Mona Brand Award for Women Stage and Screen Writers (Australia)

The Mona Brand Award for Women Stage and Screen Writers was established in 2016 to celebrate Australian women’s contribution to the screen and stage and to promote the interest of the public in their work. The Award also fosters new talent in the industry.

Funding Information

• The Mona Brand Award
  • The 2024 Mona Brand Award ($30,000) winner will have demonstrated an outstanding and diverse body of work delivered over a significant career which has been widely performed or screened to critical acclaim.
• Early Career Writer Award
  • The Early Career Writer Award ($10,000) will be given to a woman or non-binary writer who is in the early stages of their career. Their debut work must have first been professionally produced or screened or broadcast between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2023. This includes at international or Australian film festivals. Additional works may have been produced or screened within this time frame.
  • A first professionally produced work for the screen or broadcast is considered a work that is 20 minutes or above in length and that has been distributed to the public.
  • A first professionally produced work for the stage is considered a full-length work given by a professional, independent or amateur theatre company, but it must involve a performance season of several performances before a paying general audience.
  • The nomination must be accompanied by the submission of a sample work (max. 10- 15 pages) that the nominator deems to be the most compelling and has been first professionally produced or screened or broadcast between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2023.The sample work can be but does not have to be their debut work.
  • Co-written works cannot be submitted as the debut or sample work.
  • Plays and scripts which are, or contain, adaptations or re-workings of pre-existing works will be considered if they transform, rather than merely transmit, the intentions of the source work. The new work should attain a standard of achievement comparable to the source work.
  • It is the responsibility of the nominator to provide a translation for works submitted in languages other than English.
  • The sample work must be uploaded online as part of the online nomination process.

Eligibility Criteria

• The Mona Brand Award/s are open to women and non-binary writers of:
  • plays,
  • music drama,
  • screenplays of feature-length fiction films,
  • scripts of documentary films,
  • scripts of plays or documentaries for radio, the web and/or streaming services; and/or
  • scripts of television programs (fiction or non-fiction).
• All nominees must be living Australian citizens or persons holding permanent resident status.

Selection Process and Judging

• The Award/s will be judged by an independent judging committee.
• The Library and the judges appointed by it will have absolute discretion as to the manner in which the Awards are administered and the applications that are accepted for consideration. Without limitation, at the absolute discretion of the Library:
  • judges may admit or reject certain applications;
  • judges may admit applications after the deadline in exceptional circumstances;
  • if the nominees are not considered to be of sufficient merit, the judges may determine that the Award not be made; and
  • judges will assess all applications that comply with the eligibility criteria.
• Only one writer will be selected as the winner of each Award but the judges may award commendations in either category. Unsuccessful nominees will not be personally advised of the results.
• The Mona Brand Award/s recognise talent, craft and creative impact. Assessment for the Early Career Writer Award will be made entirely on the literary merit of the written text, and not on the merits of a particular production or broadcast.

For more information, visit State Library of NSW.