1.Strictly Ballroom was Baz Luhrmann's directorial debut.
2.The film began life as an improvised play Baz directed and starred in during his time at NIDA, it had a $50 budget.
3.Baz was inspired by the ballroom championships he competed in growing up.
4.Luhrmann was invited to re-stage the show at the Czechoslovakian World Youth Drama Festival held in Bratislava in 1986. It won Best Production and Best Director there.
5.A version of the stage show was seen by Ted Albert, the managing director of a music publishing company. Albert was the one who approached Luhrmann, believing the show had potential as a film.
6.In 1990, production hit an unfortunate delay when Ted Albert died suddenly of a heart attack, before filming had completed.
7.The film had been booked for a theatrical run in arthouse cinemas and a single mainstream screen but shortly before the film was released, it was pulled from the mainstream screen.
8.The film was then invited to premiere at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Prix de la Jeunesse (Award of the Youth for Foreign Film).
9.It's also said that the film received a 15-minute standing ovation after screening at the festival.
10.The film had its Australian premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and was then released nationally. It ran in some cinemas for more than a year.
11.Fran's house was one of the most expensive sets, because it had to be built near an existing railway.
12.The version of "Love is in the Air" that played as the film's closing song became a top five hit on the Australian music charts.
13.The big final scene was shot during the lunch break of a real ballroom dancing championship. Baz was only given an hour to complete the scene.
14.As filming dragged on, people began to leave the set, so crew had to drape clothing over individual chairs to create the illusion of an audience.
15.When the play was first performed, the character of Fran was actually called "Jenny Wallflower".
