Discoveries from Australia World Cinema

A photographer discovers he's not the only monster in the woods.

A young girl clings to the virtual safe haven inside of her computer screen; in an attempt to connect with her sister, she escapes the realities of the troubled household she must face without her.

Animated images of the Tasmanian tiger are depicted in different environments: a zoo, suburbia and bushland, as local people recall their sightings of this now extinct animal.

The story of two mates who decide to crash their car for the insurance but end up in an altogether bigger mess.

An unexpected discovery brings catastrophe to the opening night of a play at a local theatre company.

They're girls... they're vampires... they're killers... and they're in bikinis... and now they have returned!

An astronaut, investigating the crash of a space station on a distant desert planet, receives a signal that water has been found. Sweaty and exhausted, she eagerly follows the signal deep into the belly of a mysterious cave.

Frankie, an eight year old girl with a very active imagination, finds out for the first time that everyone dies in real life. Presented at the Aussie Kiwi Film Festival 2025 in Prague.

Clementine grieves the tragic loss of her boyfriend Beau, amidst the inimical difficulties of early adulthood, she struggles to cope with the overwhelming guilt of Beau’s death, and the erosion of bittersweet memories as she faces a new love interest and one last goodbye.

Elena, an enigmatic woman trapped in a draining marriage, yearns for liberation from her suffocating life. Her escape plan, a glimmer of hope, takes an unforeseen turn when a co-dependent handyman prevents her exit. As she navigates the surreal demands of this uninvited guest, Elena's world spirals into a dizzying labyrinth.

This 'lost' Australian sexploitation film is a time capsule of Kings Cross, shot inside the Barrel Theatre on Bayswater Road and depicting androgyny, bisexuality and the vibrant bohemian flamboyance of Sydney's '70s queer scene.

A young woman returns to a special place from her childhood.

In a desolate world, a mysterious red glow consumes all life. One woman attempts to survive.

Josh Frydenberg, former treasurer of Australia, presents a powerful and emotional documentary on the devastating impact of antisemitism on Australia following the horrendous terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7 last year. The documentary examines the rise in hostility towards Jewish people taking place around the world at levels not seen since the Holocaust.

Evoking the siren song of addiction as a grand, somewhat obtuse symbol, this distinctive film sets a mythical tale in a suburban Australian setting of Hills hoists and casserole dishes, memorably shot on 16mm.

In 1991 an incredulous, middle aged, Caucasian man with a bushy moustache was arrested – he alleged – for simply eating a Chinese meal in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. A “succulent” Chinese meal to be exact. In what would prove to be a case of mistaken identity, the enigmatic man put on a performance of Shakespearian proportions for the arresting police and swarm of awaiting news cameras on the scene. Fascinating, hilarious and truly bizarre, that video would go on to be immortalized as a YouTube viral sensation decades later; clocking up millions of views across the globe, making the man named Jack Karlson (or is that Paul Charles Dozsa? Cecil Edwards?) a modern folklore legend. This is the madcap and tragic true-ish life story about Jack: con man, master of disguise, safe cracker, prison escapee, father, husband, widower, actor – and the real truth behind that infamous video.

Alone in the bush, a young man is hunted by something familiar... something without eyes.

In the late 19th century, South Australia was in the grip of a mighty drought. Farmer’s wives had almost no agency – they were chattel, like the land itself, which had in turn been stolen. It was the women who carried the mercilessness of the men’s rage against the land. Adapted from the poem Dust by Anna Spargo-Ryan.

Autun, a small town in Burgundy with a quiet appearance, which has a well-established past. It was one of the largest and most spectacular capitals of Roman Gaul.

In the beautiful and towering mountains of Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, a paradise for Wingsuit professionals seeking thrills during the off-season, the lives of two men converge. Avalon, an American Wingsuit pilot, and a Filipino-Australian documentary filmmaker unite to capture Avalon’s audacious quest to leap from the mountainside as many times as humanly possible.

In the quirky world of ‘Ripe for Change,’ a group of diverse individuals find themselves entangled in a series of bizarre body swaps after indulging in a mysterious fruit at a remote market stall. As they navigate this hilariously twisted dark comedy adventure, one of them becomes increasingly suspicious of whether this phenomenon is just a bizarre side effect of the weed they smoked earlier or something much fruitier.

