Writing

Sue Smith

Born January 1, 1959 (age 67)

Sue Smith (born 1959) is an Australian screenwriter and playwright. She is best known for writing or co-writing Australian television productions including Mabo (2012), Bastard Boys (2007), RAN (2006), The Road from Coorain (2002), The Leaving of Liverpool (1993), and Brides of Christ (1991). Her screenwriting for film includes Peaches (2004) and co-writing Saving Mr. Banks (2013).

Known For

Saving Mr. Banks

Saving Mr. Banks · 2013

Saving Mr. Banks

MovieComedyDrama

Author P.L. Travers looks back on her childhood while reluctantly meeting with Walt Disney, who seeks to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the big screen.

Oddballs

Oddballs · 1984

A Canadian sex comedy about saving a summer camp from becoming a shopping mall.

Hammers Over the Anvil

Hammers Over the Anvil · 1994

Hammers Over the Anvil

MovieRomanceDrama

Set in the summer of 1910 in Australia the film follows the story of 14 year old Alan Marshall (Alexander Outhread) as he stumbles out of childhood towards the exciting yet forbidding world of adulthood. For Alan, despite the effects of polio, there is only one passion in life - to become a great horseman just like his hero, the reclusive horse trainer East Driscoll (Russell Crowe). Alan is one of East's few friends and also one of the few who knows about the affair between East and the aristocratic English woman Grace McAlister (Charlotte Rampling). Things inevitably take a turn towards the tragic when East becomes determined to force Grace to leave her husband and run away with him. Hammers Over The Anvil is an evocative coming of age film from Australian director Ann Turner.

The Road from Coorain

The Road from Coorain · 2002

The Road from Coorain

MovieDramaTV Movie

A young girl comes of age in the Australian bush amid natural disaster and family tragedy.

Mabo

MovieDramaTV Movie

The remarkable life story of Eddie 'Koiki' Mabo; a Torres Strait Islander who left school at the age of 15, yet spearheaded the High Court challenge that overthrew the fiction of terra nullius.

Peaches

Peaches · 2005

MovieDramaRomance

This is the story of teenage girl Steph, who is brought up by her fiery aunt Jude after her pregnant mother Jass and Vietnamese father are killed in a car crash. The arrival of her late mother's diary reveals the colorful, sexy secrets of Jude and the foreman Alan that allow Steph to reinvent her vision of the world.

West

Pete and Jerry are cousins living in Sydney's Western Suburbs, where life consists of drinking, getting stoned, getting in fights and hanging out. But things change forever when Pete and Jerry both fall in love with the same girl.

The Leaving of Liverpool

The Leaving of Liverpool · 1992

The Leaving of Liverpool

MovieDramaHistory

A poignant and forceful saga which traces the fortunes of two English children uprooted from their beloved Liverpool dockside to the alien environment of Australia in the years following World War Two.

Filmography

Sort

Saving Mr. Banks

Saving Mr. Banks · 2013

Saving Mr. Banks

MovieComedyDrama

Author P.L. Travers looks back on her childhood while reluctantly meeting with Walt Disney, who seeks to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the big screen.

Writer

Oddballs

Oddballs · 1984

A Canadian sex comedy about saving a summer camp from becoming a shopping mall.

Script Supervisor

Hammers Over the Anvil

Hammers Over the Anvil · 1994

Hammers Over the Anvil

MovieRomanceDrama

Set in the summer of 1910 in Australia the film follows the story of 14 year old Alan Marshall (Alexander Outhread) as he stumbles out of childhood towards the exciting yet forbidding world of adulthood. For Alan, despite the effects of polio, there is only one passion in life - to become a great horseman just like his hero, the reclusive horse trainer East Driscoll (Russell Crowe). Alan is one of East's few friends and also one of the few who knows about the affair between East and the aristocratic English woman Grace McAlister (Charlotte Rampling). Things inevitably take a turn towards the tragic when East becomes determined to force Grace to leave her husband and run away with him. Hammers Over The Anvil is an evocative coming of age film from Australian director Ann Turner.

Script Editor

The Road from Coorain

The Road from Coorain · 2002

The Road from Coorain

MovieDramaTV Movie

A young girl comes of age in the Australian bush amid natural disaster and family tragedy.

Teleplay

Mabo

MovieDramaTV Movie

The remarkable life story of Eddie 'Koiki' Mabo; a Torres Strait Islander who left school at the age of 15, yet spearheaded the High Court challenge that overthrew the fiction of terra nullius.

