New AUD$50,000 award offers young artists the chance to turn their bold idea into reality
Applications are now open
The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is proud to launch the AUD$50,000 Jim Sharman Future Award through the NIDA Future Centre. The Award is for a bold idea or project with the potential to transform the arts for generations to come.
Open to artists and dreamers aged 16-30 from Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, this new triennial Award offers substantial funding alongside tailored NIDA support to help turn a radical idea or project into reality.
Legendary Director and NIDA alum Jim Sharman (Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Rocky Horror Show) has established the Award to encourage bold new talent with big ideas. Whether the concept or project is an uncharted performance style, groundbreaking technology, or a bold new artistic movement, applications will be judged on genuinely game-changing ideas.
NIDA is globally recognised for its excellence in dramatic arts education and has trained some of the world’s most innovative creatives. Alumni include celebrated film Director Baz Luhrmann (Elvis, Moulin Rouge, The Great Gatsby), four time Academy Award winning Production and Costume Designer Catherine Martin (Elvis, Moulin Rouge, The Great Gatsby), theatre Director Kip Williams whose revolutionary “cine-theatre” production of The Picture of Dorian Gray has become a global smash with fellow NIDA Acting alum Sarah Snook (Succession). NIDA’s youngest-ever Directing graduate Yaron Lifschitz, the Artistic Director and CEO of internationally renowned contemporary circus company Circa, recently received the 2025 International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) Distinguished Artist Award in New York.
“In 1925, the revolutionary artforms of photography, cinema, surrealism et al, progressed the arts of the 20th century. My aim in establishing the triennial award is to uncover new artforms, ideas or projects with the potential to inspire, energise and enlighten us in the 21st Century,” said Jim Sharman.
Beth Shulman, Head of the NIDA Future Centre, said, “Jim’s support has been instrumental in establishing the NIDA Future Centre, an initiative to bring industry and education together with new technologies and future thinking to create the storytelling of tomorrow.
We are thrilled to launch the inaugural Jim Sharman Future Award to champion and support radical thinking from the next generation of storytellers.”
About the Award
The application for the Award can be in any form – a video of up to 5 minutes, a written pitch of up to 1500 words, or any form of engagement that best suits the idea or project.
Finalists will be invited to a live pitch presentation event at NIDA in front of a judging panel on 29 or 30 April 2025.
About Jim Sharman
NIDA alum Jim Sharman (Production, 1965) has created over 80 productions, many of which had a transformative effect in Australia and internationally. His groundbreaking work has traversed stage and screen, including opera and musicals. His productions include three era-defining musicals – Hair (Sydney, Tokyo, Boston), Jesus Christ Superstar (Australia, and 9 years in London’s West End) and The Rocky Horror Show (UK, USA, Australia) – as well as countless premieres and radical interpretations of classics, including works by Shakespeare, Mozart, Strindberg and Brecht. Jim was Artistic Director of the influential Lighthouse (State Theatre of South Australia) and the 1982 Adelaide Festival, bringing Pina Bausch to Australia. Jim revived and premiered plays by Patrick White and directed the premiere of Richard Meale’s opera Voss, based on White’s novel. Among his film work, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the longest continuously playing film in the history of cinema. He is the recipient of the JC Williamson Centenary Lifetime Achievement Award and in January 2025 was the recipient of the Sydney Theatre Awards Lifetime Achievement Award. His memoir, Blood and Tinsel, was published in 2008.
About The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA)
NIDA is Australia’s national dramatic arts educator and innovator. NIDA’s unparalleled rigour, practice-based learning, connections to industry and culture of innovation have produced some of the world’s most influential and in-demand storytellers across stage, screen and new digital platforms. NIDA offers training in the full suite of skills necessary to create and deliver entertainment experiences for audiences – theatre, film, television, dance, opera, commercials, musicals, festivals, live events, interactive gaming and more. NIDA alumni are actors, directors, writers, set and costume designers, lighting and sound designers, set builders, costume and prop makers, special effects artists, world builders, and stage and production managers. They win Academy Awards, design games, ceremonies, exhibitions and events, they lead arts companies, write our stories, fill our screens, work live music gigs, crew stage, film and television sets, manage arts centres and create start-up XR businesses. A not for profit, NIDA was founded in 1958.
NIDA welcomes applications from all genders, backgrounds, abilities, and identities, and strongly encourage submissions from historically excluded communities, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse individuals, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and people with disabilities. All applications will be evaluated solely on the strength, feasibility, and potential impact of the idea or project, with reasonable accommodations available to ensure equitable participation.
Media contact:
Vanessa Hollins
NIDA Communications
[email protected]