Michael and Peter Spierig’s Predestination has won the $10,000 John Hinde award for produced science fiction.
Simon Butters’ Min Min collected the inaugural Hinde award in the unproduced category
Special acknowledgement was given to Hugh Sullivan’s The Infinite Man, hailed by the judges as a meticulously planned out and wonderfully executed time-travel story.
Presented by the Australian Writers' Guild, the awards were handed out on Sunday at the closing night of the fifth edition of the Fantastic Planet Sci-Fi Film Festival at the Dendy Newtown.
Made possible by a bequest from Australian film critic John Hinde, the awards are intended to foster and reward creativity in writing sci-fi features, shorts, TV, radio and interactive media.
Min Min tells of four carefree travellers who speed across the Nullarbor Plain to find the perfect surf break but their night time journey is cut short when they are hunted by a strange, deadly light in the sky – the titular Min Min.
“The script skilfully dovetails from horror-thriller to sci-fi and gives the reader a satisfying yet haunting conclusion that will leave you pondering – in a good way,” the judges said.
Those who made the short list in the unproduced category- Seeds by Annaliese Ciel Walker, Echovault by Jacques Joubert and Andrew Macdonald, Crossover (Schrodingers Cat) by Andrew Muir and Punishment by Les Zigomanis- are inducted into the AWG’s Pathways Program, which has been developed to showcase the writers of scripts which display high potential for production to the broader industry.
Starring Ethan Hawke as a temporal agent whose final assignment is to stop the Fizzle Bomber from killing 10,000 New Yorkers, Predestination will premiere in the US as a limited release on January 9.
The thriller was named best sci-fi film and best screenplay (adapted from the short story All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein) and won the silver prize in the audience choice awards at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.