Pictured: Mina Shum penned Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity (starring Sandra Oh and Valerie Tian) in 2002.

Mina Shum has landed the Writers Guild Sondra Kelly Award. The Award, which comes with a $6,000 prize, is given to a female screenwriter in mid-career for research/development on a self-initiated project.

Vancouver-based Shum has written several features, including Drive, She Said, which premiered at TIFF in 1997. She followed that success with her third feature, Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity (starring Sandra Oh), which kicked off at TIFF in 2002 before moving on to Sundance the following year. Shum has written several short films, and has also directed episodic TV, including titles such as The Shield Stories and Da Vinci’s Inquest.

The creative is currently in pre-production on her next feature, a comedy called Two of Me, which is set for Spring 2011 and is produced by Brightlight Pictures. She is also co-writing ‘kung fu teen comedy’ The Lotus with Dennis Foon.

Last year the Sondra Kelly Award went to Ginger Snaps screenwriter Karen Walton.