The winners have been announced for the annual Edinburgh Fringe Popcorn Writing Award.
The winners and finalists were announced at a ceremony at the Pleasance Courtyard Cabaret Bar today, Thursday 22 August 2025 in Edinburgh.
Joint winners were VL by Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair; and Weather Girl by Brian Watkins.
Second place was The Book of Mountain and Seas by Yilong Liu, and in third place was Knock on the Roof by Khawla Ibraheem.
The winners get a £5000 prize from the Popcorn Group, and career development support from the Popcorn Group and BBC Writers.
Both VL and Weather Girl have also won Edinburgh Fringe First Awards this year during the festival. Weather Girl has also been nominated for a The List Festival Awards 2024.
Other Edinburgh Fringe Awards announced so far this year include nominations for the Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2024, and the winner of the U&Dave’s Funniest Joke of the Edinburgh Fringe Award 2024.
VL explores the challenges and comedic absurdity of coming of age in a small-town school when you’re a VL (Virgin Lips); and Weather Girl is a blistering satire on climate change and the strange, dark heart of America.
The Book of Mountains and Seas is a bittersweet journey exploring grief, cultural clashes, and the unlikeliest of friendships; and Knock on the Roof is a poignant yet comedic narrative portraying one mother’s resilience and instinct for survival in war-torn Gaza.
A special mention was also given to Pop Off, Michelangelo! by Dylan MarcAurele, an irreverent musical comedy that reimagines the legendary rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
Popcorn Group is a film, television, and theatre production company founded by filmmaker and artist Charlotte Colbert.
Past winners of the Popcorn Writing Award include Bryony Kimmings, who wrote Last Christmas with Emma Thompson; Karim Khan, now in writers’ rooms with Riz Ahmed; and Sabrina Ali, whose play Dugsi Dayz won the Popcorn Writing Award last year and completed a successful run at the Royal Court earlier this year.
The nine partnering venues this year for the awards are Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance, Summerhall, theSpaceUK, Traverse, Underbelly, Greenside, and ZOO Venues.
VL writers Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair said in a statement: “We’re absolutely buzzing to have been awarded the Popcorn Award for VL. When we’re writing these characters together our first aim is just to make each other laugh, and discovering that Max and Stevie’s trials and travails resonate with others is a great reward. This award is testament to the work of Scott, Gav, Orla, Eve and the whole team, who put so much faith in us and elevate everything we write. Particular thanks have to go to Francesca and everyone at FMP for taking a chance on us again. To share this award with Brian and the Weather Girl team is our honour, and suggests that FMP lot might just know what they’re doing when it comes to backing new work.”
Weather Girl writer Brian Watkins said: “I am honoured to receive this storied award and to be recognized alongside so many other brilliant playwrights. This play is a love letter to where I’m from, for all its strangeness and dysfunction and dark enchanted corners, and I’m immensely grateful to the incredible team and audiences that embraced it wholeheartedly. Chief among those collaborators are my partner in crime actress Julia McDermott, whose brilliance willed the play into existence, director Tyne Rafaeli and producer Francesca Moody. I could not have done this without them. My deepest thanks to the award committee for this incredible honour, and for doing God’s work in supporting new writing.”
Popcorn’s Charlotte Colbert said: “This year again it’s been so inspiring to see the breadth and quality of the submissions. This year’s incredible selection of plays tackled societal, cultural and philosophical issues in such original and engaging ways and it has been such a joy to see them leap from page to stage while we’ve been up at the Edinburgh Fringe. In the age of corporate monopolies, the Fringe stands as a bastion of individual voices, vision and freedom. Each shortlisted play is a testament to this spirit and we are delighted to congratulate the joint winners and brilliant finalists of this year’s award.”
Popcorn Writing Award 2024 – Winners and Finalists
WINNERS
Joint winners: VL – Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair
Weather Girl – Brian Watkins
Runners-up: The Book of Mountains and Seas – Yilong Liu
Knock on the Roof – Khawla Ibraheem
Special mention: Pop Off, Michaelangelo! – Dylan Marcaurele
SHORTLISTED PLAYS
A Knock on the Roof by Khawla Ibraheem (THIRD PLACE)
BLUBBER by Katie Greenall
Count to Five by ZAMALISA MDODA
Dear Annie I Hate You by Sam Ipema
Diary of a Gay Disaster by Rachael Mailer
Gracie and the Start of the End of the World (Again) by Zoë Bullock and Louise Oliver
HOW I LEARNED TO SWIM by Somebody Jones
HYPER by Ois O’Donoghue
In the Lady Garden by Babs Horton
My English Persian Kitchen by Hannah Khalil
POP OFF, MICHELANGELO! by Dylan MarcAurele
Really Good Exposure by Megan Prescott
REVENGE: After the Levoyah by Nick Cassenbaum
So Young by Douglas Maxwell
Squidge by Tiggy Bayley
The Book of Mountains and Seas by Yilong Liu (SECOND PLACE)
The Last Incel by Jamie Sykes
Trawled – when adventure becomes survival by Eoin Ryan
VL by Kieran Hurley & Gary McNair (WINNER)
Weather Girl by Brian Watkins (WINNER)
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