Accidents Happen is a 2009 Australian coming-of-age comedy drama film directed by Andrew Lancaster and starring Geena Davis, Harrison Gilbertson, Harry Cook, Sebastian Gregory, Joel Tobeck, and Sarah Woods.

The parents are Gloria (Geena Davis), a foul-mouthed and strict mother who will always take responsibility over the family, Ray (Joel Tobeck), an easy-going father, and siblings Linda, Gene, Larry (Harry Cook), and Billy (Harrison Gilbertson), who is an accident-prone child.

In the meantime, the Conways' neighbor, Douglas "Doug" Post (Sebastian Gregory), whom Gloria hates and often calls him names because he is the one who causes problems that could be offensive towards the family, drives by on his bike, and Gene leads him up to the top of the drive-in screen.

Although Gloria, Ray, Billy, and Larry suffer only minor injuries, Linda is killed and Gene is severely injured, leaving him brain damaged and paralyzed from the head down.

American-born screenwriter Brian Carbee wrote Accidents Happen based on his childhood in 1980s Connecticut, changing his own name to "Billy Conway".

[12] He developed the screenplay through the prestigious Aurora Script Workshop in Sydney, where producer Anthony Anderson had worked and collaborated on his 2004 film Somersault.

[13] In 2004, the completed script was nominated for an Australian Inside Film Award for Best Unproduced Screenplay,[14] but it took a further three years to gather finances for the project.

Accidents Happen was originally intended to be filmed in Connecticut, where it is set, but production remained in Australia, where the script had been written, because finances were easier to raise than in the United States.

[19] Lancaster said that he did "a huge amount of technical preparation" before filming began, so that on the set, he could focus his directing on the actors' performances, since the cast were largely inexperienced.

[20][21] Lincoln St residents complained about possible disruptions to Ku-ring-gai Council, starting a petition to have production moved elsewhere, and threatening to play bagpipes and wave lights around during filming if it went on as planned.

[28] Russell Edwards of Variety wrote, "John Irving-style mishaps and labored irony fail to maintain drama or coherence in Accidents Happen, an Australian-made, faux-American dysfunctional-family black comedy.