Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

All feature films

342 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 next

C

Cactus 2007

Cactus, while full of thrills and suspense, gradually reveals a more humanistic agenda as it employs genre conventions to explore notions of masculinity, class and power.

Cactus 1986

Cactus explores both the horror of not being able to see and the notion that blindness can sharpen the senses and lift the spirits.

Caddie 1976

Caddie is a powerfully emotional statement of the ways in which women outside marriage were socially and economically disadvantaged in the period between the wars.

Candy 2006

Candy is a beautifully controlled film with an intense sensuality preceding an equally intense descent into grief and regret.

Careful He Might Hear You 1983

In Sydney in the 1930s, two sisters fight for custody of a six-year-old boy.

The Cars That Ate Paris 1974

Mild-mannered Arthur is trapped in a quiet country town where feral youth drive souped-up cars and the hospital is full of brain-damaged accident victims.

Cedar Boys 2008

Three young Lebanese Australians get into deep water by stealing drugs from a dealer.

The Chain Reaction 1980

The lives of car mechanic Larry and his wife Carmel are placed in danger following an accident at a nuclear waste facility in central Australia.

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith 1978

This is one of the key Australian films of the 1970s, because it speaks about the unspeakable with a depth of rage that was absolutely unprecedented and has never been repeated.

The Cheaters (silent) 1929

Paula Marsh decides to end her career as a thief after falling in love with Lee Travers, son of a wealthy businessman.

The Cheaters (sound version) 1931

Paula Marsh decides to end her career as a thief after falling in love with Lee Travers, son of a wealthy businessman.

Children of the Silk Road 2007

A love story set against the backdrop of the Japanese occupation of China prior to the Second World War.

Chopper 2000

The killer who feels no remorse is a movie cliché, but Chopper is about a killer whose remorse is as strong as his desire to wound.

Clay 1965

Nick, a killer on the run from the police, takes shelter in an isolated artists’ colony. He falls in love with Margot, a sculptress.

The Clinic 1982

Medical student Paul Armstrong spends a day at a Melbourne VD clinic.

Clubland 2007

Clubland explores that time when a young man discovers sex and has to sever the relationship he has with his mother.

The Club 1980

The Club, adapted from David Williamson’s play, is set at a time when professionalism was taking over the game.

The Coca-Cola Kid 1985

The Coca–Cola company sends its top trouble shooter to boost sales in Australia. He plans to win customers away from a much loved, old-style soft-drink maker.

A Cold Summer 2003

Three damaged individuals struggle to deal with pain and grief in different ways as their lives become entangled.

The Combination 2009

After serving a jail term a young Lebanese Australian man struggles to stop his wild younger brother from making the mistakes that he made.

Cosi 1996

Does it matter that Cosi, about psychiatric patients staging the opera Così Fan Tutte, never quite loses its theatrical origins?

Crackerjack 2002

An overgrown boy from a spoiled generation, becomes a man through fraternising with an older, wiser — and very daggy — generation.

Crocodile Dundee 1985

This is not just the most commercially successful Australian film ever made, but also one of the most successful non-Hollywood films.

Crocodile Dundee II 1988

This sequel, in which Mick Dundee battles drug dealers, follows the pattern of the first movie but in reverse.

D

Dad and Dave Come to Town 1938

The question this fish-out-of-water comedy is really asking is whether Australians have the confidence to be modern in the context of the wider world of 1938.

Dad Rudd, MP 1940

Dad Rudd, MP truly signals the end of an era, the last gasp of the cycle of rural comedies featuring yokels and livestock that went back 30 years in Australian cinema.

Dance Me to My Song 1998

A woman with severe cerebral palsy battles to maintain her dignity and independence in the face of a selfish and negligent carer.

Dead Calm 1989

Nicole Kidman was 20 when she was cast in Dead Calm. Within a year of the film opening, she was in Hollywood – partly as a result of her performance in this film.

Dead-end Drive-in 1986

In the 1990s authorities convert a drive-in into a jail for unemployed youths. Falsely imprisoned with his girlfriend, Jimmy ‘Crabs’ Rossini attempts to escape.

Dead Heart 1996

Bryan Brown plays a second generation Northern Territory cop caught up in a power struggle over whether black or white law is supreme.

Dead to the World 1991

Two women battle for control of an inner-city boxing school.

Death Defying Acts 2007

Filmmakers often tell imagined stories to explore a famous figure or incident and this love story involving Harry Houdini in 1926 is a good example.

Death in Brunswick 1990

An under-achieving Aussie cook falls for a young Greek waitress at a seedy Melbourne nightclub, but a dead body gets in their way.

December Boys 2006

Daniel 'Harry Potter’ Radcliffe stars as one of four young orphans whose friendship is tested during an idyllic beach holiday.

Deck Dogz 2005

Three teenage friends cross Sydney by skateboard to reach the Beachbowl skater competition, chased by two drug dealers and the police.

The Devil’s Playground 1976

Both writer Thomas Keneally and director Fred Schepisi spent time in a Catholic seminary, the world explored in this drama.

Diggers 1931

Pat Hanna first told stories from his time in World War I as part of a travelling comedy troupe, then adapted the material into film.

Dingo 1991

Dingo is a French-Australian co-production starring an American jazz legend. According to director Rolf de Heer, Miles Davis turned out to be a wonderfully instinctive actor.

Dirty Deeds 2002

A photograph from the 1960s of a prominent Sydney criminal pig-shooting with two American mafiosi helped inspire this drama.

Dogs in Space 1986

Inner-city Melbourne, 1978. Aspiring rock singer Sam and his girlfriend Anna live in a crowded share house. The party atmosphere is shattered by tragedy.

Dogwatch 1997

This film could almost pass as a 1940s Hollywood studio thriller starring Humphrey Bogart.

Doing Time for Patsy Cline 1997

In Doing Time for Patsy Cline, Ralph (Matt Day) believes at the start that he wants to be a country singer, but he’s not so sure by the end.

Don’s Party 1976

The off-stage bedroom scenes in the original play became on-screen sex in this film, and the male characters got naked not just drunk.

Dot and the Kangaroo 1977

A generation of Australian school children grew up on Dot and the Kangaroo and the six other Dot films that followed it. Really.

Dr Plonk 2007

One of a tiny number of silent movies made since ‘the talkies’ arrived in the late 1920s, Rolf de Heer’s Dr Plonk is a high-spirited throwback to the days of pure visual slapstick.

E

Elephant Tales 2006

Elephant Tales tells the story of two orphaned elephant brothers Zef and Tutu and their search for a new future.

Emerald City 1988

Successful screenwriter Colin Rogers moves from Melbourne to Sydney and becomes involved with commercial movie hustler Mike McCord.

The Enemy Within 1918

Snowy Baker stars as a secret agent who smashes a ring of German spies in Sydney during the First World War.

Epsilon 1995

Rolf de Heer combines extraordinary time lapse photography with a drama that argues that the human race is killing the planet.

Erskineville Kings 1999

This was Hugh Jackman’s first film role, before he had established himself as a star of musical theatre, and he gives a fine performance in a difficult role.

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