Discoveries from Australia World Cinema

When a wannabe running influencer's career is interrupted by an insidious call to something greater, he loses himself to curiosity and ambition.

Martina, a woman in her mid 40s finds herself in a pool of regret after selling her beloved cat to pay off her gambling debt. Living hostel to hostel and having $50 to her name, she feels defeated. This all changes after the purchase of two cigarettes and a scratchcard.

A routine parent-teacher interview takes a violent turn as a frustrated teacher is pushed past his breaking point by two feral parents.

Maitland and its sleepy neighbour, Morpeth, are never quite the same again, all due to a middle-aged couple and their hobby of violin playing. This animated film is a delight to both eye and ear. Victoria Robert’s quirky cartoons are perfect complements for Nick Enright’s cleverly constructed poem, while Ruth Cracknell’s reading of all parts adds wit and charm. An animated film by Jollification.

When Brian rises from the dead, he finds an unexpected companion in Jesse, a petrol station clerk. Excited to explore the world, they embark on a late-night adventure - but Brian soon realises that a second chance at life comes with gruesome side-effects.

Told through the eyes of First Peoples that have a strong connection to the area, Dreaming Mountain explores the cultural significance of one of the regions most well known natural landmarks 'Jellurgal' (Burleigh Headland).

A homeless man has nowhere to go when he comes across a Christian woman who offers him a view of her life serving others. With a fresh perspective on God and Christianity, he begins to understand how to live a life of fulfillment and peace.

Michael Lee uses a 16mm Bolex camera to explore various zooming and framing techniques to photograph images from National Geographic Magazines. The silent film was made in 1972.

In search of the archival, Carmen-Sibha Keiso re­-imagines theatre and film through personal narrative in her conceptual debut: Love & Fascism In The 21st Century. "... if Rappaport was in an art school." - Ferran Pla

A senior fisherman is obsessed with catching a mermaid and has trained extensively to get ready for a life in the sea.

A poignant and heartwarming story set in a Welsh fishing village. Henrick (Ché) and Arwyn (Iwan) share a bond that transcends friendship, filled with unspoken longing and love. Henrick's love for Shirley Bassey's music is his way to overcome the conservative views of their community. The film explores the struggles of Henrick and Arwyn as they navigate their feelings for each other in a society that may not fully accept them.

At The Middle of Nowhere, a rough truck-stop brothel, Billie, a young sex worker, becomes obsessed with the mystical tale of the Wild Woman of Nowhere and convinces her friend Rosie to escape with her.

Greg is a young gardener who lives a quiet, simple and lonely life. But that all changes when he bumps into a beautiful woman.

Seventeen year old Jed struggles to find his place in the world. His mum works late every night and school is simply a place to avoid. When Eli, his larger than life best mate, returns from suspension, Jed doesn't know how to bridge the distance between them. Instead, they drink, smoke, and run amok. When Jed lets slip that he knows where they could steal a car, he sets into motion an exhilarating and dangerous journey through the night. As these two young men realise the gravity of their actions, they are forced to confront the limits of their friendship.

A schizophrenic cannibal and her equally deranged family menace a group of unwary tourists in Outback Australia.

A debut doco-style film by storyteller and icon Naavikaran and a foray into her futurist lore.

Experience three parallel lives of an Indigenous man in Naarm (Melbourne) – in each instance, we ponder if he will always be made to feel like an outsider in his own land.

A young doctor gets in over her head moonlighting as the backyard bullet wound surgeon for a crime gang.

Students have to solve challenges within the classroom and their friendships outside of class. Mr Cornley, the students main mentor, helps them to complete these tasks. With funny jokes and awkward moments, they'll manage through the year.

Australian-Chinese immigrant Bon-Wai Chou traces her family's heritage.

Shots inside and outside a flat. White, pure shots, with a golden conclusion.

A bittersweet line-drawn animation that celebrates a brave queer hero who saves a small Victorian Town on the brink of disaster while indulging the love of saucy rhyming couplets.

Paul attempts to balance debts and a debilitating drug addiction.

Groh Goh re-imagines performance lineages surrounding the mythological figure of Rangda: Bali’s queen of the graveyard and patroness of black magic. The story of Rangda, and her alter incarnation, the legendary witch widow Calonarang, occupies a central role within Bali’s spirit cosmology and frames a narrative around an undesirable woman as a dangerous and deviant social disrupter. Alongside her feared otherness, Rangda is also conceived as a balancing force for spiritual order, and a powerful matriarchal protector. The film centres upon a matrilineal building and passing of knowledge around Rangda, channelling her presence through different bodies, performance genres and landscapes.

