‘Hacksaw Ridge’.
Lion’s Luke Davies and Hacksaw Ridge’s Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan have won the major feature film prizes at the AWGIEs, the annual awards presented by the Australian Writers’ Guild.
Davies won the feature film adaptation prize, the same AWGIE he won in 2006 with Neil Armfield for their Candy screenplay. He is currently working on an adaptation of Catch-22 with David Michod.
Knight was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sydney ceremony celebrating the 50th AWGIE Awards. His Hacksaw Ridge screenplay had previously won an AACTA and was nominated for a BAFTA. He has previously won AWGIEs for the TV mini-series After The Deluge in 2003, The Water Diviner in 2015 and Ali’s Wedding last year. The latter opens nationally next week.
Leah Purcell’s play The Drover’s Wife continued its award-winning run, winning the 2017 Major Award, the Stage award and the David Williamson Prize for excellence in writing for Australian theatre.
In the television categories, Jacquelin Perske won the series or miniseries (longer then 4 hours) prize for ABC TV’s Seven Types of Ambiguity and Kris Wyld and Kym Goldsworthy won the prize for a miniseries longer than 4 hours for SBS’s Deep Water. Perske most recently won the miniseries AWGIE for Deadline Gallipoli. Faith McKinnon won the TV serial prize for Home & Away: Episode 6510.
Sally Aitken and comedian Tim Ross won the documentary writing award for their ABC design series Streets of Your Town and Christian White and Natalie Erika James won the short form award for Creswick.
Luke McGregor and Celia Pacquola won the situation or narrative comedy writing AWGIE for their hit ABC series Rosehaven and Fancy Boy’s Declan Fay, Henry Stone and Anne Edmonds with John Campbell, Stuart Daulman, Greg Larsen and Jonathan Schuster won the sketch or light entertainment prize for the iview series.
In children’s television, Melanie Alexander won the P classification (under 5 years) prize for Guess How Much I Love You: ‘Little White Fawn’ and Thomas Duncan-Watt won the 5-14 category for The Deep: ‘Beware the Sentinels’.
The Chaser’s Julian Morrow was awarded the Fred Parsons Award for Outstanding Contribution to Australian comedy while The Circuit’s Kelly Lefever was bestowed the Richard Lane Award for outstanding service and dedication to the Australian Writers’ Guild.
The full list of winners:
FEATURE FILM – ORIGINAL
Hacksaw Ridge – Andrew Knight with Robert Schenkkan
FEATURE FILM – ADAPTATION
Lion – Luke Davies
SHORT FORM
Creswick – Christian White and Natalie Erika James
DOCUMENTARY – PUBLIC BROADCAST OR EXHIBITION
Streets of Your Town: Episode 2 – Sally Aitken and Tim Ross
DOCUMENTARY – COMMUNITY, EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING
Cyber Security – The Internet – Sam Meikle
TELEVISION – SERIAL
Home and Away: Episode 6510 – Faith McKinnon
TELEVISION – SERIES OR MINISERIES (OF MORE THAN 4 HOURS DURATION)
Seven Types of Ambiguity: ‘Alex’ – Jacquelin Perske
TELEVISION – TELEMOVIE OR MINISERIES (OF 4 HOURS OR LESS DURATION)
Deep Water – Kris Wyld and Kym Goldsworthy
CHILDREN’S TELEVISION – ‘P’ CLASSIFICATION (PRESCHOOL – UNDER 5 YEARS)
Guess How Much I Love You: ‘Little White Fawn’ – Melanie Alexander
CHILDREN’S TELEVISION – ‘C’ CLASSIFICATION (CHILDREN’S – 5–14 YEARS)
The Deep: ‘Beware the Sentinels’ – Thomas Duncan-Watt
COMEDY – SITUATION OR NARRATIVE
Rosehaven: Episode 6 – Luke McGregor and Celia Pacquola
COMEDY – SKETCH OR LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
Fancy Boy: ‘Three Wishes’ – Declan Fay, Henry Stone and Anne Edmonds with John Campbell, Stuart Daulman, Greg Larsen and Jonathan Schuster
STAGE
The Drover’s Wife – Leah Purcell
COMMUNITY AND YOUTH THEATRE
Michael Swordfish – Lachlan Philpott
Teacup in a Storm – Noëlle Janaczewska
THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES
Where Words Once Were – Finegan Kruckemeyer
CHILDREN’S THEATRE
Egg – Angela Betzien
MUSIC THEATRE
Atomic – Danny Ginges with Philip Foxman
INTERACTIVE
Ghosts of Biloela – Que Minh Luu, Christopher Burke and Anna Barnes
ANIMATION
Counterfeit Cat: ‘Room of Panic’ – Tim Bain
2017 MAJOR AWARD
The Drover’s Wife – Leah Purcell
2017 DAVID WILLIAMSON PRIZE
Given in Celebration and Recognition of Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre
The Drover’s Wife – Leah Purcell
RICHARD LANE AWARD
For Outstanding Service and Dedication to the Australian Writers’ Guild
Kelly Lefever
FRED PARSONS AWARD
For Outstanding Contribution to Australian Comedy
Julian Morrow
AUSTRALIAN WRITERS’ GUILD LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
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Andrew Knight