[1] Newell had intended to study international relations or medicine, but at the age of 17 won a scholarship to attend Sydney Film School for a year.
[3] The impetus for the film was her own experience of growing up with two lesbian mothers, and she felt it was important to represent the child's perspective of being raised in such a family.
During the making of the film, there was a public debate about marriage equality in Australia (which ultimately led to a successful plebiscite on the matter[4]).
[6] In My Blood It Runs, directed by Newell and produced by her, Sophie Hyde, Rachel Nanninaaq Edwardson, and Larissa Behrendt, was made in collaboration with Arrernte and Garrwa people in the Northern Territory.
As a twelve-year-old, the boy was the youngest person ever to make a speech to the UN Human Rights Council about youth incarceration.