Last Friday night the winners of the Script Writers Awards New Zealand (SWANZ) for 2012 were announced in Auckland. Wellington feature film Existence won big, with co-writers Jessica Charlton & Juliet Bergh picking up ‘Best Feature Film Script’ and the ‘New Writer Award’. Existence, the post-apocalyptic steampunk western (see the trailer here), had its World Premiere as part of this year’s New Zealand International Film Festival.
Other winners in film categories included Hamish Bennett for his comedy/drama short The Dump (which had its premiere at the Dallas International Film Festival) and Linda Niccol, who won in the ‘Unproduced Feature Film Script’ category for Miss Adventure. Legendary filmmaker Gaylene Preston received the ‘Mentorship Award’.
Congrats to all the winners and nominees on stage and screen (both big and small).
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Here’s the full list of winners:
Best Feature Film Script
Existence by Jessica Charlton & Juliet Bergh
Best Short Film Script
The Dump by Hamish Bennett
Best Play
Mike & Virginia by Nick Ward & Kathryn Burnett
Best Television Episode: Comedy Script
Auckland Daze, Episode 4 by Millen Baird
Best Television Episode: Drama Script
The Almighty Johnsons, Series 2, Episode 5 by James Griffin
Best One-Off Television Drama
What Really Happened – Votes for Women by Gavin Strawhan
Unproduced Feature Film Script
Miss Adventure by Linda Niccol
New Writer Award
Jessica Charlton & Juliet Bergh
Mentorship Award
Gaylene Preston
Special Award: Shortland Street: 20 Years
Over 200 writers, 5125 Episodes, (around 36,387,500 words!)
