Six bold and visionary projects have been shortlisted for the 2025 Jim Sharman Future Award, a transformative initiative of the NIDA Future Centre, offering AUD$50,000 in funding and bespoke support from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) to bring radical artistic ideas to life.
From groundbreaking performance innovations to revolutionary uses of technology, this year’s shortlist reflects the diversity and imagination of a new generation of artists and creators.
The 2025 Shortlisted Finalists Are:
Ovation
by Oliver English and Thomas Bizzell, Australia
Flow Through the Eternal Realm
by Supawich Weesapen and Kanokwan Sutthang, Thailand
The Virtual Architecture of Empathy: Rohan
by Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson, Australia
Retreat Corporate
by Vishesh Kalra, Australia
Promise (Best Of)
by Kalu Oji, Australia
The Next Stage in Character Costume Mask Technology
by Daniel MacKenzie, Singapore
Step into a high-stakes pitch fest where the future is up for grabs at the Jim Sharman Future Award Live Pitch Presentation on Tuesday 29 April, 1:00 pm (AEST).
The six fearless finalists, aged 16–30 and drawn from Australia and the Asia-Pacific, have just five minutes each to pitch their boundary-breaking ideas to a panel of industry heavyweights.
Then it’s the judges’ turn, with a rapid-fire Q&A that puts each idea to the test, and select the winner.
An esteemed panel of judges include Sarah Christie – Head of Australian Originals, Amazon MGM Studios, Kris Nelson – Festival Director, Sydney Festival 2026–2029, Kyas Hepworth – Head of Screen NSW and Jason Phu – multidisciplinary artist known for boundary-pushing work.
One finalist will walk away with $50,000 to turn their radical vision into reality – the winner be announced live at the conclusion of the pitch event.
Join us in person or tune in via livestream and secure your front-row seat to tomorrow.
Read more about the shortlisted projects below:
OVATION
OVATION is the dawn of a new era in performance – a revolutionary suite of creative AI tools designed for both the rehearsal room and the stage. From bespoke script analysis tools to generative live performance engines, OVATION transforms the artistic process at every stage. By intuitively conjuring text, sound, light, and imagery in real time, it forges an electrifying bond between human impulse and algorithmic response, making each show a singular, unrepeatable event, pulsing with risk, presence, and artistic electricity.
Co-developed with award-winning technologist Thomas Bizzell, this is not automation, it’s artistic alchemy. A living dialogue between human instinct and digital imagination, OVATION redefines what theatre, movement and storytelling can become in the age of intelligent creation.
Flow Through the Eternal Realm
Inspired by the feeling of using “free energy” while interacting with AI and the massive water usage of AI data centres, this project aims to explore the relationship between AI data centres, cooling system water, and natural water sources by blending facts, abstraction, and human belief. We will create an installation that presents water’s coexistence with the eternal cybernetic realm and the impermanence amidst eternity through ambient sound, interactive mechanism, natural phenomena, and temperature, inviting the audience to explore the connection between nature, technology, abstraction, and themselves as they merge into one atmosphere in the exhibition.
The Virtual Architecture of Empathy: Rohan
Can the power of art be a tool to harness empathy? Does it require one to physically be in the realm? Do we need to ‘exercise’ the act of witnessing in order to fully comprehend the meaning of displacement? The Virtual Architecture of Empathy: Rohan explores the empathic power of immersive cine-theatre, fusing performance, and living memory into a story you don’t simply watch – you carry it, shape it and are changed by it.
Audiences traverse across two expansive worlds, shifting from passive bystanders to active authors. We realise one cannot exist without the other. It reimagines empathy not as an after effect, but as the architecture of the entire experience.
Retreat Corporate
Imagine Harry Potter’s “Room of Requirement” for the rat-race. Imagine stepping away from the corporate jargon, the co-worker chuckles, and being able to reconnect with yourself at any time of the working day.
Retreat Corporate provides those disconnected from their creative self, who view the arts as a ‘hobby’ or ‘misguided passion’, to participate in an interactive installation that shows how art is deeply personal and communicated every day in countless ways.
Promise (Best Of)
Promise (Best Of) is a docu-fiction experiment that blurs the lines between truth and fiction. Framed as a series of ‘unearthed’ recordings, this project presents a fragmented portrait of contemporary Australia through a mix of fabricated conversations and authentic cultural reflections. It takes the language of traditional documentary – its aesthetic, structure, and tone – but twists it into a hybrid form that reflects our modern media landscape where truth and performance are increasingly indistinguishable.
The Next Stage in Character Costume Mask Technology
A development in the technology for controlling facial expressions on worn character costumes which would allow the freeing of the costumed actor from any external control of their character’s facial expressions. Whether from puppeteers or from limited hand controls in their suits, the masks would be developed to read the performer’s facial expressions and directly mimic them on the character mask, regardless of the size of the mask, allowing for an engaging, escapist performance with the spontaneity of the actor being allowed to react and engage with an audience naturally.