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Nominations announced for 54th AWGIE Awards

The nominations for this year's AWGIE Awards have been revealed.

Shaun Grant and Harry Cripps are among the writers aiming to win consecutive prizes at this year’s AWGIE Awards.

Grant, who won the adaptation prize with Cripps for Penguin Bloom in 2020 and for the True History of the Kelly Gang in 2019, is nominated this year for his work on Nitram, against the Here Out West writing team of Nisrine Amine, Bina Bhattacharya, Matias Bolla, Claire Cao, Arka Das, Dee Duygu Dogan, Vonne Patiag and Tien Tran; Falling for Figaro‘s Ben Lewin and Allen Palmer; and The Furnace‘s Roderick MacKay in the original feature film category.

Cripps and Robert Connolly have been recognised for The Dry, which is one of two nominees for the feature film adaptation award alongside Babyteeth, written for the screen by the original playwright Rita Kalnejais.

In the television categories, Tony McNamara’s The Great is pitted against Wakefield, Five Bedrooms and Wentworth for best series or miniseries lasting more than four hours, while Stan’s A Sunburnt Christmas will square off with SBS’s New Gold Mountain in telemovie and miniseries category.

The battle between Home and Away and Neighbours resumes in Serial, with nominations for Andrew Gardner, Jessica Paine, Peter Mattessi and Jason Herbison.  

In the situation and narrative comedy field, Kitty Flanagan’s Fisk is up against Aftertaste, Why Are You Like This? and Retrograde.

Winner of the 2020 light entertainment and sketch comedy category, The Feed, is again up for the award this year, joined by teams from Gruen and Reputation Rehab.    

Of the children’s categories, episodes of Kangaroo Beach (Simon Dodd and Tristan Dodd), Pocoyo (Lina Foti), and The Wonder Gang (Wendy Hanna) will compete for best preschool program, while Hardball (Amy Stewart) and The Gamers 2037 (Hannah Fitzpatrick) will contend with two episodes of The Strange Chores (John McGeachin and Luke Tierney) for the children’s C classification award.

Children’s programming also features in the documentary nominees, with Tim Bain’s Water Safety with Kangaroo Beach, Peter Flynn’s Small Changes, and The Case for Group Work: Students Give Their Verdict from George Catsi, Ari Kwasner-Catsi and Zac Perry making up the community, educational and training category.

Competing for the public broadcast documentary are Alec Morgan with Tiriki Onus’ Ablaze, Tom Murray’s The Skin of Others, Nel Minchin and Wayne Blair’s Firestarter – The Story of Bangarra, and Sally Aitken’s Playing With Sharks.

Last year’s animation winner Space Nova dominates its category, with a nomination each for Melanie Alexander and John Armstrong, while Imogen McCluskey’s lockdown romcom Love Bug is up against Tim Spencer and Zoe Norton Lodge’s Ding Dong I’m Gay and Caitlin Richardson’s The Tailings for the web series award.

In a statement, the AWGIE Award judging coordinators said they were proud to see the talent and resilience of their members rewarded.

“There’s no doubt the last eighteen months have been extraordinarily challenging for the whole country,” they said.

“The arts have been hit particularly hard, so it’s heartening to see that the standard and ambition of Australian performance writing continues to excel.”

AWGIE Award recipients will be announced at the 54th Annual AWGIE Awards via an online ceremony broadcast on Tuesday, December 7.

The nominees in the screen categories are:

FEATURE FILM – ORIGINAL

Falling for Figaro – Ben Lewin with Allen Palmer

Here Out West – Nisrine Amine, Bina Bhattacharya, Matias Bolla, Claire Cao, Arka Das, Dee Duygu Dogan, Vonne Patiag and Tien Tran

Nitram – Shaun Grant

The Furnace – Roderick MacKay

FEATURE FILM – ADAPTATION

Babyteeth – Rita Kalnejais

The Dry – Harry Cripps and Robert Connolly

SHORT FILM

Ayaan – Alies Sluiter

The Last Elephant on Earth – Piri Eddy

The Moogai – Jon Bell

DOCUMENTARY – PUBLIC BROADCAST (INCLUDING VOD) OR EXHIBITION

Ablaze – Alec Morgan with Tiriki Onus

Firestarter – Nel Minchin and Wayne Blair

Playing With Sharks – Sally Aitken

The Skin of Others – Tom Murray

DOCUMENTARY – COMMUNITY, EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING (OR OTHERWISE COMMISSIONED TO A SPECIFIC BRIEF)

