All feature films
342 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 next
1970s (continued)
The Picture Show Man 1977
The comic performances from John Meillon and John Ewart as the last of the itinerant vaudevillians are superb.
Summer City 1977
Best known as Mel Gibson’s first movie, Summer City is a laid-back road movie that emerges as more than just a throwaway, thanks to strong performances.
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 Getting of Wisdom 1978
The affair between two school girls was only hinted at in Henry Handel Richardson’s 1910 novel, but lesbian overtones are obvious in the film.
In Search of Anna 1978
This film has a restless energy and is part of a pre-professional maverick tradition that grew out of the experimental cinema of the 1970s.
Long Weekend 1978
On a long weekend camping trip to a lonely beach, Peter and Marcia confront the despair of their marriage, as nature takes revenge on them.
Newsfront 1978
Some believe that Newsfront, set in the late 1940s and incorporating extensive newsreel footage, is Australia’s best film.
The Night the Prowler 1978
This savage satire on the neuroses of the privileged of Sydney’s eastern suburbs was written by the great novelist Patrick White.
Patrick 1978
Patrick proved that Australia had the capacity to produce exportable exploitation movies and is better regarded now than it was in 1978.
Snapshot 1978
Snapshot holds some sort of distinction in thriller ranks for its use of a Mr Whippy ice-cream van as a deadly instrument.
Third Person Plural 1978
A look at the emotional entanglements of four Sydney friends who take a weekend boating trip.
Breaker Morant 1979
Much of the film is about youth versus experience, honesty versus cynicism and political expediency – an interesting ethical domain given that it’s a film about war crimes.
The Last of the Knucklemen 1979
Near the remote town of Andamooka a group of opal miners work for Tarzan, a tough foreman known as ‘the last of the knucklemen’ for his fighting abilities.
Mad Max 1979
Mad Max was a piece of impolite, independent cinema that had a profound effect on audiences and filmmakers across the world.
Money Movers 1979
Money Movers was ahead of its time, and may have suffered because of that. It’s a 'crime procedural’, a genre that is now much more popular.
My Brilliant Career 1979
This feminist warrior and role model came to life on film in the same year as the road warrior in the masculine fantasy Mad Max.
The Odd Angry Shot 1979
Australia’s role in Vietnam was still a raw issue when this film emerged and some criticised it for not condemning that involvement.
Palm Beach 1979
The underrated Palm Beach, set on Sydney’s northern beaches, is very daring in its use of sound.
Thirst 1979
Australia’s only postmodern vampire movie, Thirst is a highlight of the ‘Ozploitation’ films made in the late 1970s and early 80s.
1980s
Against the Grain: More Meat than Wheat 1980
A terrorist visits his family in Western Australia after detonating a bomb in Sydney on Anzac Day.
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 Club 1980
The Club, adapted from David Williamson’s play, is set at a time when professionalism was taking over the game.
Grendel Grendel Grendel 1980
A lonely, philosophical monster ruminates on the stupidity of men, whose heads he occasionally devours.
Harlequin 1980
Smoothly directed in widescreen, Harlequin is one of the more polished Australian films of its day and a notch above the ordinary genre film.
Manganinnie 1980
Tasmania, 1830. Joanna, a little white girl, is adopted by Manganinnie, an Aborigine who has survived a slaughter.
Stir 1980
This revealing film about prison life has a violent tone and very bad language, but this helps give it credibility.
Gallipoli 1981
Gallipoli remains one of the most loved of all Australian films. It’s one of Weir’s most nakedly emotional films and one of his most poetic.
Goodbye Paradise 1981
This evocative picture of the Gold Coast as paradise lost includes a gaudy, sleazy fun park, tawdry politics and busloads of old ladies singing.
The Killing of Angel Street 1981
This political thriller is loosely based on the disappearance of Sydney heiress and anti-development campaigner Juanita Nielsen.
Lonely Hearts 1981
Comedian and satirist John Clarke wrote this film with Paul Cox: no wonder it is full of bright impish humour.
Mad Max 2 1981
Mad Max 2 is a more self-consciously mythic film than its predecessor, in a much more primal landscape, with a lot more action.
Puberty Blues 1981
When the two teenage girls at the heart of this film buy a surfboard and teach themselves to surf, they become their own role models.
Winter of Our Dreams 1981
It was surprising that this uncompromising film about a junkie prostitute’s failure to find love, would work so well with audiences.
Wrong Side of the Road 1981
Most black bands before this were playing country and western – Us Mob, Coloured Stone and No Fixed Address were among the first to play rock or reggae.
The Man from Snowy River 1982
The Man From Snowy River is an iconic Australian western. It’s a naive film of epic proportions, but the naiveté is calculated to appeal to a sense of American nostalgia, and Australian chauvinism.
Next of Kin 1982
On her mother’s death, Linda Stevens inherits an isolated retirement home. Strange events occur, leading Linda to believe an evil force dwells in the house.
Starstruck 1982
Gillian Armstrong’s Starstruck is an energetic rock musical comedy, with a kitsch aesthetic very much influenced by the style of early ’80s video clips.
Turkey Shoot 1982
Without doubt one of the most notorious Australian films ever made, Turkey Shoot has attracted both wildly positive and negative reactions over the years.
We of the Never Never 1982
Race relations is the theme that is constantly lurking in this story about one woman’s life on an outback station.
The Year of Living Dangerously 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 1983
Buddies is a comedy, dressed up as a frontier romance, and it is relatively unknown and underrated.
Careful He Might Hear You 1983
In Sydney in the 1930s, two sisters fight for custody of a six-year-old boy.
Going Down 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.
Man of Flowers 1983
An elderly aesthete who regularly hires a young woman to strip for him finds his life becoming entwined with hers.
Phar Lap 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.
Strikebound 1983
A docudrama based on the memories of Wattie and Agnes Doig, a miner and his wife involved in the Gippsland coal workers’ strike of 1937.
My First Wife 1984
Director Paul Cox made this film about a disintegrating marriage after going through a painful break-up himself.
