Best Aboriginal & Aussie films
From cultural parables to horrors, comedies & thrillers
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- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorWarwick ThorntonStarsHamilton MorrisShanika ColeEwen LeslieWestern set on the Northern Territory frontier in the 1920s, where justice itself is put on trial when an aged Aboriginal farmhand shoots a white man in self-defense and goes on the run as a posse gathers to hunt him down.
- DirectorTracey MoffattStarsMarcia LangtonAgnes HardwickJimmy LittleA middle aged Aboriginal woman nurses her dying old white mother till the mother dies.
- DirectorTracey MoffattStarsGayle MaboCheryl PittJanelle CourtNice Coloured Girls is a short film classic by Tracey Moffatt, one of Australia's foremost visual artists. Three Aboriginal women cruise through Kings Cross and pick up a 'captain' (a drunken white man). They encourage him to spend his money on them and to drink until incapacitated while they steal his wallet and race off to catch a cab, self-satisfied. Nice Coloured Girls contrasts the relationship between Aboriginal women and white men in the past and present. The film juxtaposes contemporary images of black women taking advantage of a white man with a voice over of journal extracts from early white settlers and sailors, in order to question the validity of conventional white history and to deny the image of Aborigines as passive and powerless. Through counterpoint of sound, image, and printed text, the film conveys the perspective of Aboriginal women while acknowledging that oppression and enforced silence still shape their consciousness. The soundscape recalls a rural environment, while the voice-over of extracts from the diary of colonist Lieutenant William Bradley recalls the first settlement.
- DirectorTracey MoffattStarsDiana DavidsonJack CharlesBen KennedyThree Australian stories of the supernatural are recounted in this anthology. Rick (Jack Charles), an Aboriginal boy living near a swamp on Bribie Island, is haunted by an American solider who drowned in quicksand. Ruby (Tracey Moffatt) and her family live in a house near long-abandoned train tracks, which still carry ghostly apparitions. A landlord (Lex Marinos) has trouble evicting the tenants of an old warehouse: a couple that's been dead for years.
- DirectorIvan SenStarsDaniel ConnorsChristopher EdwardsMichael ConnorsIn a remote Aboriginal community, 10 year old Daniel yearns to be a gangster, like the male role models in his life. Skipping school, getting into fights and running drugs for Linden, who leads the main gang in town.
- DirectorIvan SenStarsAaron PedersenHugo WeavingRyan KwantenAn indigenous detective returns to the Outback to investigate the murder of a young girl.
- DirectorRolf de HeerStarsDavid GulpililGary SweetDamon GameauFanatic is a government trooper who is heading an expedition to find an Aboriginal man accused of murdering a white woman. Others in the expedition are the Follower, a greenhorn trooper, the Veteran, and the Tracker.
- 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.
- DirectorDavid NerlichAndrew TrauckiStarsDiana GlennMaeve DermodyAndy RodoredaA boat tour of a mangrove swamp turns into a fight for survival when a group of people are attacked by a ferocious saltwater crocodile.
- DirectorDavid MichôdStarsGuy PearceRobert PattinsonScoot McNairy10 years after a global economic collapse, a hardened loner pursues the men who stole his only possession, his car. Along the way, he captures one of the thieves' brother, and the duo form an uneasy bond during the dangerous journey.
- DirectorJohn HillcoatStarsRay WinstoneGuy PearceEmily WatsonA lawman apprehends a notorious outlaw and gives him nine days to kill his older brother, or else they'll execute his younger brother.
- DirectorRichard LowensteinStarsNoah TaylorEmily HamiltonRomane BohringerA nightmare chase through hell in a never-ending, unrequited daisy chain of desire...
- DirectorRichard LowensteinStarsMichael HutchenceSaskia PostNique NeedlesTwo man are the key members of a band called 'Dogs in Space' and share a house in a Melbourne suburb with a variety of young music fans and social misfits, including a college student and a transient and apparently nameless teenage girl.
- DirectorRichard LowensteinLynn-Maree MilburnStarsRowland S. HowardGenevieve McGuckinNick CaveFrom myth to legend Rowland Howard appeared on the early Melbourne punk scene like a phantom out of Kafkaesque Prague or Bram Stoker's Dracula. A beautifully gaunt and gothic aristocrat, the unique distinctive fury of his guitar style shot him directly into the imagination of a generation. He was impeccable, the austerity of his artistry embodied in his finely wrought form, his obscure tastes and his intelligently wry wit. He radiated a searing personal integrity that never seemed to tarnish. Despite the trials and tribulations of his career, in an age of makeover and reinvention, Rowland Howard never 'sold out'. With recent and moving interviews, archival interviews and other fascinating and original footage, AUTOLUMINESCENT traces the life of Rowland S Howard. Capturing moments with the man himself and intimate missives from those who knew him behind closed doors; words and images etch light into what has always been the mysterious dark.
