All feature films
342 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 next
1940s (continued)
Eureka Stockade 1949
In 1854, miners in the Ballarat goldfields take up arms against government troops in a defining moment of Australian history.
Into the Straight 1949
Australian horse breeder WJ Curzon hires British trainer Hugh Duncan and his playboy son Paul. Father and son are both attracted to JW’s daughter, June.
Sons of Matthew 1949
Sons of Matthew is an extremely vivid depiction of the heroic conquest of the land by Australia’s white settlers.
1950s
Bitter Springs 1950
A family of white farmers fight to take possession of land and water that is home to a well-established Aboriginal clan.
Il Contratto 1953
In 1950s Melbourne, four recent Italian migrants eager for work to pay off their debts finally find employment on a rural farm near the city.
The Phantom Stockman 1953
A bushman known as ‘the Sundowner’ helps cattle station heiress Kim Marsden investigate the death of her father.
King of the Coral Sea 1954
A pearler in the Torres Strait uncovers an illegal people smuggling operation.
Jedda 1955
Jedda (1955) is probably Charles Chauvel’s best film, as well as his last. It is historic both for being the first colour feature film made in Australia, but more importantly, because it is arguably the first Australian film to take the emotional lives of Aboriginal people seriously.
Walk Into Paradise 1956
For the third time with director Lee Robinson, Chips Rafferty played his version of an Australian hero – rugged, self-reliant, resourceful, an unpolished rough diamond.
The Shiralee 1957
Arguably there are two major themes in Australian cinema – the problem of the landscape, and the related problem of masculinity – and both are the subject of The Shiralee.
Smiley Gets a Gun 1958
A nine-year-old country boy tries to give up mischief in order to win a much-desired rifle.
1960s
The Sundowners 1960
The Sundowners is remarkable for the number of Australian actors it showcases. Chips Rafferty plays Quinlan, the contractor at an outback shearing station.
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.
They’re a Weird Mob 1966
An Italian sports journalist arrives in Australia to find his cousin’s new magazine for migrant Italians has folded. He soon gets a job as a builder’s labourer, learns to talk and drink like an Australian, and falls in love with an Australian girl.
Journey Out of Darkness 1967
In 1901 Constable Peterson arrives in Central Australia to arrest an Arrernte man who has committed a ritual killing.
2000 Weeks 1969
2000 Weeks (1969) was one of the first features of the modern era in Australian cinema. Autobiographical and intensely personal, it’s still highly watchable.
The Set 1969
Aspiring young designer Paul Lawrence is drawn into the hedonistic world of Sydney’s upper-class society.
You Can’t See ‘Round Corners 1969
This film, shot at Kapooka camp, contains one of the only depictions in Australian cinema of soldiers training for Vietnam.
1970s
Jack and Jill: A Postscript 1970
Jack lives in a condemned house and rides with a bikie gang. Gillian, a kindergarten teacher from a middle-class family, is attracted to Jack.
Walkabout 1970
A 16-year-old English girl and her 8-year-old brother are stranded in the desert, after their father shoots himself. They are rescued by a young tribal Aborigine.
Bonjour Balwyn 1971
Kevin leaves a job in insurance to start his own magazine. As his debts mount, Kevin’s prospects begin to look brighter in the criminal world.
Stork 1971
Stork was important in a business sense: its success lead to the formation of Hexagon Productions, which became a major force in film.
Wake in Fright 1971
A young schoolteacher loses all his money in an outback two-up game, while en route to Sydney. In the next two days he loses a lot more – self-respect, inhibitions, almost his life.
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie 1972
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie was a hugely popular satire with Australian and British audiences, partly because it conformed so well with each country’s view of the other.
Morning of the Earth 1972
This successful surfing picture was a visual manifesto for its fans, promoting such counter-culture ideals as living simply and sustainably.
The Office Picnic 1972
Bored employees in a mindless bureaucracy are barely more than automatons until released by alcohol at the office picnic, during which sexual and generational differences explode.
Shirley Thompson versus the Aliens 1972
Maverick filmmaker Jim Sharman’s first film is unique – an engaging potpourri of sci-fi, rock’n'roll, anarchic comedy and psychological drama.
Sunstruck 1972
Welsh schoolteacher Stanley Evans takes a posting in Kookaburra Springs, a tiny outback town. He forms a children’s choir which travels to Sydney for a national competition.
Alvin Purple 1973
Alvin Purple was hugely popular, partly because it makes fun of powerful institutions like the courts, the press, marriage and psychiatry.
27A 1974
Robert McDarra won the 1974 AFI Award for his portrait of an alcoholic imprisoned in a Queensland psychiatric hospital. He died in 1975.
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.
Petersen 1974
Though promoted as a lusty yarn, the frequent and fairly explicit sex scenes between the film’s unhappy characters are hardly titillating.
The Golden Cage 1975
Murat and Ayhan are Turkish migrants living in Sydney. Ayhan falls in love with Sarah, but religious and cultural differences create problems.
The Man from Hong Kong 1975
The film has great energy and a series of superb action sequences, including quite possibly the best car chase in Australian cinema before Mad Max.
Picnic at Hanging Rock 1975
On St Valentine’s Day 1900, three schoolgirls from an exclusive English-style boarding school go missing, along with a teacher, at Hanging Rock, in central Victoria.
Pure S 1975
Pure S was originally banned from release and remains one of the most unusual and frank films about drug use ever made in Australia.
The Removalists 1975
The story is a savage microcosm of Australia, rather than just a look at the then-topical issue of police hypocrisy and brutality.
Sunday Too Far Away 1975
The defining elements of a great 1970s Australian film are all here – empty, confronting landscapes, hard-drinking Aussie blokes, and a sense of 'the great Australian loneliness’.
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.
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.
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.
Mad Dog Morgan 1976
Mad Dog Morgan updates the bushranging movie conventions, by seeing Morgan as a modern media phenomenon.
Oz – A Rock ‘n’ Roll Road Movie 1976
Director Chris Löfvén was heavily involved in the rock music scene. Oz was his attempt to rework The Wizard of Oz for a mid-1970s youth audience.
Storm Boy 1976
Seamlessly woven into this story about one boy’s love of a pelican, are such themes as race relations, ecology, and family breakdown.
The Trespassers 1976
Many films reflected the sexual revolution of the 1970s but few male directors explored what women wanted from it. This one does.
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.
The FJ Holden 1977
When The FJ Holden premiered at the Chullora Drive-in in 1977, anyone driving an FJ or FX Holden got in free.
Journey among Women 1977
Making this film in the 1970s became politically charged: should and could a male director make a meaningful film about women?
The Last Wave 1977
As the weather gets worse, tax lawyer David Burton has a premonition of disaster, in which he is to play a key role.
