Dunedin film-making duo Shane Loader and Andrea Bosshard have been given $10,000 to develop and complete the script.
It aims to tell "a local story" about how Dunedin residents are coping with the ongoing housing crisis.
Mr Loader said the fictional feature film would be quite serious in nature, but would contain some humour because "that [was] life".
"Life can be humorous, even in dark times.
"This is quite a bleak subject, but it can’t be a film about things being bad and then they get worse.
"For it to work, there has to be moments of lightness as well as moments of darkness.
"We don’t want people to leave the film too depressed."
It was still too early to say whether there would be any big-name actors in their film, Mr Loader said.
"Obviously we would like to use local actors, but when you get to that point where you’re ready to start casting — and we’re nowhere near ready for that yet — you always have to find the best actor for the role."
Ms Bosshard said once the script was completed, it would be submitted to the New Zealand Film Commission or other funding bodies and producers, for funding to be turned into a feature film.
They were delighted to win the inaugural grant, she said.
"What it does, is it gives us the ability to be able to just focus exclusively on the writing, and not have to be running around looking for other work to make ends meet."
Mr Loader said Dunedin was "a bit off the beaten track" when it came to film-making in New Zealand.
"Most of it seems to be centred and orientated towards the North Island, so if we in Dunedin want to tell our own stories, then we’ve got to kick it off somehow.
"This grant does that."
The duo have been working together on film scripts for the past 40 years, and those that have been turned into films include Hook, Line and Sinker, The Great Maiden’s Blush and Kobi.
Film Dunedin head Stefan Roesch said the Dunedin Script Accelerator Grant was offered by the Dunedin City Council, through the Dunedin Film Office at Enterprise Dunedin.
It was for Dunedin screenwriters and aimed to encourage locals to create new and bold stories for both feature films and series that were clearly set in Dunedin.
It also aimed to stimulate the city’s screen sector growth by increasing the number of Dunedin-focused stories.