Small Changes – Peter Flynn

The Case for Group Work: Students Give Their Verdict – George Catsi with Ari Kwasner-Catsi and Zac Perry

Water Safety with Kangaroo Beach – Tim Bain

TELEVISION – SERIAL

Home and Away: Episode 7433 – Andrew Gardner

Neighbours: Episode 8328 – Jessica Paine

Neighbours: Episode 8367 – Peter Mattessi

Neighbours: Episode 8498 – Jason Herbison

TELEVISION – SERIES OR MINISERIES OF MORE THAN 4 HOURS DURATION, INCLUDING ORIGINAL AND ADAPTED WORKS

Five Bedrooms: Season 2, ‘Twenty-Seven Weeks’ – Michael Lucas with Christine Bartlett

The Great: Season 1, ‘A Pox on Hope’ – Tony McNamara and Gretel Vella

The Great: Season 1, ‘The Beaver’s Nose’ – Tony McNamara

Wakefield: Season 1, Episode 5 – Sam Meikle

Wentworth: Season 8, ‘The Unknown Terrorist’ – Kim Wilson

TELEVISION – TELEMOVIE OR MINISERIES OF 4 HOURS OR LESS DURATION, INCLUDING ORIGINAL AND ADAPTED WORKS

A Sunburnt Christmas – Elliot Vella, Gretel Vella and Timothy Walker

New Gold Mountain – Peter Cox, Yolanda Ramke, Benjamin Law, Greg Waters and Pip Karmel

CHILDREN’S TELEVISION – ‘P’ CLASSIFICATION (PRESCHOOL – UNDER 5 YEARS), ORIGINAL OR ADAPTED, ANIMATED OR PERFORMED

Kangaroo Beach: Season 1, ‘The Shark Prank’ – Simon Dodd and Tristan Dodd

Pocoyo: Season 4, ‘The Remote Control’ – Lina Foti

The Wonder Gang: Season 1, ‘Are Jellyfish Really Fish?’ – Wendy Hanna

CHILDREN’S TELEVISION – ‘C’ CLASSIFICATION (CHILDREN’S – 5–14 YEARS), ORIGINAL OR ADAPTED, ANIMATED OR PERFORMED

Hardball: Season 2, ‘Matariki’ – Amy Stewart

The Gamers 2037: Season 1, ‘The Decision’ – Hannah Fitzpatrick

The Strange Chores: Season 2, ‘Unmask a Shapeshifter’ – John McGeachin

The Strange Chores: Season 2, ‘Wear a Mech Suit’ – Luke Tierney

COMEDY – SITUATION OR NARRATIVE

Aftertaste: Season 1, ‘The Beauty and the Terroir’ – Matthew Bate

Fisk: Season 1, ‘Portrait of a Lady’ – Penny Flanagan with Kitty Flanagan

Retrograde: Season 1, Episode 3 – Declan Fay

Why Are You Like This: Season 1, ‘The Pressures of Late Capitalism’ – Mark Bonanno, Naomi Higgins and Humyara Mahbub

COMEDY – SKETCH OR LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT

Gruen: Season 12, ‘Tools and Boots for Tools’ – James Colley and Sophie Braham

Reputation Rehab: Season 1, ‘Nick Kyrgios – The Bad Boy of Tennis’ – Sophie Braham with Kirsten Drysdale, Zoe Norton Lodge and Melina Wicks

The Feed: ‘Comedy Sketches 2020’ – Ben Jenkins, Alex Lee, Jenna Owen and Victoria Zerbst.

ANIMATION

Space Nova: Season 1, ‘Pamela Barnacle is Alive and Well’ – Melanie Alexander

Space Nova: Season 1, ‘Seaweed Samba’ – John Armstrong

WEB SERIES AND OTHER NON-BROADCAST/NON-‘SUBSCRIPTION VIDEO ON DEMAND’ TV SHORT WORKS

Ding Dong I’m Gay: Season 1, ‘Easier Said Than Cum’ – Tim Spencer with Zoe Norton Lodge

Love Bug: Season 2 – Imogen McCluskey

The Tailings: Season 1, Episode 5 and Episode 6 – Caitlin Richardson