A film script by Tusi Tamasese, which tells the story of a young Samoan chief who overcomes a fear of public speaking, is the winner of the 2007 Embassy Trust Prize.

Graeme Tetley, the scriptwriter of acclaimed NZ films Vigil and Out of the Blue, says Tamasese's script, Orator, is an assured telling of a fine story: "beautifully and powerfully imagined, executed and achieved".Tusi Tamasese, a scriptwriting master's student at Victoria University's International Institute of Modern Letters, received the $1000 prize for Orator, a story based partly on his own reservations about public speaking and also on his experience of growing up as a young chief on Upolu Island in Samoa.

Victoria Scriptwriting Programme director Ken Duncum says the Embassy Trust Prize recognises the best script for a feature film written for the major component of the master's class. He says that while Tamasese's script was a clear winner, the calibre of writing from the ten master's students this year was consistently high.

"The overall quality of writing increases year by year, as does the calibre of the students who apply each year for this very competitive course," Duncum says. "This is indicative of how healthy the scriptwriting industry is becoming here and of how much more strength there now is in this artform."

Duncum says that students who complete the postgraduate programme leave the International Institute of Modern Letters with a high quality full-length script that they can then offer to producers.

18/12/07