A Tradition of Quality: Children’s Television Nominees
Australia has produced many high quality children’s television dramas and the tradition continues in this year’s Best Children’s Television Drama nominees.
Based on the best-selling, illustrated book by Graeme Base, Animalia follows the adventures of two kids who stumble into a magical universe inhabited by zebras in zeppelins, hogs on bikes and other extraordinary animals.
Executive producer and co-producer Ewan Burnett has described the animated series as “the first television series to use a variety of 3D animation technology normally reserved for feature films.”
If you think H2O – Just Add Water is about farming or the drought, think again. Mermaids, magical mishaps and unruly super-powers are the issues at hand in this teen fantasy/drama.
The series, which is shot on location at Queensland’s Sea World, centres on three teenage girls who are trying to keep a secret – that they are mermaids.
19-year-old Phoebe Tonkin’s impressive performance as one of these girls, Cleo, has gained her a nomination for the AFI Award for Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama, while Brittany Byrnes, who plays Cleo’s nemesis, Charlotte, has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Drama.
The imaginative series has also been nominated for the AFI Visual Effects Award.
Sydney's northern beaches form the backdrop for another ocean-oriented nominee, Blue Water High.
This upbeat teen drama is set in a high performance surf academy where every year, six, lucky 16-year-olds are selected for an intensive twelve month, residential surfing program.
Now in its third series, the program, which was produced by Dennis Kiely and Noel Price for Southern Star International, has been a long-running hit on the ABC.
Growing up in two different cities and cultures is at the heart of another nominee, teen comedy/drama Double Trouble.
Real-life sisters, Cassandra and Christine Glenn, play Aboriginal teenage girls who realise that they are long-lost twins. When the girls conspire to change places, one girl heads off to a beachside suburb in Sydney while the other treks out to a remote, central Australian, Aboriginal community.
Exploring issues of Aboriginality, identity and culture in a light-hearted way, the series was produced by Rachel Clements and Terry Jennings for CAAMA, the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association. It was broadcast on the Nine Network and Alice Springs-based Imparja TV.
Another children’s TV show that has attracted attention is the animated series Dogstar, set on a future planet where all of the world’s dogs have been lost in space. Writer Philip Dalkin, has picked up a nomination for Best Screenplay in Television for episode 26, and actor Gary Files, who plays jittery scientist Roman Ridley, is nominated for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in Television Drama.
Watch the Nominees:
Animalia - Available on DVD through Roadshow Entertainment.
Dogstar - Available on DVD through Madman Entertainment.
Blue Water High - Screening Thursdays, 5.25pm, ABC 1. Also available on DVD through Roadshow Entertainment.
Double Trouble - Screening Saturdays, 10am, Channel 9.
H2O - Just Add Water - Screening Saturdays 7am Channel 10. Also available on DVD through Magna.
Click through to read about the other Television Nominees:
For Television Drama, Telefeatures, Mini-Series and Short Run Series click here
For Television Comedy and Light Entertainment Series click here
A full list of the television nominees can be found here