Shaun Grant

A graduate from RMIT in Creative Screenwriting, Shaun Grant’s chilling debut feature film, Snowtown (Directed by Justin Kurzell) was released in 2011 and saw him win the AACTA Award (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2012, Audience Award at BigPond Adelaide Film Festival, and went on to Critics Week at Cannes in 2011 as well as the Toronto Film Festival, London Film Festival, San Sebastien and Marrakesh Film Festivals – winning numerous awards along the way including the Australian Writers’ Guild Award (AWGIE) for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Greg Teppar Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Victorian Screen Industry.

Shaun went on to write on several other Australian drama series, securing another AWGIE (collegiate) for his work on the critically acclaimed mini-series, Deadline Gallipoli (director, Michael Rymer, Matchbox/NBC Universal). Shaun received two further AWGIE nominations for his adaptions of the best-selling novels, Jasper Jones (directed by Rachel Perkins for Porchlight Films) and Berlin Syndrome (directed by Cate Shortland for Aquarius Films). Shaun went on to win the award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Jasper Jones and the film was released widely in 2017. Berlin Syndrome screened at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and Berlin Film Festivals. Shaun also secured nominations at the 2017 AACTA Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay for both Jasper Jones & Berlin Syndrome.

Shaun wrote the screenplay for the True History of the Kelly Gang, premiering at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival with an all-star cast and reuniting Shaun with acclaimed director Justin Kurzel. He then won his 4th AWGIE for Best Adapted Screenplay for the Kelly Gang. Shaun’s next feature film is Penguin Bloom for producers; Bruna Papandrea, Reese Witherspoon, Naomi Watts and Emma Cooper, recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and secure Shaun another AWGIES nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Shaun is currently developing his own original television series with Made Up Stories and a new a television series for Fremantle Media – Justin Kurzel also attached to direct. More recently, Shaun penned the season two finale episode of Mindhunter for David Fincher and Charlize Theron (Netflix) and received a collegiate nomination for Best Drama Series at the 2020 Writers Guild of America Awards. Shaun is a member of the WGA and the AWG and currently splits his time between Australia and the USA and is represented by The Fleming Agency (Australia/NZ) and Paul Hastings (USA).