Screenplay

Peaches

Peaches · 2005

MovieDramaRomance

This is the story of teenage girl Steph, who is brought up by her fiery aunt Jude after her pregnant mother Jass and Vietnamese father are killed in a car crash. The arrival of her late mother's diary reveals the colorful, sexy secrets of Jude and the foreman Alan that allow Steph to reinvent her vision of the world.

Screenplay

West

Pete and Jerry are cousins living in Sydney's Western Suburbs, where life consists of drinking, getting stoned, getting in fights and hanging out. But things change forever when Pete and Jerry both fall in love with the same girl.

Script Editor

The Leaving of Liverpool

The Leaving of Liverpool · 1992

The Leaving of Liverpool

MovieDramaHistory

A poignant and forceful saga which traces the fortunes of two English children uprooted from their beloved Liverpool dockside to the alien environment of Australia in the years following World War Two.

Writer

Dead Letter Office

Dead Letter Office · 1998

Dead Letter Office

MovieComedyRomance

After years of having her letters to her estranged father come back as undeliverable, a young woman takes a job at a Dead Letter Office. She hopes to figure out how to locate her father. Unexpectedly, she finds a potential romance and begins to learn more about herself.

Script Editor

Number 13

Number 13 · 2006

MovieHorrorTV Movie

In order to authenticate some historical papers in a cathedral town, Oxbridge academic Anderson stays at a local hotel in room 12, initially disregarding the lack of a number 13 as provincial superstition. During the night, noise conspires to keep him awake and the historian is astonished to come face to face with door number 13. Continuing his work, a history of a reformation era witchcraft scandal emerges. The nocturnal disturbances escalate, leading Anderson with no choice but to open the door to room number 13...

Producer

Touch the Sun: Princess Kate

Touch the Sun: Princess Kate · 1988

Touch the Sun: Princess Kate

MovieFamilyDrama

Kate McLelland's life is a normal one of a girl her age in the eastern suburbs, until her discovery that she is adopted. This is the story of her search for her natural mother and the resulting relationship.

Script Editor

Bordertown

Bordertown · 1995

Bordertown is a 1995 Australian TV miniseries. It takes place in a post World War II refugee camp in Australia.

Writer

The Beautiful Life: TBL

The Beautiful Life: TBL · 2009

The Beautiful Life: TBL

The daily lives of young models living together in a models' residence in New York, while struggling to deal with the cutthroat competition and fleeting fame of the fashion world.

Bartender

Brides of Christ

Brides of Christ · 1991

Brides of Christ

Diane, a young woman growing up in Australia in the mid 1960s, walks away from her fiancé to join a convent after being sure she has a calling to the faith. The Catholic Church and its followers are struggling with huge changes. The Pope has died, there is war in Vietnam and mandatory conscription, there is the Vatican controversy on abortion and contraception, and the changing face of the Church as a whole. Told in six parts, Diane faces her own demons and has to finally decide if she can teach what the Church preaches, or if it's simply impossible for her to reconcile all the contradictions of the faith and uphold her vow of obedience.

Screenplay

Significant Others

Significant Others · 2022

Significant Others

A bold new Australian psychological drama. When Sarah, a single mother of two teenagers, suddenly vanishes, her chaotic family are drawn back to their crumbling home. Doubts surface about Sarah's disappearance, as her family struggles to put the pieces back together.

Writer

RAN Remote Area Nurse

RAN Remote Area Nurse · 2006

RAN Remote Area Nurse

RAN is an Australian television program, filmed entirely on Masig Island in the tropical Torres Strait north of the Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost part of Australia, and the border with Papua New Guinea. This is an important series to Torres Strait Islanders, but also to the predominantly Anglo Australian community as it highlights the difference between Islanders and mainland Indigenous Australians and the interactions between Islander and Anglo culture. Islander actors and extras are extensively used. The series was released on DVD on 20 February 2006.

Writer

My Brother Jack

My Brother Jack · 2001

My Brother Jack

The story of two brothers, David and Jack Meredith, who grow up in a working class family in Melbourne between the First and Second World Wars. Jack is the archetypal Aussie battler, whose greatest dream is to fight for his country. David, the more ambitious and complex of the brothers, takes a path which will lead him to success and ultimately, alienation from his homeland.

Writer

Bastard Boys

Bastard Boys · 2007

SeriesDramaWar & Politics

Bastard Boys is an Australian television miniseries broadcast on the ABC in 2007. It tells the story of the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute. The script, published by Currency Press, won the 2007 Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Television Script.

Writer