What should have been a simple train ride home at night for a woman turns into a terrifying game of cat and mouse until an unforeseen force is summoned.

This impassioned documentary was rejected for broadcast by ABC TV as "biased" and lacking "balance". John Howard introduced the Intervention legislation in July 2007. Two years later, an official United Nations rapporteur on human rights, Professor James Anaya, described the policy as an "extraordinary measure which infringes on the rights and determinations of Indigenous People". In this film, two Aboriginal spokespersons - Barbara Shaw from the Mount Nancy Town Camp, Alice Springs, and Richard Downs from the Alyawarr Nation - give their views on the effect of the legislation over its first two years of operation. Their stories are accompanied by archival footage and news broadcasts of key moments in the history of the Intervention. Richard Downs speaks especially of the shame and humiliation that came with Howard's unsupported allegations of child abuse in Aboriginal communities, and of the disillusionment that came with the Rudd government's continuation of Howard's policies.

Before Eve, there was Lilith. The Original Woman.

Amelia and Lorie have to decided to get married. Amelia's friend Jocelyn thinks this may be a bad idea- so does Tony, Lorie's best friend. They're going ahead anyway.

Four teens document their night on camera as they visit an old, abandoned house that, in recent years, has caused people to go missing as well as played host to other strange occurrences. They soon realise that the secluded house is more than what it seems.

With 'Ninety Nine Per Cent' Giorgio Mangiamele harnessed satiric, surreal and slapstick comedy to tell his most socially probing story of the impact of urban as well as cultural isolation. Where his earlier films, including 'Il Contratto' and two versions of 'The Spag' had portrayed problems specific to being an Italian migrant in an often racist and uncaring Australia, 'Ninety Nine Per Cent' made the impact of isolation within a multiracial society more universal. The film is a visual advance on Mangiamele’s earlier films, aided by its being filmed on 35mm stock (all the earlier works had been shot on 16mm), bringing a new sharpness, depth of field and exposure range to images. 'Ninety Nine Per Cent' was to be Mangiamele’s only comedy and in many ways it is his most adventurous, accessible work.

Revisits the making of Joris Ivens' 1946 film Indonesia Calling! In 1945-46 Indonesian, Indian, Chinese and Australian Trade Unions blockaded Dutch shipping in Australia, defending the newly declared Republic of Indonesia. Dutch Filmmaker Joris Ivens resigned as Film Commissioner for the Netherlands East Indies and made Indonesia Calling! documenting the trade union actions and supporting Indonesian independence. This documentary revisits the making of Ivens' radical film, Australia's early relationship with Indonesia and the impact of Ivens' film. Made with passionate commitment, Ivens' film provoked a covert response from the state, while helping to create a fertile ground for Australian independent documentary.

Dad Rudd wants the size of a local dam increased for the benefit of local farmers but faces opposition from a wealthy grazier, Henry Webster. When the local Member of Parliament dies, Webster runs for his seat, and Rudd decides to oppose him.

Greatest Hits Live is the second live album by Australian singer Tina Arena, this concert was recorded on 7 December 2004 at the Sydney State Theatre. during her 2004 Greatest Hits Australian tour and released in late 2005.

Follows Inga, a pedantic pregnant woman who hires Annie, an out-of-work actor, to role play as her daughter-to-be.

A pilot finds crashes in remote mountains, and before his badly injured co-pilot dies he hands a camera with a haunting message in Korean “the judgement day is coming. As he seeks salvation he is haunted by a mysterious woman who has survived without human contact. Their cagey relationship is blurred as his reality becomes more disturbing, and he starts to question we're led into a world of the mountain's dark secret. With every twist and turn, we wonder whether or not he can break the shackles of his situation. The revelation of their true identities will give him one more chance to repent before he is doomed to a life of haunting.

A 70-year-old closeted woman confronts her faith as she finally learns what true love is with the help of a sex worker named Destin.

