I loved it, and I said 'Hey this is great'. But all the writers said, 'No it's boring, we want that gritty, inner-city police stuff'. (We had Boys in Blue set up in Leichhardt in Sydney.) And I still remember the moment I was driving home up River Road and I thought, 'Then we can have two shows'. I said to this copper 'What are you called in the country? What is your nickname?' And he said they call highway patrol 'tyre biters' and coppers 'blue heelers'. And I thought 'That's the title!' So I rang [scriptwriter] Tony Morphett and said 'Let's do a show about young cops in the country. It's called Blue Heelers.
Only about half of the footage for each episode was shot on location.[23] Most of the scenes, including scenes in the police station and pub, were filmed at the Seven Network studios in Melbourne.[23][26] Much of the filming on location was carried out in towns such as Williamstown,[26] and the more established parts of Werribee.[27] The scenes of the outside of the Mount Thomas police station were actually filmed at the old, disused Williamstown police station, which was then a private residence. Scenes at Mount Thomas High School were filmed at Williamstown High School. The town of Castlemaine was most often used as the backdrop for Mount Thomas, seen in almost every episode.[28][29] Although the Blue Heelers' pilot was shot in Castlemaine, the cast and crew very rarely returned there to shoot further episodes;[23] images of Castlemaine were usually just establishing shots. Chris Riley's fictional Imperial Hotel, for example, was actually the real Imperial Hotel in Castlemaine.[28][29] Mount Thomas' fictional Commercial Hotel was filmed at the Willy Tavern in Williamstown.[26] The second Mount Thomas police station, adopted during the programme's reform of 2004, was filmed at Newport Railway workshops. The Mount Thomas Hospital was filmed at the Werribee Mercy Hospital.[30] Sunbury railway station was commonly used as the Mount Thomas railway station.Hobson's Bay, and Wyndham, Victoria were also locations used in Blue Heelers.
The recent shake-up at the old station has swept aside an unhealthy staleness that had settled on the place and there's some much-needed fresh energy provided by the new recruits, including Samantha Tolj as true-blue Aussie gal Kelly O'Rourke and Danny Raco as Italian stallion Joss Peroni.
Seasons generally ran in Australia from early February to late November. Each season generally consisted of 41 to 42 episodes. The eleventh season however, only consisted of 39 episodes, as the Seven Network had gained the rights to televise the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. In total, 510 episodes were aired: 509-hour-long standard episodes and one live episode. The live episode, titled "Reasonable Doubts", was filmed to celebrate Blue Heelers 10th year on the air.[44] To prepare, the cast was given six days to memorise their lines.[45]
The awards night of the festival held in Denman, will showcase the incredible talents of short filmmakers nationwide! The event will also be live streamed on our social media platform.
The theme for the 2023 Blue Heeler Film Festival is 'BLUE'. The theme can be interpreted in any way you see fit, whether literal, symbolic or metaphorical.
Emerging creatives from across Australia are welcomed to submit their short films into the Blue Heeler Film Festival for 2023. This one-night festival will showcase the incredible talents of short filmmakers nationwide.
Conduct
34. The Council reserves the right, at any time, to verify the validity of entries and Entrant and to disqualify any Entrant who submits an entry, or conducts themselves in a manner that is not in accordance with these Terms and Conditions or who tampers with the entry process. Failure by the Council to enforce any of its rights at any stage does not constitute a waiver of those rights.
35. Entrants are solely responsible and liable for the content of the film submission (and the consequences thereof). The content of film submissions does not any way reflect the views of the Council.
36. Entrants agree not to submit any content that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, sexually, racially, culturally, or ethnically offensive, harassing, intimidating, threatening, hateful, discriminatory or abusive.
37. Council reserves the right to delete or reject any film that in its sole discretion deems abusive, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, in violation of copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights.
I was very fortunate to have my film 'A Day at the Dog Park' screened at the 2022 Blue Heeler Film Festival. Although I wasn't able to attend in person, I was still able to view the live stream of the event. The organisers are very professional and friendly with their communication and it was great to see the audience react to my film.
Blue Heeler is a great local Australian film festival. I have been participating and attending since I started high school and the festival has fostered and celebrated my growth as a filmmaker. I look forward to many more years of working with this festival and the Muswellbrook community.