In this silent tableau, an eclectic bunch of dusty cowboys take care of domestic duties, putting a spin on traditional Western iconography.

In Pine Falls, a secluded and usually peaceful town, multiple acts of dismemberment and cannibalism have been reported. Nate, an unemployed teenager, is too caught up in his own world to notice or even care. For Nate, a terrible tragedy is when he can't find the time to hang out with his best friend Steve. Steve is a wise cracking, quick thinking, loyal friend- at least that's how Nate sees it. The reality is that Steve is a Zombie; a living corpse, contaminated by an infection that raises the dead, giving them an unquenchable desire to feed on human flesh. Despite his gruesome appearance and lack of social skills, the people of Pine Falls consider Steve to be nothing more than Nate's handsome friend, until it's too late.

A one-of-a-kind documentary exploring the lives of lesbians in Lebanon. Who are they, where do they hang out, what do they wear, and most importantly, how do they negotiate their desires within a troubled nation like Lebanon? This documentary will open a window to a hidden world, and introduce you to women who are savvy, sexy and confident about themselves. It will delight and surprise you! ​

Four best friends join together one Friday night wanting insanity — they're expecting a thrilling, drug-fuelled, deranged night without any restraints. Everything goes well, but what initially seems like a night that could last forever soon leaves them fatigued and contemplative — especially since someone is now on their minds.

This documentary takes a deep dive into the truth behind the flat Earth theory and exposes the people behind it.

What is behind Israel's war on Gaza? Why do so many Palestinians support armed struggle? Why are Israel and Hezbollah on the brink of full-scale war? In this hard-hitting debut documentary, Lebanese-Australian lawyer Nicholas Hanna explores these questions and crucial context largely ignored by mainstream media. Filmed in Lebanon and Occupied Palestine, The Last Sky is a must see documentary for anyone interested in understanding the current Gaza war and the escalating conflict in the region.

One of Sydney's last film projectionists, Alan Butterfield, reminisces about the past and contemplates the present. Alan has been an SFF projectionist since 1987.

Meet Clarissa, Oskar and Sidney - three punk rockers inside the virtual space of Chatworld. When two tycoons threaten to rebrand their digital home, they must band together to save their community, making an unlikely friend along the way.

Kabir anxiously rushes towards a dinner with his friends. But when he arrives, a friend's playful comment causes him to disassociate from the entire night.

When David finds a hidden stone and loses it, he must team up with Charlie to find what he lost.

In an attempt to solve the mystery, Stephen Knight concluded that five women-Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly-were murdered in 1888 to cover up a secret marriage between Prince Albert Victor, and Annie Elizabeth Crook, a working class Irish Catholic girl. Knight's main source, Joseph Gorman (Annie Crook's grandson, Walter Sickert's self-proclaimed son with Annie's daughter Alice Margaret Crook), later retracted the story and admitted to the press that it was a hoax.

Artist Emma (aka Cloudy) and musician River have a relationship built on openness, love and sexual fluidity, but the challenges of loving more than one person are put to the test when they move in together. When Emma is commissioned to exhibit at the gallery of her other lover, Zara, she chooses to focus the show on her relationship with River, exploring the timeless bond they share, the messy situations they find themselves in, the joy and the pain of their boundary pushing relationship. As Emma's opening night approaches, River is offered a gig that could put him on the map, but at the cost of missing Emma's show.

A film about Michelangelo's dream of the connection of the fingertips.

The world of things and movements traces itself backwards and forwards in an ecstatic vertigo of metaphysical allusion, whilst we sublimely subordinate the will to desire. "Look out", Marguerite Duras says, "you see the end of the world".

A guy and a girl, a secret and a world...

A trip to the Grampians, and Melbourne at twilight.

Various shots of streets, and Mousoulis household.

Various shots of streets.

