By FilmInk Staff
Despite being absolutely essential to the filmmaking process, the screenwriter is also one of the least celebrated on the creative and technical crew. Sure, it might be their idea, their dialogue, their characters, and their entire world, but the input of the writer is often downplayed, with some of their work attributed to the director and sometimes even actors who like to talk up their skills for improvisation.
The State Library Of NSW, however, continues to rectify that with its annual Betty Roland Prize. Named for the pioneering scribe who penned the screenplay for what is claimed as the first Australian feature length “talkie” movie, Spur Of The Moment (1932), The Betty Roland Prize is offered for the screenplay of a feature-length fiction film, for the script of a documentary film, for the script of a play or documentary for radio, or for the script of a television program (whether fiction or non-fiction). The prize is open to films, or radio or television programs, that were first publicly screened or broadcast between 1 October 2020 and 30 September 2021. In the case of a feature-length film, the final shooting script should be submitted; in other cases, shooting and production scripts, which may differ from the original script, may be submitted only if accompanied by the original script.
The judging panel – Craig Batty (academic, screenwriter, script consultant and the author and editor of fifteen books on screenwriting and screen production), Vanessa Alexander (prolific and AWGIE nominated international television writer) and Reg Cribb (acclaimed and award winning playwright, screenwriter and creator of Last Cab To Darwin) – will make their assessments and award the prize on the basis of the written material itself and not on the final product.
Past winners of The Betty Roland Prize include Shaun Grant and Harry Cripps (for their film adaptation of the book Penguin Bloom), Laurence Billiet (the doco Freeman), Benjamin Gilmour (the haunting Afghanistan-set drama Jirga) and Abe Forsythe (for his ingenious and uncompromising 2017 comedy Down Under), along with sterling episodes of acclaimed TV series like Stateless (Elise McCredie), The Cry (Jacquelin Perske), Missing (Kylie Boltin) and Top Of The Lake: China Girl (Jane Campion and Gerard Lee).
For more information on The Betty Roland Prize, head to The NSW State Library official website.
