best Australian Films
List activity
636 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
36 titles
- DirectorTim BurstallStarsJack ThompsonJacki WeaverWendy HughesA married electrician and former football star begins a degree in English at university, where he has an affair with his professor's wife.The "Ozploitation" film that challenged everything in filmmaking. Films were causing their own mini-revolutions in the early 70s, including "A Clockwork Orange" (1971), which showed violence, sex and chaos, all in a stark future dystopia. "Petersen" is different. "Petersen" shows more violence, sex and chaos, all without the cosmic ballet of "Clockwork". "Petersen" is like a lot of films, but it shows the destruction happening in reality, as it is. Director Tim Burstall did not need a futuristic dystopia to justify the moral squalor of his characters, because his is a true meditation on society. Aptly enough, Stanley Kubrick hailed the film as a work of genius.
- DirectorTed KotcheffStarsDonald PleasenceGary BondChips RaffertyAfter a bad gambling bet, a schoolteacher is marooned in a town full of crazy, drunk, violent men who threaten to make him just as crazy, drunk, and violent.One of the key films that inspired all of Australian culture we know today. Directed by a non-Australian, this gave Australian directors the confidence to make raw films about Australiana.
- DirectorRolf de HeerStarsNicholas HopeClaire BenitoRalph CotterillBubby has spent thirty years trapped in the same small room, tricked by his mother. One day, he manages to escape and, deranged and naive in equal measures, his adventure into a modern and nihilistic life begins.Unique and exceptional. Beyond compare. This film dives into the deep end and then tunnels further. Never has a film been so skilfully and simultaneously hilarious, depressing, repulsive, uplifting and touching.
- DirectorJustin KurzelStarsLucas PittawayDaniel HenshallLouise HarrisBased on true events, 16 year-old Jamie falls in with his mother's new boyfriend and his crowd of self-appointed neighborhood watchmen, a relationship that leads to a spree of torture and murder.Often mislabelled a serial killer film, Justin Kurzel's directorial debut strikes a jarring chord with lower socioeconomic Australians. An examination of charisma amid a paranoid mob mentality, this is a woeful tale of manipulation and societal decay.
- DirectorFred SchepisiStarsTommy LewisFreddy ReynoldsAngela Punch McGregorAfter suffering racist abuse throughout his life - which intensifies following his marriage to a white woman - a half-Aboriginal farmhand finds himself driven to murder.
- DirectorScott HicksStarsGeoffrey RushArmin Mueller-StahlJustin BrainePianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.A film of European sensibilities, this flaunts Scott Hicks's superb ability for crafting an important tale. Totally atypical for an Australian feature, the film unfurls with poetic narrative developments and images.
- DirectorDavid MichôdStarsJames FrechevilleGuy PearceJoel EdgertonA seventeen-year-old navigates his survival amongst an explosive criminal family and the detective who thinks he can save him.
- DirectorWarwick ThorntonStarsRowan McNamaraMarissa GibsonMitjili Napanangka GibsonA glue-sniffing boy and his girlfriend escape the government-controlled no-hope Aboriginal community they live in and go to the city, Alice Springs, looking for a better life.
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsRachel RobertsAnne-Louise LambertVivean GrayDuring a rural summer picnic, a few students and a teacher from an Australian girls' school vanish without a trace. Their absence frustrates and haunts the people left behind.
- DirectorAdam ElliotStarsToni CollettePhilip Seymour HoffmanEric BanaIn 1976 Melbourne, a lonely 8-year-old girl strikes up a correspondence with an unlikely pen pal: a severely obese 44-year-old New Yorker with Asperger's syndrome.One of the most unique and clever animations ever made, this quaint entry into Adam Elliot's oeuvre is a heartwarming and heartbreaking film about loneliness. Somehow one of the funniest films of 2009, this poignant film is a total reinvention of its genre.
- DirectorNicolas RoegStarsJenny AgutterDavid GulpililLuc RoegTwo city-bred siblings are stranded in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the aid of an Aboriginal boy on his "walkabout": a ritual separation from his tribe.
- DirectorRowan WoodsStarsDavid WenhamToni ColletteLynette CurranBrett Sprague is a violent and psychopathic man, who is released on parole after serving a sentence for assault. As he returns to his family house and we watch him and his brothers, Stevie and Glenn, for the next 24 hours, it becomes clear this day will not end well.Immensely harrowing and unexpected. Do not miss this film. Rowan Woods's film is a lesson in restraint.
- DirectorGeorge MillerStarsMel GibsonBruce SpenceMichael PrestonIn the post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, a cynical drifter agrees to help a small, gasoline-rich community get rid of a horde of bandits.
- DirectorRay LawrenceStarsAnthony LaPagliaGeoffrey RushRachael BlakeThe relationships of four couples unravel after the discovery of a young woman's body in Lantana bush in suburban Sydney.
- DirectorGeorge MillerStarsTom HardyCharlize TheronNicholas HoultIn a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in search for her homeland with the aid of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshiper and a drifter named Max.
- DirectorAndrew DominikStarsEric BanaSimon LyndonVince ColosimoChopper tells the intense story of Mark "Chopper" Read, a legendary criminal who wrote his autobiography while serving a jail sentence in prison. His book, "From the Inside", upon which the film is based, was a best-seller.
- DirectorJennifer KentStarsEssie DavisNoah WisemanDaniel HenshallA single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home.
- DirectorChris NoonanStarsJames CromwellMagda SzubanskiChristine CavanaughGentle farmer Arthur Hoggett wins a piglet Babe at a county fair. Narrowly escaping his fate as Christmas dinner, Babe bonds with motherly border collie Fly and discovers that he too can herd sheep. But will the other animals accept him?
- DirectorPhillip NoyceStarsNicole KidmanSam NeillBilly ZaneAfter a tragedy, John Ingram and his wife Rae are spending some time isolated at sea, when they come across a stranger who has abandoned a sinking ship.
- DirectorBaz LuhrmannStarsNicole KidmanEwan McGregorJohn LeguizamoA poor Bohemian poet in 1890s Paris falls for a beautiful courtesan and nightclub star coveted by a jealous duke.
- DirectorGeorge MillerStarsMel GibsonJoanne SamuelHugh Keays-ByrneIn a self-destructing world, a vengeful Australian policeman sets out to stop a violent motorcycle gang.
- DirectorTim BurstallStarsBruce SpenceJacki WeaverHelmut BakaitisA gangly, awkward, would-be revolutionary loses his virginity to the vivacious hippie girlfriend of his two flatmates, and becomes hell-bent on sabotaging her wedding to one of them.
- DirectorRolf de HeerPeter DjigirrStarsCrusoe KurddalJamie GulpililRichard BirrinbirrinIn Australia's Northern Territory, a man tells us a story of his people and his land. It's about an older man, Minygululu, who has three wives and realizes that his younger brother Dayindi may try to steal away the youngest wife.Revolutionary film of indigenous people that attains a remarkable level of humour and skill in its story.
- DirectorGillian ArmstrongStarsJoey KennedyRoss O'DonovanMargo LeeA teenage girl, with dreams of becoming a famous singer, tries to secure a spot on a local televised talent show.
- DirectorJonathan auf der HeideStarsOscar ReddingArthur AngelPaul AshcroftThe true story of Alexander Pearce, Australia's most notorious convict. In 1822, Pearce and seven fellow convicts escaped from Macquarie Harbour, a place of ultra banishment and punishment, only to find a world less forgiving.. the Australian wilderness. Abandon all hope you who enter.