Discoveries from Australia World Cinema

Undercover cop Luca is sent to infiltrate one of the UK's largest drug empires-unaware that internal fractures have left the organisation on the brink of collapse, and new, volatile powers are rising to claim control.

A gay couple and a lesbian couple are trying to conceive a baby naturally.

The untold stories of six Australian army nurses who served at the only Australian field hospital in the Vietnam War.

An enigmatic man journeys back in time to find his younger self, seemingly to revisit the nostalgia of trading cards. An exploration of identity, mental health and the erosion of childhood innocence, Trading Cards is a dark fantasy animated film about the weight of living with Obsessive-compulsive disorder.

A unique hybrid of documentary, silent film, drama and dance, 'Breaking Plates' puts revolutionary women of the past on the screen with present day filmmakers. Contemporary women talk to characters from 100 years ago, reanimate their antics and emulate their mayhem moves. As early 21st century performers step into the clothes of their early 20th century counterparts, battling their haywire machines, exploding gags, and eruptive bodies, they learn to wield humour as a weapon against the structures that contain them today.

This Jungo Life offers an intimate and raw look into the hidden lives of young refugees and asylum seekers from Sudan and South Sudan, living on the streets of Morocco. Forced to flee violence and chaos, they remain stranded, unable to return home due to the ongoing wars ravaging their countries. Filmed entirely on mobile phones, the documentary provides unprecedented access to their world, capturing the reality of their daily struggles. The resilience of the human spirit and the fierce drive for survival is underscored, as they fight to build a better future for themselves and the families they’ve left behind.

Known cannibal, Richie Razul is at large after escaping from the Silverwater Correctional Complex. Razul was sentenced to life after he was found guilty of brutally murdering and eating 48 people. Residents are advised to stay in their homes and police have asked for reports of any suspicious persons travelling by foot.

When Bill, a worker at Woolloomooloo Wharf, breaks his leg, his wife, Nell has to go to work. She's successful, saving her daughter money, but she gets sick and dies after the operation, promising to raise Peggy the lady.

Alabama native, Destin, is driven to reveal the extraordinary science behind the jobs, missions, and obsessions of ordinary people.

An alcoholic man on the hunt for booze stumbles across something frighteningly familiar in his back shed.

Australia's own car, 60 years of Holden (2009): "Holden - it's as Australian as meat pies and kangaroos. Laugh along with them at the early advertising campaigns and celebrate great cars like Monaro, Commodore and Torana with rare never before-seen footage. Meet the people who design, test and build these great cars - people with real passion, dedication and ingenuity that has driven Holden to export success around the world. It's an engaging look at how Australia got its own car, how Holden came of age to be regarded as a world leader".

The Crusty boys are back at it. Showcasing the best of the best from this fertile island. Witness the do or die attitude that catapulted these extraordinary Aussies onto the worldwide stage!

An enigmatic Cambodian-Australian puppeteer’s life begins to unravel during a TV performance. Can he be vulnerable to his young daughter about the genocide he fled?

The Angels came hurtling out of Adelaide in the 1970s with the searing guitar sound of the Brewster brothers and Doc Neeson, a frontman who was beyond intense. Their songs remain etched in the DNA of this city: Am I Ever Goin’ to See Your Face Again, Take a Long Line, No Secrets. They worked their way up, developing an unmistakably unique musical style. By 1978 they were a behemoth of the local rock scene and on the path to international success… until they just missed their chance. Yet they still revolutionised the Aussie music scene transforming it from pretty pop to gritty guitar rock featuring ferocious and theatrical live shows. Adelaide director Maddie Parry (Hannah Gadsby: Nanette) has made a surprisingly intimate documentary, with band members’ home videos and never-before-seen photos, exploring the internal tensions that strained relationships to breaking point, even while producing incandescent rock’n’roll. - AFF

When verbose radio host Neville Umbrellaman lands in hospital, a group of unexpected performers crash his show The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour. In life, there are no dress rehearsals.

When the Victorian Government locks down his public-housing building, a teenager responsible for his mother’s welfare is pushed to the brink. Bursting with incendiary rage, this tense drama – shot with an almost harsh, vérité-style realism – presents an insider’s view on a distressing, still-unresolved chapter of recent Melbourne history.

In the aftermath of Australia's marriage equality marches, a young queer woman has her date interrupted by a homeless man after accidentally dropping a dollar into his coffee cup. This sets off a chain of events that sees her dragging him around the city in a bid to buy him a new one and eventually forcing the two to bond for the briefest of moments. What ensues over that evening changes both of them forever.