- DirectorIain ForsythJane PollardStarsNick CaveSusie BickWarren EllisWriter and musician Nick Cave marks his 20,000th day on the planet Earth.
- DirectorAndrew DominikStarsNick CaveWarren EllisJim SclavunosExplores the creative process of Nick Cave and his band as the singer struggles with an unspoken personal tragedy.
- 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.
- DirectorRay LawrenceStarsBarry OttoLynette CurranHelen JonesAfter a near-death experience, a man wonders if he actually did die and is now in Hell.
- DirectorRay LawrenceStarsLaura LinneyGabriel ByrneJohn HowardAfter four men on a fishing trip discover a dead body in the water, they choose to delay reporting it and continue fishing.
- DirectorCate ShortlandStarsAbbie CornishSam WorthingtonLynette CurranA young girl flees her hometown and arrives in the Australian Alps, where new experiences help her learn the differences between sex and love.
- DirectorDavid CaesarStarsBen MendelsohnJeremy SimsJohn PolsonLooking for the fast track out of suburban hell, two natural born losers scheme an impossible heist. Two undercover cops and a highly strung speed dealer are not far behind.
- 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.
- DirectorGeoffrey WrightStarsRussell CroweDaniel PollockJacqueline McKenzieA group of skinheads become alarmed at the way their neighbourhood is changing.
- 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.
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsTerry CamilleriJohn MeillonKevin MilesThe small town of Paris, Australia deliberately causes car accidents, then sells/salvages all valuables from the wrecks as a means of economy.
- DirectorGeorge MillerStarsMel GibsonJoanne SamuelHugh Keays-ByrneIn a self-destructing world, a vengeful Australian policeman sets out to stop a violent motorcycle gang.
- 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.
- DirectorSamantha LangStarsPamela RabeMiranda OttoPaul ChubbYoung Katherine and her older friend Hester live at the isolated farm run by Hester and her father Francis. Katherine works as a maid and wants to leave that place because there's too much work. Hester, however, gets attracted to Katherine and hold her there, promising to give her less work in the future. When old Francis dies, Hester decides to sell the farm for cash. They move to small cottage on the edge of the farm and plan to go to Europe for the money they got. But tragic accident and theft of their money change their plans.
- DirectorColin EgglestonStarsJohn HargreavesBriony BehetsMike McEwenWhen a suburban couple go camping for the weekend at a remote beach, they discover that nature isn't in an accommodating mood.
- StarsAaron Fa'aosoNakkiah LuiElizabeth WymarraA sketch comedy show featuring Indigenous Australian writers and performers.
- DirectorTed RobinsonStarsTim FergusonRichard FidlerPaul McDermottA compilation of the Doug Anthony All Stars' segments from Tuesday Night Live: The Big Gig (1989).
- StarsJean KittsonBrian NankervisHelen KnightA satirical look at hospital-set, soap operas.
- StarsShaun MicallefFrancis GreensladeEmily TahenyNo-holds-barred news satire show presented by comedian Shaun Micallef that gleefully riffs on Aussie politics.
- StarsJonathan LaPagliaSophie OkonedoMelissa GeorgeTraces the shattering repercussions of a single event upon a group of family and friends. Based on Christos Tsiolkas' best-selling novel.
- CreatorMatt CameronBelinda ChaykoPhil EnchelmaierStarsEwen LeslieLeeanna WalsmanJoel JacksonA psychological thriller set in Brisbane set around a group of friends whose sailing holiday to Indonesia alters their lives forever after they come across a boat overloaded with asylum seekers.
- StarsAaron PedersenTasia ZalarTasma WaltonDetective Jay Swan is assigned to investigate a mysterious disappearance on an outback cattle station. Soon, Jay's investigation uncovers a past injustice that threatens the fabric of the whole community.
- DirectorIvan SenStarsAaron PedersenAlex RussellJacki WeaverIndigenous detective Jay Swan arrives in the town of Goldstone to search for a missing person, and his simple duty becomes complicated when he uncovers a web of crime and corruption.