“The Little Red Schoolbook?” Written by two Danes, the book sought to empower schoolchildren by having them question societal norms and fight for a better education system. 20 of its 200 pages included straight-up-and-down facts about sex and drugs. They were the pages that mattered. There were frank “how-to’s” on sexual acts using everyday profanities without apology. Drug facts were openly discussed. The book was non-judgemental, seeking to provide children with the information that adults had kept from them for years. And therein lay the anarchic rub.

In the not-so-distant future, all Australians work from home. They strap into their Sensory and Communication Masks (ScoMo) and peddle all day long, ignoring their overheating world outside. All but one. Mags is a janitor. She goes from home-to-home fixing, cleaning, and feeding the workers who are unaware of her presence. Her only company is her taxidermied dog, Malvern. But one day, Mags finds one of the workers dead on the job and her entire world begins to collapse.

A remote desert town, with a population of two people, is kept in pristine condition waiting for visitors that never seem to arrive.

Meet Graham. To survive on our roads, you’d need to look something like him. Graham is the TAC’s latest road safety project, highlighting how vulnerable the human body is to the forces involved in transport accidents.

Based on the works of famous Action films and television shows, Forest Fire tells the story of the hunt of an underground terrorist group by a single Special Forces Soldier.

Abstract short film.

Contemplations is an exploration of the depths and meanings of the psychedelic states, a collection of journeys, wisdom and insights from Australian entheogenic exploers.

A lesbian couple find they cannot escape the male gaze, even in the privacy of their own home.

A young boy is peer pressured into taking a new drug known as 'Red Eye' while out with friends. He suffers the consequences of the drug as his friend Nigel attempts to comfort him.

Andrew Hamilton grew up in the far north shore of Sydney. He had a good upbringing, but found himself convicted for selling a large commercial quantity of magic mushrooms, LSD and the supply of MDMA. A self proclaimed 'Mushroom King', Andrew sold shrooms for over a decade before getting arrested. After doing time in prison, Andrew has found a passion in stand up comedy and is travelling around Australia making people laugh. The power of laughter which he experienced in a maximum security prison was the light-bulb moment that took Andrew from the cell to the stages.

A trip to the supermarket, an awry medical procedure and a nonsensical figure compose an exploration into what makes us happy. Recorded on Super 8 film without editing.

A popular LGBTQ+ beauty influencer's world is thrown into chaos after discovering he has gained weight. Anxious about what his audience might think, the influencer hides his account from the internet, determined to make it public again once he has lost all of the weight. When a malicious rumor is spread about the influencer online his plan is interrupted. Now he must decide between returning to the online space, weight gain and all, or risk losing everything he has worked for.

Empire re-animates found historic stereographic photographs predominantly of Melbourne’s city centre between 1927 and 1940 when the colonial trace was slowly receding to produce a stereoscopic effect. Melbourne’s main Flinder’s Street Intersection is unsettlingly transformed into a Cubist perceptual maelstrom through repetition and flicker.

When a young Jewish boy, Sasha, is caught in the midst of WWII, he is forced to battle his identity during a vital growth period in his life in order to survive the war as a girl, Sala.

Tensions rise at a family dinner, as Jess and her partner Alex clash with her disapproving mother.

A visual onslaught of artistic ideas, showing how art relates to and intertwines with our daily lives. Art, personified here as an opera-singing Valkyrie, hang-glides down from the clouds to check on the state of the arts in Australia - from painting, writing and music to dance, theatre, puppetry and sculpture. Featuring John Bell, Anna Volska, Reg Livermore, Rory O'Donohue, David Gulpilil and the work of Thomas Keneally and Patrick White among others, this is a phantasmagoria of filmic effects.

A struggling insomniac starts to believe that they are haunted when they start hearing voices

Beau Miles rafts the Queen river, which is after 100 years of runoff from a mine, the most polluted river in Australia.

Kannava, 10 years after migrating to Australia as a 15 year old in 1974, returns to her home city of Limassol in Cyprus, to reconnect with her beloved grandmother.

Valiant is a short, educational film about building and maintaining healthy relationships and developing protective behaviour skills. Through four stories, Valiant explores issues related to consent, sexuality and healthy relationships for people with disability.

An alien in human form has foreseen the coming apocalypse. One of his followers agrees to sacrifice herself to avert disaster. But Lachlan sees through it – and sets out to save her.