Titles curated by Paul Byrnes
260 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 next
1980s (continued)
The Year of Living Dangerously feature film – 1982
The Year of Living Dangerously was Peter Weir’s last film about Australia, or his first film about the rest of the world, depending on how you look at it.
Buddies feature film – 1983
Buddies is a comedy, dressed up as a frontier romance, and it is relatively unknown and underrated.
Careful He Might Hear You feature film – 1983
In Sydney in the 1930s, two sisters fight for custody of a six-year-old boy.
Going Down feature film – 1983
Four women friends leave behind the feral days of youth after a night of uncontrolled excess in inner-city Sydney during the early 1980s.
Phar Lap feature film – 1983
The film is well constructed, both as a folkloric tale of a young man’s bond with a special horse and as an exciting spectacle with a couple of magically charged moments.
My First Wife feature film – 1984
Director Paul Cox made this film about a disintegrating marriage after going through a painful break-up himself.
Bliss feature film – 1985
To say Bliss was ahead of its time is an understatement: the bold metaphors and sharp satire weren’t appreciated by everyone in 1985.
Burke & Wills feature film – 1985
The epic and tragic story of the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, in 1860–61.
Crocodile Dundee feature film – 1985
This is not just the most commercially successful Australian film ever made, but also one of the most successful non-Hollywood films.
Short Changed feature film – 1985
The script is beautifully weighted so that the political context of the film does not inhibit the personal journey of the characters.
A Street to Die feature film – 1985
A Vietnam veteran and his wife fight for legal recognition of the damage done to him by the defoliant Agent Orange.
Backlash feature film – 1986
Much of the dialogue in Bill Bennett’s film, about two police officers and a young indigenous woman, was improvised on location.
Cactus feature film – 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.
Malcolm feature film – 1986
Malcolm is one of the most charming modern Australian comedies, and probably the closest we’ve come to matching the joyful silliness of Britain’s 1950s Ealing comedies.
The Lighthorsemen feature film – 1987
In Palestine in 1917, two regiments of the Australian Light Horse attack Beersheba, in one of the last great mounted charges in history.
The Tale of Ruby Rose feature film – 1987
In 1933 Ruby Rose leaves her isolated home in the Tasmanian highlands to rediscover her past.
Travelling North feature film – 1987
Casting Leo McKern was a coup because he almost never accepted roles in his place of birth once he’d become successful in England.
The Year My Voice Broke feature film – 1987
This comedy-drama is both a nostalgic memoir of growing up in the countryside and a shocking denunciation of its values.
Crocodile Dundee II feature film – 1988
This sequel, in which Mick Dundee battles drug dealers, follows the pattern of the first movie but in reverse.
Grievous Bodily Harm feature film – 1988
Movie critic David Stratton described Grievous Bodily Harm as 'one of the most satisfying thrillers made in Australia’.
Dead Calm feature film – 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.
Sweetie feature film – 1989
Ambiguity is filmmaker Jane Campion’s preferred method in Sweetie, and it works superbly as a destabilised narrative because of it.
1990s
The Big Steal feature film – 1990
The Big Steal is generally known as a romance and an exuberant comedy but is also about teenagers outwitting corrupt adults.
Death in Brunswick feature film – 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.
Return Home feature film – 1990
Suburbs in Australian cinema are usually the place that characters flee from; this film suggests you can also go back.
Dingo feature film – 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.
Proof feature film – 1991
This is a textbook example of how to make a film logistically simple without sacrificing complexity and dramatic impact.
A Woman’s Tale feature film – 1991
Rarely has a film shown so eloquently that beauty is not a function of age, but of spirit. Sheila Florance seems to be playing very close to her real personality, but that is part of what makes the film so moving.
The Last Days of Chez Nous feature film – 1992
The Last Days of Chez Nous was one of the most interesting films of the early 1990s.
Romper Stomper feature film – 1992
Romper Stomper makes viewers participants, forcing them to confront how they feel about violence as entertainment.
Spotswood feature film – 1992
The film is charming, funny, eccentric and affectionate towards its characters, most of whom work in a run-down moccasin factory.
Bad Boy Bubby feature film – 1993
Bad Boy Bubby was conceived as an experiment on virtually every level. It had 32 different cinematographers, for example.
No Worries feature film – 1993
Drought has a terrible social cost, as the 11-year-old girl who has to move from a sheep station to the city in this film, makes clear.
The Piano feature film – 1993
The Piano is a film about an artist and the story of a woman whose passionate nature is akin to a form of madness. Both themes are common to Jane Campion’s work.
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert feature film – 1994
The most unforgettable scenes in Priscilla feature excessive costumes on incongruous characters in vast, humbling spaces.
Everynight… Everynight feature film – 1994
A new prisoner refuses to submit to frequent bashings by prison officers in the notorious H Division of Pentridge prison in Melbourne.
Muriel’s Wedding feature film – 1994
Muriel’s Wedding took Australia by storm when it opened in 1994, satirising an Australian family in a way that audiences found extremely moving, as well as hilarious.
Only the Brave short feature – 1994
Although made on a low budget, Only the Brave showed that first-time filmmaker Ana Kokkinos had an uncompromising ambition to tell powerful and personal stories.
The Sum of Us feature film – 1994
The Sum of Us presents three generations of characters, all of whom seek the same thing – a meaningful and long-lasting partnership in love.
Vacant Possession feature film – 1994
Margot Nash’s ambitious feature debut has a strong political basis, but it’s ultimately a very personal story.
Angel Baby feature film – 1995
These lovers are mentally ill and, for the sake of their coming baby, go off their medication, adding a touch of heroism to the film.
Babe feature film – 1995
A worldwide hit film based on a children’s book about a farm pig who wants to be a sheepdog.
Epsilon feature film – 1995
Rolf de Heer combines extraordinary time lapse photography with a drama that argues that the human race is killing the planet.
Cosi feature film – 1996
Does it matter that Cosi, about psychiatric patients staging the opera Così Fan Tutte, never quite loses its theatrical origins?
Dead Heart feature film – 1996
Bryan Brown plays a second generation Northern Territory cop caught up in a power struggle over whether black or white law is supreme.
Floating Life feature film – 1996
Being a new migrant is portrayed with amazing freshness, perhaps because the film’s key creators had not been in Australia for long.
Idiot Box feature film – 1996
Idiot Box argues that bored men who spend years watching television, desire catharsis on a theatrical scale.
Love Serenade feature film – 1996
The director’s light touch and the performances allows Love Serenade to get away with an outrageous joke involving a big fish.
The Quiet Room feature film – 1996
Why does a seven-year-old girl refuse to speak? Increasingly vicious arguments between the parents are not the whole story.
Shine feature film – 1996
This film catapulted both director Scott Hicks and actor Geoffrey Rush onto the international stage.
