The Annual AWGIE Awards

The AWGIE Awards recognise and reward the outstanding achievements of Australian performance writers and their contribution to Australia’s cultural landscape. These prestigious awards are the only industry awards given by writers to writers judged exclusively on the basis of the writer’s vision, the script. 

“There is magic in the room tonight, I first took the long walk down those steps into this amazing space when I was around 9 years old. Back then it was the Plaza Cinema and I’ll never forget the experience of looking up in wonder at the giant screen. Fellini once said the experience of seeing a movie was like dreaming with your eyes open, and we all know what he meant by that.

Dreamer that he was, Federico could never have dreamed of the number of screens there are today. The way we tell stories might have changed, but not why we tell them. Another thing that hasn’t changed in thousands of years however is the magic of the Theatre. It was and still is “A place to behold” as the ancient Greeks called it, a special place where the power of words reminds us what it means to be human.

The most important point in our evolution was not when one of our tree dwelling, chimpanzee ancestors first stood up. It was when we started to tell stories. Stories tell us how to live, and that’s why we need storytellers.

The AWGIE Awards have long celebrated the nations best storytellers, those performance writers judged to have written the best scripts in the past year. To be recognised by your fellow writers is the highest accolade of all.

Because the AWGIES are awards given by writers to writers, judged solely on the written script. Congratulations to all those writers who are nominated each year. The AWGIE Awards night is your night and we’re here to celebrate your achievement.

– Jan Sardi, Vice President

Since 1968 the Australian Writers’ Guild has presented the AWGIE Awards to recognise and reward excellence in writing for stage and screen. In the years since their inception the list of AWGIE Award winners has included writers whose stories have shaped our national culture including feature films, theatre, TV series and serials, miniseries and children’s animated programs. The AWGIE Awards are unique in the industry in that they are the only writers’ awards judged solely by writers, and the judging is based on the written script – the writer’s intention rather than the finished product.

An extensive list of categories ensures that every writing discipline is catered for. Individual category winners in a year become eligible for the Major Award, awarded to the outstanding script of that year.

A range of significant special awards are also presented to recognise members who have shown outstanding achievement in script editing, comedy writing or have made an extraordinary contribution to the Guild.

The awards night has become one of the industry events of the year and the esteem in which the Guild and the Awards are held is evident in the attendance of prominent guests including network heads, independent producers, directors, funding agencies, individual writers and politicians from all sides of government.

Thanks to our sponsors for the 56th Annual AWGIE Awards: