| JOHN HINDE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN SCIENCE-FICTION WRITING
UNPRODUCED CATEGORY
Winner
Hypersomnia by Sam Meikle [Television]
Wake. Sleep. Subjugate. Repeat… Memories, dreams, and nightmares aren’t the only things that can come to you in your sleep.
Highly Commended
The Parenthood Test by Ryan Prestipino [Television]
In a world where compulsory IUDs control overpopulation, a lesbian couple win a rare chance at becoming parents by participating in “The Parenthood Test”, subsequently becoming subjects of a national reality television show.
Shortlist
After the Lights Go Out by Matt Kazacos [Feature Film]
In the wake of an apocalyptic power outage in a remote country town, PRU, a conflicted 17-year-old is forced to take on her missing father’s life mission; keeping their survival bunker (and supplies) secret from their increasingly desperate neighbours.
Lucky by Aaron Lucas and Mark Rogers [Feature Film]
When Guy, a permanently emerging filmmaker, casts a humanoid robot – Lucky – in the lead-role of his first feature, the desperate director must hide the true origins of his synthetic star to keep his reputation intact. But Lucky isn’t just a bad actor, he’s barely believable as a human. Guy’s film seems doomed, until he realises Lucky is a perfect mimic – the more Guy exposes the worst of himself, the better Lucky becomes.
PRODUCED CATEGORY
Winner
Self Love by Jeremy Brull [Short Film]
When his malfunctioning identical clone reverts to a fearful child, Travis is forced to confront the trauma he buried long ago, realizing that to save himself, he must first save the boy he once was.
Highly Commended
Cooee by Stuart Beedie, Toby Morris and Sam Burnett [Feature Film]
Small-town Australia, twenty years in the future. There’s no work, no hope – but a whole lot of aimless teenagers out to drive fast, hunt roos, get laid and escape into a virtual wonderland.
Shortlist
NCIS: Sydney: Season 3, Episode 6 ‘Sucker Punch’ by Fiona Kelly and Ella Cook [Television]
The death of a US DARPA scientist takes NCIS: Sydney into the top-secret world of biohybrid insects and bioweapons, leaving two team members in a fight for their lives.
Zip and the Tiny Sprouts: ‘The Starship Wonder Tree’ by Peter Johnston, Breehn Burns and Jason Johnson [Children’s Television]
When Zip is suddenly stuck inside for the day, the Tiny Sprouts must use their creativity to bring the sun back out and save Zip from the brink of boredom.
EMERGING WRITERS’ AWARDS
SHORT FORM CATEGORY
Winner
Countrymen by Patrick George [Television]
The year is 58 BC. General Julius Caesar wages constant war on the Celtic tribes of Gaul in an effort to expand the glory and wealth of Rome. A Rome that would become his empire.
Highly Commended
I’m Just Here to Make Friends by Diane Vu [Television]
A charming social predator adopts a naive doormat as her new project, but as their friendship intensifies, secrets bubble to the surface, and it’s unclear who’s the predator… and who’s the project.
Poles by Millie Pitcher [Television]
Reeling from a break-up with her bff-turned-girlfriend, a directionless and mildly self-obsessed young woman snowploughs through her 20s while working as a stripper.
Shortlist
Flow Lands by Rebecca Ingram [Television]
When Australian detective Callie Fern finds a woman’s body in northern Scotland, the land itself tells her it was murder — and warns her another is coming.
What’s Between Your Legs by Kylie Aoibheann [Short Film]
While recovering from gender-affirming surgery, a sexually frustrated trans woman gets one of her dilators trapped in her new vagina.
LONG FORM CATEGORY
Winner
Gravida Five by Anna Lyon [Theatre]
A doctor presents her five pregnancies as a clinical case, using humour to impose order on loss – until her narrative begins to slip.
Highly Commended
Adonia by Marcus Khoudair and Veniamin Gialouris [Feature Film]
A solitary young man befriends his steroid dealer and discovers an audience online for their bodybuilding—but the more he chases fame, the further he drifts from his friends, family, and mortal reality.
Shortlist
Bad Taste by Jason Reed [Feature Film]
A struggling comedian discovers that he gets funnier when he accidentally ingests a piece of a promising young comic—now he has to decide how much he wants fame and what he’s willing to swallow.
Esperance by Robert Frantzeskos and Thomas Moody [Feature Film]
On the desolate and lawless frontier of the 19th century gold rush, two Irish miners are embroiled in a daring heist to avoid ruin. Together they must risk everything to escape both the law, and the harrowing, mythic vengeance that pursues them.
Mu-mma by Courtney Cavallaro [Theatre]
On a sweltering Christmas Day, a mother and her lesbian daughter fight to salvage both the roast and their bond — confronting love, legacy, and what it means to be a “real mother”
My Sister, The Wind by Ranima Montes [Feature Film]
Days before immigrating overseas, a duty-bound woman must smuggle her sister’s exhumed bones for her impulsive mother, uncovering a secret that threatens the future she’s promised her pregnant daughter.
Phenomenon by Charlie Clausen [Television]
Amid a media frenzy, an ambitious journalist attempts to salvage his failing career by exposing a supposed haunting in Darwin, but his pursuit of the truth reveals the danger lies not in the unknown, but in humanity’s ruthless exploitation of one another. |