Joan Sutherland's farewell performance to the operatic stage offsets this story of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre and the magnificence of 16th century France.

A perfect Christmas dinner is wasted on a demanding picky, fussy snapper with impossibly high standards.

Crystal World is inspired by J.G Ballard’s apocalyptic science fiction novel of the same name where a viral crystal metamorphoses trees, animals, humans and architecture into frozen jewels forever suspended in time and space. The novel is a haunting portrait of a world in which everything is illuminated by prismatic light, a ‘leaking’ of time that causes humans to experience individual moments endlessly looped, repeated and prolonged. My film adapts this concept of crystallization and applies it to fragments from the 1955 film. I reconstruct scenes from Charles Laughton’s iconic film with underwater puppets, which I then crystallize using ammonium phosphate crystals, time-lapse photography, mirrors, prisms, and projectors. (http://piaborg.com)

Former student Raskolnikov is pushed to murder when struggling to pay the rent on his apartment. When the murder is being investigated by the police, Raskolnikov struggles between trying to hide his guilt and the pressure to confess.

A young man drives along a country road in his new sports car, until he is waved down by a stranded mysterious woman, with a love of speed and a lust for death.

Four twenty-something's hit the roads of Europe in a classic VW Kombi in search of the dream "Overseas Experience" (OE) - sex, drugs and rock'n roll...maybe...what could possibly go wrong?

Burdened by the death of her single, first-generation immigrant mother, Ayana struggles to find closure. As she moves through grief and guilt, she begins a fragile process of healing.

After receiving devastating news, a man is catapulted into fear. An exploration into 27 of the world's leading experts on fear, examining the biology, psychology and culture of fear, and also the metaphysics of fear.

Two detectives hunt an elusive killer It is currently in pre-production with writing having only just commenced. It is currently set to star Joseph Carra Schulz and Fisk Fox as the two detectives. It is currently set to film around Christmas later this year after the release of Advent.

A busy sound engineer (Clarence Ryan) accepts a last-minute recording job from a stranger (Caroline Brazier) instead of heading home to his family and is deeply affected by the song he’s recording.

A dramedy based on actor/writer Cameron Hurry’s real life experiences as a homosexual Christian.

In this special, Tom Gleeson gets his chance to be mean to four celebrities - Hamish Blake, Celia Pacquola, Waleed Alys and Lucy Durack - who are fighting for the Big Brass Mug.

After 32 years of heartache, bitterness and despair, it took just seconds for Guus Hiddink to exude a rare sense of calmness in the Socceroos dressing room. Four years prior to the now famous night on November 16, 2005, a fragile Australian team had been bullied off the park by Uruguay in its quest to finally break its World Cup drought. Intimidated from the moment they touched down in Montevideo in 2001, spat on by locals and then roared off the park by 60,000 manic fans in the Estadio Centenario, they had barely stood a chance. Now older, more mature and — with Hiddink in charge — more professional, things would be different four years on. That change in mentality flows through November 16, a gripping documentary from Richard Bayliss and Ben Coonan that depicts the Socceroos’ journey from West Germany in 1974 to the moment John Aloisi’s crisp spot kick struck the back of Fabian Carini’s net.

Following the misadventures of Detective Raymond Deuce on his nightly prowls in the city. A city that has shaped him. A city he hopes to change.

The inspiring story of Bec Rawlings' rise from a difficult upbringing to becoming a UFC fighter and bare-knuckle boxing champion while protecting her children from abuse.

A man arrives home from work and relaxes. Who is he?

An expressionless man drives along a sterile freeway. Unaware of his concrete and steel surroundings he is consumed by the surface of his world. But is he so consumed that he is unable to see what’s underneath?

Burning Daylight is a dance/film project. The performance is set from late one night until dawn in a transit zone outside a notorious pub on a Broome-style Karaoke night. A series of contemporary dance scenes unfold expressing the...

Narrated by Indigenous elder Balang T E Lewis, this inspiring documentary will take you on an adventure to explore the culture and wildlife of Australia’s remote wild north. Far Northern Australia is a land of extremes, from bushfires to torrential floods. Explore the wildlife and meet the people in Australia’s wild top end, from the Kimberley coast through the mysterious Arnhem Land, and deep into the world’s oldest rainforest in Cape York.

Carl Barron’s topics jump from one to the other and back again, until you find yourself helpless with laughter. What a show this was; a mixture of stand up, musical attempts and crazy facial expressions. Barron captured his audience from the word “go”. People were laughing so hard they were either crying or nearly falling out of their chairs.