- 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.
- DirectorGeoffrey WrightStarsAden YoungTara MoriceNadine GarnerA teenager's involvement with a young Don Juan, his girlfriend and a Satan-worshipping shoplifter leads to tragedy.
- DirectorJohn DuiganStarsNoah TaylorLoene CarmenBen MendelsohnIn rural 1960s Australia, a boy watches helplessly as his best friend falls in love with a small-time criminal, setting off a violent chain of events.
- DirectorDavid CaesarStarsBen MendelsohnSusie PorterAndrew S. GilbertA dark-sheep type of man returns to his hometown after a prolonged absence. While he's been gone ludicrous rumours have spread about his whereabouts. Is he a big footy player or is he a film star. Turns out he's still the same lovable but not likable sort of fellow he was when he left. He wants his old girlfriend back even though she is married to his brother now and is pregnant. For money he nets in mullets (hence his nickname, Mullet) but no'one wants to buy them. People begin to get sick of him being back again and become hostile, telling him to leave again.
- DirectorJohn DuiganStarsHugh GrantTara FitzgeraldSam NeillWhen a painting is termed blasphemous, a young minister and his wife visit the artist... and the three sexually playful models living with him.
- DirectorBaz LuhrmannStarsLeonardo DiCaprioClaire DanesJohn LeguizamoShakespeare's famous play is updated to the hip modern suburb of Verona still retaining its original dialogue.
- DirectorShirley BarrettStarsMiranda OttoRebecca FrithGeorge ShevtsovIn Sunray, a backwater town on Australia's Murray River, there's little to do but fish or listen to the local radio station. D.J. Ken Sherry arrives from the hustle of Brisbane to run the station; he's mid-40s, detached, thrice divorced, hatchet faced. But both sisters next door find him attractive: awkward Dimity, only 20, who works in a Chinese restaurant with few patrons, and perky Vicki-Ann, a hairdresser with a hope chest who invents a happy future with Sherry based on little but his arrival. First Dimity then Vicki-Ann spend the night with Ken, one concluding he's her boy friend, the other her fiance. Then Dimity begins to smell something fishy.
- DirectorWayne BlairStarsChris O'DowdDeborah MailmanJessica MauboyIn 1968, four talented young Australian Aboriginal girls learn about love, friendship, and war when their all-girl group The Sapphires entertains the US troops in Vietnam.
- DirectorRachel PerkinsStarsRocky McKenzieJessica MauboyErnie DingoAn Aboriginal student on the west coast of Australia in the late '60s runs away from a Catholic boarding school with his cruel headmaster in hot pursuit, meeting eccentric characters along the journey back to his hometown.
- DirectorRachel PerkinsStarsDeborah MailmanTrisha Morton-ThomasRachael MazaThree sisters reunite after some years apart, for their mother's funeral. Cressy (Maza), the eldest of the three, is a diva - an opera singer who is reluctant to visit the past and definitely doesn't want to share it with her sisters. Mae (Morton-Thomas), has stayed behind looking after mum, and believes that Cressy hasn't shared enough. Nona (Mailman), the youngest and the party girl, just wants them to all be one happy family.
- DirectorIvan SenStarsDannielle HallDamian PittJenna Lee ConnorsLena is the daughter of an Aboriginal mother and Irish father and Vaughn is a Murri boy doing time in a minimum security prison in North West NSW. Dramatic events throw them together on a journey with no money and no transport.
- DirectorPhillip NoyceStarsEverlyn SampiTianna SansburyKenneth BranaghIn 1931, three half-white, half-Aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their houses to be trained as domestic staff, and set off on a journey across the Outback.
- CreatorTony AyresLouise FoxStarsPatrick BrammallEmma BoothSean KeenanSeven people return from the dead with no memory and attempt to unveil what brought them to the grave in the first place.
- StarsAaron PedersenErnie DingoUrsula YovichFirst Australians chronicles the birth of contemporary Australia as never told before, from the perspective of its first people. First Australians explores what unfolds when the oldest living culture in the world is overrun by the world's greatest empire. Over seven episodes, First Australians depicts the true stories of individuals - both black and white - caught in an epic drama of friendship, revenge, loss and victory in Australia's most transformative period of history. The story begins in 1788 in Sydney, with the friendship between an Englishmen (Governor Phillip) and a warrior (Bennelong) and ends in 1992 with Koiki Mabo's legal challenge to the foundation of Australia. First Australians chronicles the collision of two worlds and the genesis of a new nation.