The Man in the Iron Mask finds France's King Louis the XIVth who has, unbeknownst to both himself and the kingdom, a twin brother Philip, hidden away. But when Philip realizes his royal heritage, trouble begins in the kingdom that pits the brothers against each other and throws all the kings advisors into sudden fits of confusion and treachery, raising questions about the throne. Will the brothers ever be able to reconcile now that they'v found each other, or will a battle for the throne ensue?

“Impossible Image” shakes down the patriarchy by remixing the anarchy and gender play of women of the 1920s with the fury, irony, and sly humor of dancing women in the 2020s. Inspired by the vibrant energy of silent film-era comediennes and their rampaging disregard for order and expectations, this project combines archival footage and contemporary dance sequences to draw parallels between subversive forms of feminist protest echoing across 100 years.

36 years after the world lost the incomparable icon, Bruce Lee, his early friend and martial arts training partner, William Cheung, recorded his thoughts and fond reflections on the man he knew as 'Little Dragon'. Born in the same year as Bruce, by 1958 Grandmaster Cheung was spending his weekends training with and coaching Bruce Lee in preparation for his upcoming bouts in Western boxing. Today, Grandmaster Cheung teaches thousands of kung fu students in the same art that Bruce Lee began. This is his story of Bruce Lee.

A Colourful Life is a Docu/Drama based on the colourful life of flamboyant design pioneer Florence Broadhurst.

Morrocoy, a marine and submarine National Park, one of the greatest ecological sceneries of the Venezuelan coastline, with marine birds, mangrove and submarine fauna, The most important mangrove system found in the southern Caribbean, is now endangered.

A speeding car: a mysterious man on a mission. His name is Carlos and he has only one thing on his mind -- and only minutes left to make it happen.

Oak begins to suspect that their best friend and unrequited crush might be possessed by the evil lamb-god that they worship.

A love letter to mime (and to a coat) written by award-winning idiot Tom Walker, who keeps talking during what he insists is a mime show.

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

Billie and Jesse, the untouchable lesbian power couple, hit a major snag when Jesse starts transitioning and realises he's into men. Desperate for clarity, they plan a secret threesome with a sex worker-far from home to avoid awkward run-ins with exes or anyone finding out. But when the door opens to Brad, a country boy who ticks all of Jesse's boxes, deeper truths about their relationship come to light. To save it, Billie and Jesse must confront their fears and feelings but when they're left stranded, they're forced to seek help from the very person who just rocked their world.

A circus family’s hidden legacy unfolds as descendants reunite across continents, uncovering their Aboriginal ancestry, global stardom, and the extraordinary secrets they kept in order to survive. Through the Colleano family's remarkable home movies, never-before-seen footage, family interviews and archival recordings, their extraordinary story is brought to life.

A delightful mockumentary that underscores the universality of childhood and imagination, Warya originally screened at the Africa Film Festival Australia.

A group of middle schoolers must convince their friend to perform in the school talent show after she reveals an embarrassing and fantastical secret.

Following the death of his friend, a troubled detective struggles to resolve the case in light of an unspoken bond with the killer.

Each night Megan and Liam dream about each other but then wake up alone. Will they ever find each other in the real world?

A mutant woman who's being held captive in a sadist's basement sees an opportunity for escape when her latest visitor arrives.

Two modern-day treasure hunters go searching for the lost gold of a legendary 1800s outlaw in the remote jungles of Far North Queensland.

The convictions and beliefs of a small-town priest are thrown into uncertainty when a penitent confesses to the murder of the town's missing woman, a case that has consumed the community.

Australian Opera Chorus and Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra production of Donizetti's opera

Satirist and provocateur John Safran explores how Australia deals with speech, ideas and behaviour it deems offensive.

Imagine being a young, upwardly mobile executive successfully making your way in the world. You’ve got a great job, some good friends and have been tasked by the boss to close a do-or-die deal. Now, imagine that closing the deal takes you to a country where you don’t speak the language, you don’t understand the culture and, if the deal falls through, it will cost you your career. Well, that’s exactly the situation Henry faces. Henry has never known family or loyalty. Now, he has to convince the Matai of a village that these are exactly the characteristics he and his company embody. Further, his growing attraction for Tua, the Matai’s daughter, is making him question if his career is really what’s most important to him. If he can’t balance all these competing interests, Henry may lose it all: his job, his career and, most importantly, his one true chance at love and acceptance.

A teenager living in suburbia finds a jewellery-case and it changes his life. A tribute to Spielberg and "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial".

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.