Video Nasty; once a term referring to films that were criticised for their violent content in the early 80s, now the name of an up-and-coming film production company in Sydney, Australia. Join us in this two-minute documentary where university student and founder of Video Nasty, Lachlan Wylie, speaks on his experiences since starting the company in May of 2022.

Michael Myers takes Ghostface under his wing, training him to become the ultimate serial killer. Along the way, Ghostface forms his own deadly crew—Devilface, Rodney, and the Lakewood Slasher. His confidence grows with every kill… until he’s forced to face his greatest challenge yet: THE COLLECTOR!

A fisherman catches a fish, and the fish sings back.

14 year old Sarah meets 17 year old Stella online. They spend a day together in Woy Woy. Pelicans squark. Stella Squarks. And Sarah doesn't know what to do.

Bob is the magical tale of a unique Teddy Bear and his quest to become real - with tragic-comic consequences.

A tribute to Alex Chilton, Luis Bunuel and Max Le Cain.

Two part-time food-delivery drivers, Andrew and Shui, find themselves in a temple in suburbia. As they wander the colourful grounds, Shui shares some unexpected news that leaves Andrew catapulting between envy, excitement and discontent. A short film about friendship, Goodbye, Munchkin explores the tension that follows when friends navigate imbalance as well as the intricacies of fear, success and failure.

In the vast, little-understood wilderness of Australia’s Cape York, fortune-hunters hide amongst the mangroves and the crocs, seeking to bend the ancient laws of nature to their will. When a ten-year-old boy and his father vanish while checking their shark nets, it unravels a dynastic alliance between mighty fishing clans. A mother and son are accused of murder and a love triangle gone horribly wrong raises questions of guilt and complicity that ripple out far beyond the alleged killers.

The story of Mark Orval, former Collingwood Australian rules football player, now internet star - known by his online alias ‘Angry Dad’.

A young artist in one town shares a letter correspondence with an older artist in another.

Robert Rabiah visits Lebanon, delving into their culture, political issues and interviews prominent people, ordinary citizens, and the next generation about the current situation facing the country now.

Set from the times of modern day 2023 where the two lovers as adults talk to there children about how they first met in the conservative society of 1981. Elle and Lizzie's love has been everlasting for many decades, and continues to tie back to there love for the beach and living on the offshore. When a child of theres question their love, they take a trip down memory lane.

A therapist suggests an alternate way for an abused wife who has survived her suicide attempt to deal with her problems.

When the pandemic hits, two men are forced to evaluate their unexpected long distance relationship.

Created in isolation, this charming stop-motion animation explores one girl’s imaginative quest to hold a birthday party in COVID times.

The Dorothy the Dinosaur television series comes to home video as Dorothy shares her Memory Book with Wags the Dog, and they relive many amazing adventures played to familiar Wiggles tunes. Special guest vocalists including Francis Awaritefe, Rachael Beck, Troy Cassar-Daley, Kathy Gothadjaka, David Hobson, Jane Kennedy, John Rowe, Leo Sayer and Don Spencer.

"Immersion the movie" is a journey of what is surfing now. 7 years in the making, Immersion features some of surfing's greatest talents and personalities and takes you to some of the world's most isolated, notorious and picturesque surfing locations - Australia, Hawaii, Fiji, Tahiti. This film captures mind-blowing swell events that made history and glue the viewer to its seat. You will travel following the footsteps of the film maker, Tim Bonython, and will embark on a memorable journey. Each sequence has a purpose and a story to tell. Immersion is an intense sight and sound experience for surfing enthusiasts and ocean lovers of all tastes, generation and walks of live.

The rise to fame of Melbourne's next big rapper: Yung Boi. Facing adversity, challenges, confrontations, disagreements, inconveniences, problems, and more, he learns to overcome anything that gets in the way of his ride to the top.

Desperate for power, ambitious tech nerd Robbie is keen to hack into her high school’s anonymous gossip page to garner popularity. Robbie enlists her loyal friend Ruth to help, but as tensions grow between Ruth’s moral compass and Robbie’s unconscionable actions, Ruth reveals a secret that blows their project (and friendship) wide open.

A girl in an underwater environment learns to accept her true colours.

This moving documentary is a record of a few hours in the life of a small 7 year old boy, Ricco, from Hidden Valley, one of the many town camps on the outskirts of Alice Springs. He has lived in the camp for most of his life, and is looked after by his three older sisters and his foster mother, Nanna Maudie.