Il Ditmar Award, o più precisamente l’Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award, è il premio che ogni anno dal 1969 viene assegnato alle migliori opere SF, fantasy e horror australiane.

Il riconoscimento, simile a quello Hugo ma su scala nazionale, viene conferito durante la convention del Natcon (Australian National Science Fiction Convention), tenutasi quest’anno a Brisbane tra il 14 e il 17 aprile.

Le categorie sono molte e vanno dal miglior romanzo alla migliore illustrazione, senza tralasciare le sezioni per appassionati e nuovi talenti. I lavori in concorso riguardano le opere dell’anno precedente all’assegnazione del premio, in questo caso quelle pubblicate o inviate alle selezioni nel 2005.

Nel corso degli anni il Ditmar ha più volte inserito categorie internazionali, ma da alcune edizioni a questa parte queste sezioni sono state abbandonate per dedicare maggiore attenzione agli autori Aussies.

Un’ultima curiosità: il premio “Ditmar” deriva il proprio nome dal nickname di Dick “Ditmar” Jensenn, uno storico appasionato di Melbourne.

Di seguito la lista dei finalisti e dei vincitori (evidenziati rispetto alle nomination)

Best Novel

Geodesica: Ascent — Sean Williams & Shane Dix, Ace

Magic or Madness — Justine Larbalestier, Razorbill

Drowned Wednesday — Garth Nix, Harper Collins

Midnight 2: Touching Darkness — Scott Westerfield, Eos

Peeps — Scott Westerfield, Razorbill

Uglies — Scott Westerfield, Simon Pulse

Best Novella or Novelette

The Grinding House — Kaaron Warren

Passing of the Minotaurs — Rjurik Davidson

The Red Priest's Homecoming — Dirk Flinhart

Countless Screaming Argonauts — Chris Lawson

The Memory of Breathing — Lynn Triffitt (Battersby)

Best Short Story

Fresh Young Widow — Kaaron Warren

Summa Seltzer Missive — Deborah Biancotti

Leviathan — Simon Brown

Once Giants Roamed the Earth — Rosaleen Love

Matricide — Lucy Sussex

Best Collected Works

Shadowed Realms — Angela Challis & Shane Jiraiya

Years Best Australian SF & Fantasy — Bill Congreve & Michelle Marquardt

Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales — Robert Hood & Robin Penn

A Tour Guide in Utopia — Lucy Sussex

The Grinding House — Kaaron Warren

Best Artwork

The Blood Debt (cover) — Greg Bridges, The Blood Debt, Sean Williams

Australian Speculative Fiction: A Genre Overview

The Grinding House (cover) — Robin Evans, The Grinding House, Kaaron Warren

Australian Speculative Fiction: A Genre Overview (cover) — Nick Stathopoulos

Fell #3 — Ben Templesmith, Image Comics, Warren Ellis, Ben Templesmith

Best Fan Writer

Shane Jiraiya Cummings — Writer/reviewer, Horror Scope.

Bruce Gillespie — Writer/reviewer, Steam Engine Time and Science Fiction Commentary, *brg*, Earl Kemp's magazines>

Stephanie Gunn — Writer/reviewer, Horror Scope.

Martin Livings — Skeletor_Hordak, LiveJournal web comic.

Bill Wright — Interstellar Ramjet Scoop, Published by Bill Wright.

Best Fan Artist

Dick Jenssen — Artwork in American fan Earl Kemp's ezines eI20 (June 2005) and eI23 (Dec 2005), Published via efanzines.com.

Elaine Kemp — ConSensual a Trois interior artwork, ConSensual a Trois, April 2005

Shane Parker — Conflux Poster Art, Conflux

Best Fan Production

Edwina Harvey — The Australian Science Fiction Bullsheet. Website and Newsletter

Alisa Krasnostein — ASif!: Australian Specfic In Focus. http://asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php

Tony Plank — Inkspillers Website. www.inkspillers.com

Conflux Committee — Conflux 2. Conflux 2 convention

Continuum Committee — Continuum 3. Continuum 3 convention

Best Fanzine

Horrorscope — Shane Jiraiya Cummings et. al., ozhorrorscope.blogspot.com

Ticonderoga Online — Russell B Farr website

Interstellar Ramjet Scoop — Bill Wright (ed), Interstellar Ramjet Scoop

Best New Talent

Lyn Battersby/Triffit

Rjurik Davidson

Karen Miller

Best Professional Achievement Award

— Damien Broderick, Wilson de Silva and Kylie Ahern — COSMOS Magazine, COSMOS magazine

- Robert Dobson, Robert Hoge, Kate Eltham, Heather Gammage — Clarion South 2005, Clarion South Workshop

- Donna Maree Hanson — Australian Speculative Fiction: a genre overview, Australian Spec. Fiction Project

- Michael Rymer — Screenwriting and directing, Battlestar Galactica, Season 2.0 Sci-Fi Channel

- Jonathan Strahan — for co-editing Best Short Novels: 2005 (SFBC), Science Fiction: Best of 2004 (ibooks), and Fantasy: Best of 2004 (ibooks)

The William Atheling JR Award

— Ferocious Minds: Polymathy and the New Enlightenment — Damien Broderick, Wildside Press

— Divided Kingdom: King Kong vs Godzilla — Robert Hood King Kong is Back: Benbella Books

- Body Parts — Chris Lawson, Borderlands

— PK Dick: The Exhilaration and the Terror — Rosaleen Love, Borderlands

The 2005 Snapshot Australian Speculative Fiction writers, editors, publishers — Ben Peek