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Thriller wins AWG award for unproduced screenplay

Melbourne-based screenwriter, video artist and filmmaker Harry Aletras has won the 2015 Australian Writers Guild’s INSITE award for unproduced screenplays.

Aletras will attend the Adelaide Film Festival (October 15-25) and meet industry directors and producers with a view to moving the project, crime thriller Martingale, onto the screen.

Martingale follows Finnigan Wallace, a 24-year-old gambling addict and philosophy major whose addictions have ruined his relationships with his girlfriend and his widowed mother.

Owing a considerable debt to a gangland boss, he is ordered to go to a criminal club in Vietnam to collect a sizeable quantity of heroin, an ultimatum  which he sees as a symbolic suicide.

AWG president Jan Sardi hailed the screenplay as a “taut crime thriller showcasing a talented writer with a bright future.”

AFF director Amanda Duthie joined the AWG panel to determine the winner. The judges gave a special runner up (highly recommended) commendation to Warren Coleman and Stephen Abbott for their screenplay The Infernal Optimist. The winner of the inaugural INSITE Award was Blake Ayshford’s Cut Snake.

An RMIT graduate in fine arts/media arts, Aletras spent three years running his own video production company before attending the Victorian College of the Arts (Master of Screenwriting).

Aletras said the INSITE Award  is a "unique platform that affords members of the Guild, including student members like myself, the opportunity to be recognised by their peers and to provide ongoing support in the development of their careers.”

Here is the full list of shortlisted scripts:

Stephen Abbott & Warren Coleman The Infernal Optimist (runner up)

Philip Tarl Denson Borderline

Penelope Chai & Adam Spellicy Mary Mary

Lou Sanz  Ronnie and The Girls

And the long list:

Hannah Suvi Sand

Katherine Dolheguy The Beard

Brandan Gore Stalking Monica Bellucci

Alfred Bell Night Cargo

Mike Green Revision

Shane Brady & Priscilla Cameron Thunderbalt & Me