Hungerford Award winner headed to the big screen

The most recent winner of the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award, Holden Sheppard’s novel Invisible Boys, is bound for the big screen.

The film and television rights to the novel were optioned by Australian director Nicholas Verso and producer Tania Chambers this week.

The City of Fremantle Hungerford Award, one of WA’s most prestigious literary awards, is presented to an emerging West Australian writer for their first full-length, unpublished work of fiction or narrative non-fiction.

The winner of the biennial prize receives a $15,000 cash prize and a publishing contract with Fremantle Press.

Since winning the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award in 2018 Invisible Boys has gone on to win the 2019 Kathleen Mitchell Award and the 2019 Western Australian Premier’s Award for an Emerging Writer, and was shortlisted for a 2020 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and the Readings Prize.

Author Holden Sheppard said he was convinced winning the Hungerford Award played a huge role in the success of Invisible Boys.

“The Hungerford’s effect on a book is like plugging an electric guitar into an amp: you play the same notes, but it’s louder and gets heard by more people,” he said.

“Having a debut novel that is already an award-winner upon release makes industry people and readers sit up and take notice, so it’s been a boon and I am very grateful for what winning this award has done for my career.”

Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt said the City of Fremantle’s sponsorship of the Hungerford Award was an example of the City’s commitment to the arts.

“The arts are woven into the fabric of Fremantle and contribute so much to Freo’s special character,” Mayor Pettitt said.

“We are really proud to be encouraging young authors through our sponsorship of the Hungerford Award and are just thrilled with Holden’s success with Invisible Boys.

“The City is also pushing to have film studio established here to support more film and tv productions, so it would just be amazing if the film or tv adaptation of Holden’s book was shot right here in Freo.”

Director Nicholas Verso’s work includes the BAFTA and Emmy award-winning series Nowhere Boys for Matchbox Pictures, ABC and NBCUniversal, and the feature film Boys in the Trees, which premiered at the seventy-third Venice International Film Festival before screening at festivals worldwide and selling to Netflix and Stan.

He also won an Australian Directors’ Guild Award last year for his work directing Grace Beside Me for the ABC and NITV.

Tania Chambers is the producer and managing director of Feisty Dame Productions and was previously the Chief Executive of Screen NSW and Screenwest. She has produced the feature films Kill Me Three Times, which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival, and A Few Less Men, as well as the TV series Itch, which recently sold to the BBC.

The winner of the 2020 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award will be announced in October.