Hardball
Hardball is a fresh, fish-out-of-water comedy.
When Mikey moves from New Zealand to Western Sydney, he finds himself in the thick of the ultra-competitive, schoolyard game of handball.
After saving a kid on the playground from a wayward ball and finding he has the powerful strike in the world, Mikey is befriended by Jerry and Salwa, who join forces to train him to become a weapon of precision and skill - equipped to topple resident king of the court, Tiffany, and take home the Western Suburbs handball crown - if only he could make the ball land in the right suburb!
A series with lots of heart and humour, can Mikey go from zero to hero, in the quest to be the best in the west?
Episodes
Awards
2021 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Award
Nominee: Best Children's Program
2021 Screen Producers Australia Awards
Nominee: Best Children's Series Production of the Year
2021 Australian Writers Guild Awards
Nominee: Amy Stewart, 'Matariki'
Most Outstanding Script: Children’s Television – ‘C’
2021 Australian Directors Guild Awards
Nominee: Darren Ashton, 'Staties!'
Best Direction in a Children's TV or SVOD Drama Program Episode
2021 Australian Directors Guild Awards
Nominee: Guy Edmonds, 'You're A Star'
Best Direction in a Children's TV or SVOD Drama Program Episode
2020 NHK Japan Prize
Winner: ‘Best Work in the Primary Category’
2020 International Emmy Awards
Winner: Best 'Kids: Live Action' Series
2020 Worldfest Houston Remi Awards (USA)
Winner: Silver, TV & Cable Productions - TV Series - Family/Children
2020 Prix Jeunesse International (Germany)
Winner: 7-11 Fiction
2020 Banff World Media Festival Rockie Awards (Canada)
Winner: Children & Youth Category
2019 SPA Awards (Australia)
Finalist: Children's Series
2019 Chicago International Children's Film Festival (USA)
Winner: Live-action Television Production
2019 ATOM Awards (Australia)
Winner: Best Children’s Television Program
2019 AACTA Awards (Australia)
Finalist: Best Children's Programme
ACTF Education
Why is sound so important in television and film? How does sound help bring audiences into a screen world? What is the workflow followed by screen professionals when creating, capturing and editing sound for a production? We answer these questions and more in this video sequence resource.
Hosted by ACMI Education and the ACTF, our student webinar explores creation of Hardball Series 2 with the creators, Matt Zeremes and Guy Edmonds, and cast members Semisi Cheekam (Mikey) and Erin Choy (Tiffany). Students will learn how the series communicates meaning and viewpoints to gain insight into the media production process.
Set across the backdrop of colourful Western Sydney, Hardball traverses the highs and lows of pre-teen life. Themes of family, multiculturalism, and resilience – along with ethical dilemmas, Jerry’s healthy respect for mathematics, and the problematic use of ICT by almost everyone – makes Hardball the perfect children’s series to explore the General Capabilities through.
The Hardball Resource outlines three learning tasks for each of the Australian Curriculum’s General Capabilities, all aimed at Years 3-6 students. All tasks also align with English content. While not an exhaustive list, these learning tasks serve to illustrate the many ways that this engaging series can be used in the primary classroom.
Australian primary students had the unique opportunity to be part of a live Q&A webinar with Hardball cast members: Semisi Cheekam (Mikey); Reannah Hamdan (Salwa); Logan Reberger (Jerry) and Erin Choy (Tiffany).
This clip collection is designed to help students understand and practice respectful communication, focusing on concepts of consent, bodily autonomy and personal boundaries. Using clips from Australian children’s television content, students work through activities that build their awareness of how to ask for, give, and deny permission.
Join us for Script a Smile: Comedy Writing Virtual Workshop - an interactive, fun-filled session where you’ll learn how to create humourous stories and characters that will have everyone giggling. Whether you’re into slapstick jokes, wordplay, or punchlines, we’ll show you how to turn your wild ideas into punchy comedy scripts.