Five acts have made the shortlist for the 2018 APRA Silver Scroll Award, recognising excellence in songwriting.

The songs in the running for New Zealand's most prestigious songwriting award are: Troy Kingi's Aztechknowledgey, The Beths' Future Me Hates Me, Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Hunnybee, Chelsea Jade's Laugh It Off, and Marlon Williams' Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore.

The five finalists were selected from a long list of 20 songs by a panel of judges, which APRA members then voted on. The winner will be the song that received the most votes and will be announced at a ceremony on 4 October, hosted by Anika Moa with musical direction by Bic Runga.

The ceremony will also feature the presentation of the Apra Maioha Award, celebrating top waiata sung in te reo Māori; the Sounz Contemporary Award, Apra Best Original Music in a Feature Film and Apra Best Original Music in a Series.

Apra will also induct a yet-to-be-announced songwriter into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame.