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Call for entries for the John Hinde Award

Entries are now open for the John Hinde Award for Excellence in Science-Fiction Writing which seeks to encourage and reward those writers who dare to look beyond the world as it is and ask questions and to foster the creation of great sci-fi stories.

Funded by a bequest from the late Australian film critic John Hinde, the award is the richest science-fiction screenwriting award in Australia, offering $10,000 for the best produced script and professional support for the best unproduced script.

Past winners in the produced category include the late Cris Jones in 2017 for The Death and Life of Otto Bloom, Michael Miller in 2016 for episode five of Goalpost Pictures/Pukeko Pictures’ Cleverman and Jesse O’Brien in 2015 for his feature film Arrowhead.

C.S. McMullen won the unproduced category last year for her pilot script Awake, which tells the story of a dystopian near-­future where the richest 1 per cent can choose to live without sleep.

The 2016 winner Graeme Burfoot is developing his script Red to Blue with professional support provided by the John Hinde Award.

The Australian Writers’ Guild is waiving the joining fee for new members who want to enter the award. The entry fee is $35.

Hinde began his career as a journalist and was a correspondent in the Pacific during World War II. He became a film reviewer for the ABC in 1966, working in radio before making the transition to television in 1983.

Later in his career he gained a new generation of fans through appearances on programs such as McFeast. In 2002 he received an award in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to the film and media industry. He died in 2006, aged 92.

Entries close at midnight on August 5. For information go here.

  1. John Hynde was unique. I’ll never forget the opening week of my film SUMMER CITY playing at the Century Cinema on George Street Sydney.
    it was a Sunday afternoon 5pm session. There was a long line of people waiting to purchase tickets, I’d popped by to pick up a jacket I’d left at the box office when I saw this tall suited gentleman & his equally tall wife waiting in line.
    I recognized both immediately and thought “OMG its the Prime minister Goff Whitlam”. I walked over intrduced myself and suggested they could leave the line & I’d arrange seats for he and Margaret – adding its genre, a youth film that maybe not what he maybe expecting. Goff smiled with, “Thank you young man, but as its an Australian film and as John Hinde had recommended it on his TV program, we are happy to wait in line and looking forward to it and delighted to pay our way”.
    I have never forgotten that experience, and rang John Hinde to thank him. I was later informed John had also paid to see the film.

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