AWG announces 2026 Emerging Writers’ Awards and John Hinde Award winners – The Australian Writers’ Guild has announced the winners of the 2026 John Hinde Award for Excellence in Science-Fiction Writing and the AWG Emerging Writers’ Awards.
Award-winning writer and creator Sam Meikle won the John Hinde Award’s unproduced category for the television pilot Hypersomnia, while writer and director Jeremy Brull won the produced category for the sci-fi short film Self Love.
The awards are an important pipeline moment for Australian screen and stage writing, with $20,000 in prizes and development support going to projects that could become future television, film and theatre work.
John Hinde Award winners
Meikle received $5,000 for Hypersomnia, described by the AWG as a story of first encounter, alien infiltration, conquest and colonisation that reaches people through sleep.
The judges praised the script as a grounded science-fiction story with sharp writing, strong characterisation and a clear understanding of its young adult audience.
Brull also received $5,000 for Self Love. The short film follows an individual forced to confront buried trauma when his malfunctioning identical clone reverts to a fearful child.
The judges called Self Love a genuinely original story and said its stakes, relationships and premise all landed.
The John Hinde Award was first presented in 2008. It is funded by a bequest from the late film critic John Hinde and supports Australian science-fiction screenwriters.
Emerging Writers’ Awards
Playwright Anna Lyon won the Emerging Writers’ Awards Long Form category for Gravida Five, a tragicomedy in which a doctor presents her five pregnancies as a clinical case while using humour to impose order on loss.
Patrick George won the Short Form category for Countrymen, a comedy adventure series set in 58 BC as Julius Caesar wages war during his campaign to expand Rome.
Lyon and George will share $10,000 in script development funding from Scripted Ink. The funding supports Australian writers and commercially viable projects.
The Emerging Writers’ Awards were previously known as the Monte Miller Awards. They recognise screenwriting and playwriting by the Guild’s Associate and Student members.
Highly commended and shortlisted projects
The John Hinde Award highly commended projects were Ryan Prestipino’s The Parenthood Test and Cooee by Stuart Beedie, Toby Morris and Sam Burnett.
The John Hinde shortlist also included After the Lights Go Out by Matt Kazacos and Lucky by Aaron Lucas and Mark Rogers.
Further shortlisted projects were NCIS: Sydney season three episode Sucker Punch by Fiona Kelly and Ella Cook, and Zip and the Tiny Sprouts: The Starship Wonder Tree by Peter Johnston, Breehn Burns and Jason Johnson.
Highly commended Emerging Writers’ Awards projects included I’m Just Here to Make Friends by Diane Vu, Poles by Millie Pitcher, and Adonia by Marcus Khoudair and Veniamin Gialouris.
Other shortlisted works included Flow Lands, What’s Between Your Legs, Bad Taste, Esperance, Mu-mma, My Sister, The Wind and Phenomenon.
The winning and shortlisted projects are now available through AWG’s Pathways Showcase.
For more Australian industry news, visit TV Central’s Other section. More information is available from the Australian Writers’ Guild.