- CreatorLouis NowraStarsBrian CoxRena OwenAaron Fa'aosoSet among the turquoise waters of Australia's Torres Strait, The Straits follows the life of a criminal family as they smuggle drugs into Australia and exotic wildlife out through blood ties in the Torres Strait Islands.
- CreatorJason GannTony RogersAdam ZwarStarsJason GannAdam ZwarCindy WaddinghamA depressed man is the only one who can see his girlfriend's dog as a full-grown man in a dog suit.
- CreatorChris LilleyStarsChris LilleyGeorgie JenningsGeorgia TreuJa'mie: Private School Girl follows the eponymous school captain during the last few months of school, far removed from the grounds of Summer Heights High and back on the lush manicured lawns of Hillford Girls Grammar School.
- CreatorChris LilleyStarsChris LilleyJennifer ByrneMick GrahamA group of Australians are nominated for the Australian of the Year Award.
- StarsWayne BlairLeo StrippRichard GreenThe troubled lives of struggling indigenous Australians in the tough, rundown neighborhood of the inner suburb of Redfern in Sydney.
- DirectorJohn DuiganStarsNoah TaylorThandiwe NewtonNicole KidmanTwo freethinking teenagers - a boy and a girl - confront with authoritarian teachers in their boarding schools. The other students treat this differently.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsMichael FassbenderKatherine WaterstonBilly CrudupThe crew of a colony ship, bound for a remote planet, discover an uncharted paradise with a threat beyond their imagination, and must attempt a harrowing escape.
- DirectorJohn MacleanStarsKodi Smit-McPheeCaren PistoriusAorere PakiA young Scottish man travels across America in pursuit of the woman he loves, attracting the attention of an outlaw who is willing to serve as a guide.
- DirectorSofia CoppolaStarsNicole KidmanKirsten DunstElle FanningThe unexpected arrival of a wounded Union soldier at a girls school in Virginia during the American Civil War leads to jealousy and betrayal.
- DirectorNick RobertsonStarsJack CampbellAnna Lise PhillipsKatie MooreA farmer and his family must fight for survival after a ferocious pack of wild dogs infiltrates their isolated farmhouse. Through a series of frightening and bloody encounters they are forced into survival mode to make it through the night.
- DirectorPartho Sen-GuptaStarsAdam BakriRachael BlakeRebecca BreedsRicky Nasser is a young Australian whose peaceful suburban life turns into hell when sister Ameena, a Slam poet; disappears without a trace.
- DirectorRichard FranklinStarsStacy KeachJamie Lee CurtisMarion EdwardA laid-back American truck driver in south Australia suspects that the driver of a green van is killing young women along his route, and plays a game of cat-and-mouse to catch him.
- DirectorCate ShortlandStarsTeresa PalmerMax RiemeltMatthias HabichA passionate holiday romance leads to an obsessive relationship when an Australian photojournalist awakens in a Berlin apartment one morning and is unable to leave.
- DirectorNatalie Erika JamesStarsRobyn NevinEmily MortimerBella HeathcoteA daughter, mother and grandmother are haunted by a manifestation of dementia that consumes their family's home.
- DirectorBruce BeresfordStarsKristina NehmJustine SaundersBob MazaStory of an aboriginal family who tries to move out of the fringe into the main white community.
- DirectorMaya NewellStarsCarol TurnerDujuan TurnerMegan TurnerAn intimate and compassionate observational documentary from the perspective of a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy in Alice Springs, Australia, struggling to balance his traditional Arrernte/Garrwa upbringing with a state education.
- DirectorScott RobertsStarsGuy PearceRachel GriffithsJoel Edgerton3 brothers are in and out of prison in connection with heists planned by their lawyer et al. He gets them out for the heists and "looks after" the money and one's wife.
- DirectorAna KokkinosStarsAlex DimitriadesElle MandalisDamien FotiouA 19 year old Greek Australian youth struggles with his sexual identity and has one clumsy heterosexual and several homosexual encounters.
- 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.
- DirectorLeah PurcellStarsLeah PurcellRob CollinsSam ReidA lonely bushwoman struggles to raise her children and run the family farm while her husband is away.
- DirectorThomas M. WrightStarsJoel EdgertonSean HarrisJada AlbertsTwo men who meet on a bus strike up a conversation that turns into friendship. For Henry Teague, worn down by a lifetime of physical labour and crime, this is a dream come true.