2027 Roger Scholes Prize for Writing for Stage or Screen

For the best original work produced for stage or screen (including narrative video games) by a Tasmanian writer.

This award is named in honour of distinguished Tasmanian filmmaker Roger Scholes (1950–2022).

Works first produced on stage or publicly released for screens between 2 August 2024 and 2 August 2026 are eligible for this prize.

Entries are now closed.

About Roger Scholes

Roger Scholes (1950–2022) was a distinguished Australian independent filmmaker whose career spanned more than four decades across drama, documentary, and cinematography.

Born and raised in Tasmania, his deep love of the island was a lifelong source of inspiration. After attending film school in Melbourne, he spent the 1970s working internationally, before returning to Australia to complete postgraduate studies. Though based in Melbourne, his focus remained on Tasmania, and his early works included The Franklin River Blockade, a short film documenting the iconic environmental protest, and The Last Tall Forests.  

His acclaimed feature film The Tale of Ruby Rose (1987), shot in the remote Walls of Jerusalem, stands as a cinematic love letter to the Tasmanian wilderness and earned four critics’ prizes at the Venice Film Festival.

In 1988 he founded he founded Edward Street Films with his partner Katherine Scholes. The Melbourne-based company produced documentaries concerned with social justice as well as environmental themes. Award-winning projects include Home of the Brave, and The Valley, filmed in war-torn Ethiopia.

Scholes’ dramatised documentary The Coolbaroo Club (1996), created in partnership with Nyungar writer Steve Kinnane, won an Australian Human Rights Award. This project sparked an abiding commitment to supporting Aboriginal people.

In the late ’90s he returned to live permanently in Tasmania, along with Katherine and their two sons. The couple made films exploring island life, including Last Port of Call, Future Shack and the feature drama Cable. Roger’s fascination with the vast sweep of human history also gave rise to the international TV series The Human Journey and Stories from the Stone Age, both filmed partly in Tasmania.

Over his long career as a screenwriter, cinematographer and director, Scholes became a significant cultural voice within the state, celebrated for his commitment to environmental storytelling, Tasmanian history, and independent filmmaking. He passed away in 2022, leaving behind a body of work that remains deeply embedded in Tasmania’s artistic and environmental heritage.

Photo used with permission from the family of Roger Scholes