Short answers, pulled from the story.
Mad Max was filmed on a budget of approximately A$400,000 and earned more than US$100 million worldwide in gross revenue. That ratio was so extreme it set a Guinness World Record for the highest box-office-to-budget ratio of any motion picture, a record it held until The Blair Witch Project was released in 1999.
Mad Max was directed by George Miller, who was a practicing medical doctor working in a Sydney hospital emergency room before and during the film's production. He met his producing partner Byron Kennedy at a summer film school in 1971, and the two made a short film together before producing Mad Max eight years later.
Mel Gibson was cast after casting director Mitch Matthews invited a group of recent National Institute of Dramatic Art graduates to audition. Gibson's audition impressed both Matthews and Miller, earning him the role of Max. Miller's original first choice was James Healey, an Irish-born actor then working at a Melbourne abattoir, who turned the role down after finding the dialogue too sparse.
Mad Max was banned in New Zealand because the scene in which officer Goose burns alive inside his vehicle unintentionally mirrored a real gang incident that occurred shortly before the film's release. The New Zealand ban was lifted in 1983, when the film was shown with an R18 certificate. Sweden's ban was removed in 2005.
American International Pictures, which acquired the US distribution rights, replaced the original Australian dialogue with American voice actors for the 1980 US release, substituting Australian slang with American equivalents throughout. The original Australian audio track was not available to North American audiences until MGM released a limited theatrical reissue in 2000.
Mad Max won four AACTA Awards at the 1979 AFI Awards, including Best Film for Byron Kennedy, Best Direction for George Miller, Best Original Screenplay for George Miller and James McCausland, and Best Supporting Actor for Hugh Keays-Byrne. The film also received nominations in categories including Best Editing, Best Original Music Score, and Best Sound.