Martin Sacks has worked in Film, Television and Theatre for over forty years. Having studied acting at the prestigious Stella Adler Acting School in New York, Martin has appeared in many varied film and television roles including the feature films 'Emoh Ruo', 'Slate, Wyn and Me', 'Love in Limbo' with Russell Crowe, as well as the French film 'LaTricheuse' co-starring Kristen Scott Thomas. His US television credits include , 'Jake and the Fatman' and the groundbreaking character drama, 'ThirtySomething'. In Australia, his television credits include the miniseries 'Do or Die', 'Fields of Fire', the telemovie 'My Husband My Killer' playing the lead role of Andrew Kalajzic & ABC telemovie "Cliffy", playing Sid Young. It was the police drama 'Blue Heelers' that established Martin as one of Australia's most talented actors, earning him five consecutive silver Logies for best actor. Following his departure from the show after eleven years, Martin moved behind the camera to direct his first film, 'Crushed', which screened at the LA International Film Festival. He also directed numerous episodes of Blue Heelers and the medical drama, 'All Saints'. His real passion, however, was acting and after gaining experience behind the camera, was offered the role of loan shark, Mario Condello, in the original and highly acclaimed crime drama, Underbelly. Since then he has featured in roles on television dramas including City Homicide, Sea Patrol, Rescue: Special Ops, Lowdown, Offspring ,The Straits, Jack Irish, Wonderland, The Gods of Wheat Street, A Place to Call Home, Reef Doctors, Rake and Wentworth Martin starred in feature films 'The Cup' (2011), BAIT 3D (2012), Rise (2014), Truth (2015), Don't Tell (2016), The Second (2018), Ride Like a Girl (2019), Sweet River (2020), Buckley's Chance (2021), Bosch & Rockit (2021).
Winner of two Logies and three AWGIEs, Homicide is a significant Australian show as it was the first dramatic television series produced in the country. Over 12 years viewers followed the homicide squad at Victorian Police Force. Exteriors were filmed at The Art Deco tower, previously home to the Russell Street Police Headquarters.
For 12 years Australians tuned in to see the police drama Blue Heelers which was set in the fictional Victorian town Mount Thomas. The suburbs of Wyndham and Williamstown were used for exterior scenes while overhead footage of Castlemaine provided the opening shot. The old Williamstown police station used to represent the Mount Thomas police station, and the railway yards in Newport often served as the scene of a crime. Exterior shots of the Blue Heelers pub, The Imperial Hotel, were filmed at a former local pub in Castlemaine of the same name.
Browning's debut acting role was in the 1998 Hallmark Channel movie The Echo of Thunder.[3] Additional roles in Australian film and television productions soon followed, including recurring roles in the television series Blue Heelers from 2000 to 2002, and Something in the Air from 2000 to 2001. In 2001, Browning appeared as the daughter of the character played by Billy Connolly in The Man Who Sued God.[4]
She made her American film debut in 2002's Ghost Ship, and won an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Young Actress, the same year.[5] In 2003, she appeared opposite Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom in 2003's Ned Kelly, and reunited with Connolly the following year in the film adaptation of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, in which she played Violet Baudelaire.[6]
Browning played the lead role in the 2009 horror film The Uninvited, an American remake of the 2003 South Korean film A Tale of Two Sisters. She turned down a request to audition for the role of Bella Swan in Twilight, citing exhaustion, despite an endorsement from series author Stephenie Meyer.[9][10] In 2009, she was cast as Babydoll in Zack Snyder's action film Sucker Punch, as a replacement for Amanda Seyfried, who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.[11] Filming took place in Vancouver from September 2009 to January 2010,[12] and the film was released on 25 March 2011.[13] In an interview at Comic-Con, she confirmed that she would be singing in the film, while claiming that her audition tape brought tears to her casting agent's eyes and the song she selected ("Killing Me Softly") was one of Zack Snyder's wife Deborah's favourites, which Browning referred to as the "selling point" on her being cast in the role.[14]
In February 2010, it was announced that Browning would play the lead role in the independent Australian film Sleeping Beauty, directed by Julia Leigh.[15][16]She replaced Mia Wasikowska, who was committed to a film adaptation of Jane Eyre at the time.[17] The film screened at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival. In a review from the festival, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called the film "Technically elegant with vehemence and control ... Emily Browning gives a fierce and powerful performance ... There is force and originality in Leigh's work".[18] Fionnuala Halligan in Screen International wrote "Browning has gone the distance for her director and together, they have delivered something here that sometimes catches your breath".[19] At the festival Browning said, "Even reading the screenplay, it made me feel uncomfortable. But that was something that attracted me to it. I would prefer to polarise an audience as opposed to making an entertaining film everybody feels ambivalent about."[20]
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