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Sixty of Australia’s best stage and screenwriters will vie for top honours in 21 categories at the prestigious 2007 AWGIE Awards. The Australian Writers Guild (AWG) today announced the nominees for the historic 40th annual awards, which will be presented at Doltone House, Sydney on Friday, August 31.

Star of The Games, satirist and humorist Bryan Dawe, will host the event for the first time. Insightful, intelligent and hilariously politically incorrect, Dawes is expected to shake things up at the national celebration of excellence in performance writing.

“Script writing is the business of creating something from nothing. It is where the magic happens. The 40th AWGIE Awards is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate this truth and to acclaim the excellence of Australian script writers. It is also a magnificent milestone in the history of the Australian Writers Guild,” said AWG President Tim Pye.

Previous AWGIE winners and nominees including Brendan Cowell, Tommy Murphy, Melissa Reeves and Keith Thompson have once again been short-listed. Multiple AWGIE winner Sue Smith has also been nominated in the Original Mini Series category for the controversial Bastard Boys.

Pay TV programs are well represented with Love My Way and Dangerous receiving nominations in the Television Series category and Stupid, Stupid Man for Comedy. Indigenous writer Danielle MacLean has received a nomination in the Children’s Television (P Classification) for Double Trouble, a co-production between Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association, Nine Network and The Disney Channel.

The scripts of four major Australian films, Clubland by Keith Thompson, The Home Song Stories by Tony Ayres, Rogue by Greg McLean and Noise by Matthew Saville, are all nominated for Original Feature Film.

Peter Duncan (Unfinished Sky) and Marc Rosenberg (December Boys) are short-listed in the Adapted Feature Film category, and the nominees for Short Film are Button by Claire Tonkin and Edgar & Elizabeth by Renee Webster.

Two Griffin Theatre Company productions, Constance Drinkwater and the Final Days of Somerset by Stephen Carleton and Holding the Man by Tommy Murphy, have been nominated in the Stage category alongside Construction of the Human Heart by Ross Mueller and Requiem for the Twentieth Century by Tee O’Neill.

All nominees in the stage categories (except musical theatre) are also eligible for the inaugural $40,000 Richard Wherrett Prize, Australia’s richest playwriting prize. Other prizes to be announced on the night include the $25,000 Kit Denton Fellowship and the $25,000 FOXTEL Fellowship for excellence in television writing.

The AWG has 2650 members and is the peak professional body for Australia’s film, television, theatre, radio and new media writers. The AWGIE Awards are open to AWG members and are the only Australian writing awards judged solely by writers. Bookings to the 40th AWGIE Awards open on July 20.


2007 AWGIE AWARD NOMINATIONS

Monte Miller Award (for unproduced script over 30 minutes by Associate member)
The Man Who Saved Australia by Jack Brislee
Little Things by Nathan Fielding
Dogfall by Caleb Lewis

Monte Miller Award (for unproduced script under 30 minutes by Associate member)
Baggin’ by Dean Friske
Near Syncope by Andrew Slattery
Ballet School by Samantha Strauss
Yeye & Yaya by May Yeung

Children’s Television (P Classification)
Alien Friends, Rock It (Episode 24) by Robert Greenberg
Undone, New McDonald’s Farm (Episode 3004, Series 3) by Clare Madsen
To Catch a Thief, New McDonald’s Farm (Episode 3051, Series 3) by Michael Miller
Taste, Raggs (Episode 51, Series 3) by Gina Roncoli

Children’s Television (C Classification)
Water, Double Trouble (Episode 7) by Danielle MacLean
The Beagle Has Landed, Dogstar (Episode 9) by Doug Macleod
Angels and Monsters, Lockie Leonard (Episode 22) by Michael Miller
The First Test, Double Trouble (Episode 2) by David Ogilvy
Rome Wasn’t Built in A Day, Mortified (Episode 24) by Steve Wright

Children’s Theatre
Only one nomination and the winner will be announced on the night.

Theatre for Young Audiences
Hoods by Angela Betzien
idotluvdotu by Sally McKenzie
Beautiful Words by Sean Riley
Trains of Thought by Shirley Van Sanden

Community and Youth Theatre
Maralinga by Paul Brown
Embers by Campion Decent
Smashed by Nathan Luff

Music Theatre
Electric Lenin by Janis Balodis
Tough Girls by Melissa Reeves

Stage
Constance Drinkwater & the Final Days of Somerset by Stephen Carleton
Construction of the Human Heart by Ross Mueller
Holding the Man by Tommy Murphy
Requiem for the Twentieth Century by Tee O’Neill

Interactive Media
Only one nomination and the winner will be announced on the night.

Documentary (Public Broadcast)
Good Neighbours (900 Neighbours) by Vanessa Bates
The Bridge by Simon Nasht
Fabric of a Dream by Dennis K Smith

Documentary (Corporate & Training)
Looking Within, Looking Beyond by Peter Campbell
Shifting Old North Sydney: Local Stories by Sue Castrique

Short Film
Button by Claire Tonkin
Edgar & Elizabeth by Renée Webster

Comedy (Situation or Narrative)
Integrity, Stupid, Stupid Man (Episode 3) by Mark C Burnett and Tim Pye
The Cobra, Stupid, Stupid Man (Episode 7) by Tim Pye

Television Original
Only one nominee and the winner will be announced on the night.

Television Serial
Cop Ya, Neighbours (Episode 5175) by David Hannam
Home and Away (Episode 4227) by Fiona Kelly
Home and Away (Episode 4212) by Sam Meikle

Television Series
I’m The King of The Castle, Love My Way (Episode 1, Series 3) by Brendan Cowell
Family Matters, All Saints (Episode 376) by Louise Crane-Bowes
Cold Blooded Creatures, Love My Way (Episode 2, Series 3) by Tony McNamara
Dangerous (Episode 3) by Fiona Seres

Telemovie Original
Only one nominee and the winner will be announced on the night.

Television Mini Series Original
The Circuit by Kelly Lefever and Mitch Torres with Beck Cole, Jane Harrison, Kootji Raymond and Dot West
Bastard Boys by Sue Smith

Feature Film Adaptation
Unfinished Sky by Peter Duncan
December Boys by Marc Rosenberg

Feature Film Original
The Home Song Stories by Tony Ayres
Rogue by Greg McLean
Noise by Matthew Saville
Clubland by Keith Thompson