One Night The Moon, a 55-minute musical that has been picked up by Dendy Films for a local theatrical release on November 8, won the major gold award of the night at the annual Australian Writers Guild Awards (AWGIES) on Saturday September 8. Writers John Romeril and Rachel Perkins also took home the prize for best television original for the same production.

Another soon-to-be-released film, Lantana, earned Andrew Bovell the award for best adapted screenplay. The original source of the film, which Palace and Beyond jointly open on October 4, was his own stage play Speaking In Tongues. Meanwhile, the best original script went to David Caesar for Mullet, an already released film that he also directed.

One Night The Moon, which Perkins directed for MusicArtsDance Films, is based on the true story of a little girl who goes missing in the Australian outback in the 1930s and the devastating consequences of her father's refusal to have a black tracker on his land. It has already had a number of festival outings.

The dialogue is entirely musical narrative. Musical director Mariead Hannan was the composer and Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody wrote the lyrics.