practitioners [P-Q]". Australian Variety Theatre Archive. 27 April 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  15. ↑ "Fred Parsons". AustLit . Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  16. ↑ "This Is Your Life - Fred Parsons". NFSA . Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  17. ↑ "The Richard Lane Award". AustLit . Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  18. ↑ "AustLit News June/July 2008". 2008. Archived from the original on 19 May 2011.
  19. ↑ "Laura Jones to receive the inaugural AWG Lifetime Achievement Award". IF Magazine. 22 February 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  20. ↑ "Craig Pearce". Pathways. 7 December 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  21. ↑ "AWG honours Andrew Knight with lifetime achievement award". IF Magazine. 11 August 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  22. ↑ "More than words: dialogue-free animated short film Lost & Found takes home AWG's Major Award for writing". Australian Writers' Guild. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  23. ↑ "47th ANNUAL AWGIE AWARDS WINNERS". Stage Whispers. 5 September 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  24. ↑ "An Australian Skyrim Mod Has Won A Screenwriting Award". Kotaku Australia. 17 October 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
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