Press release from dmcprmedia
The Australian Writers’ Foundation and FOXTEL are pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2010 FOXTEL Fellowship is award winning television writer Sue Smith. The announcement was made at the 43rd Annual AWGIE Awards held this evening at The Peninsula in Melbourne.
The esteemed $25,000 fellowship recognises that television writing makes a significant contribution to the Australian cultural landscape and is awarded to a writer who has created a body of work that is impressive in its craft, scope and impact. Now in its fourth year it provides a writer with support to develop a new project for television to the stage where it can be presented to market. The fellowship is made possible due to generous sponsorship from FOXTEL.
FOXTEL Chief Executive and Managing Director, Kim Williams AM said, “Sue Smith’s significant and wide-ranging contribution to Australian television and theatre writing makes her a really deserving recipient of this year’s FOXTEL Fellowship. She has such an extraordinary body of work to her name and she has written for shows that have entertained and enthralled millions of Australians as well as challenging us to look at ourselves anew and to reflect afresh on what it means to be Australian.
Her work with John Alsop on Brides of Christ (also a previous Fellowship winner) stands as one of the enduring landmarks of Australian television.
Sue Smith is one of Australia’s finest television writers. She initially studied journalism but soon realised that she preferred making things up and found herself a job as a trainee in a television production house. Since then she has written everything from The Young Doctors and Sons and Daughters to The Leaving of Liverpool and Brides of Christ (both co-written with John Alsop). In 1994 she won an AWGIE for The Road from Coorain. Her work also includes the television series R.A.N Remote Area Nurse, My Brother Jack, Fallen Angels and The Cooks. She has also written for the theatre and acted as script editor on many major television productions.
Sue Smith said she was utterly delighted to accept the 2010 FOXTEL Fellowship, and proud to be in the company of its former recipients, writers whom she greatly respects.
“This Fellowship not only significantly lifts the profile of small screen drama, it also presents a precious opportunity for a writer to really stretch the limits of both their own work and the potential of the medium itself. Such opportunities are rare indeed, and I think every screenwriter in the country would join me in thanking FOXTEL for their ongoing commitment to this initiative.”
The Australian Writers’ Foundation is the charitable arm of the Australian Writers’ Guild, the peak professional body for Australia’s film, television, theatre, radio and new media writers.