Discoveries from Australia World Cinema

When a sudden flood traps a group of strangers in an outback roadhouse it becomes clear that the threat from within the group is far greater than from raging torrent outside.

A tale of two elephant brothers, Tutu and Zef, in search of their mother, and the menagerie of wild creatures they encounter along the way. Just days after the birth of baby elephant Tutu, human hunters arrive late at night and decimate the herd. Faced with the loss of their family, Tutu and Zef set off across the African plain in search of a future.

A nephew recalls the sometimes-lonely and often-eccentric life of his beloved uncle.

Jamal has just returned to Australia after disappearing overseas for 18 months fighting in Syria. He's back in the country and wants to see his terminally ill mother, however he has to deal with his strong-minded older brother Omar, then his wife Heidi and their young son whom he left behind, but most importantly his unforgiving father. But why has Jamal really come back? Is he a militant with a cause or an easily led pawn in a bigger picture? A story about redemption, forgiveness and the consequences of your actions on loved ones and those you leave behind.

A young girl obsessed with watching the heavens bets her telescope with the local bully that their oddly acting new neighbours are not aliens from outer space.

The story of five brothers who homestead, with other settlers, on the virgin plateaus of the Australian bush country.

Returning to the mountains of northern Vietnam to investigate the mysterious abduction of his teenaged friends, an Australian filmmaker uncovers a local human trafficking crisis, and sparks an incredible series of events. Sisters For Sale is a powerful, very personal story exploring the complex realities of human trafficking; an inspiring true story of hope, courage and freedom, with the power to make a real difference.

In dreams, Anthony is a villager who enjoys a fruitful lifestyle, helping his neighbourhood and creating unique friendships with the townsfolk. When he suddenly sees his long lost biological parents in one of his dreams, he journeys through his subconscious in an attempt to find them and potentially reconnect. However, throughout his journey, he crosses from his own dreamworld into an astral plane, of which he cannot return from.

When Dick's therapist is locked up on suicide watch, he sees an opportunity to start his own clinic – in his garage.

A kingdom's ascending heir, marked for assassination, switches identities with a lookalike, who takes his place at the coronation. When the real king is kidnapped, his followers try to find him, while the stand-in falls in love with the king's intended bride, the beautiful Princess Flavia.

Cody and Fiorelli try to catch diamond smugglers, but the gems are not where they were supposed to be. Cody embarks to infiltrate the dealers who brought the diamonds in from South Africa. He also searches for a missing teenager.

A love story about a young man who runs away up an isolated Australian river and gets a job with eighth generation oyster famers.

Questioning the world we live in. An outrageous Los Angeles producer sets out to make the most extreme and controversial Reality Television show ever, but gets more than he bargained for.

Daniel brings a pet home but his flatmates are less than excited about the idea.

Blackfella Charlie is getting older, and he's out of sorts. The intervention is making life more difficult on his remote community, what with the proper policing of whitefella laws that don't generally make much sense, and Charlie's kin and ken seeming more interested in going along with things than doing anything about it. So Charlie takes off, to live the old way, but in doing so sets off a chain of events in his life that has him return to his community chastened, and somewhat the wiser.

Maria and her son Dai flee an abusive husband, hiding on an abandoned farm during bushfires. As emergency services search for the missing family, Dai uncovers sinister secrets about the farm.

George is haunted by the demons of his family's past and tortured by the voices inside his head. He makes one last attempt at recovery by contacting his dead mother's doctor. The doctor's orders; that he attend Bedlam Hospital for a guaranteed recovery. As George checks in he's confronted by a world of society's unwanted, unloved and unstable. Soon, he will discover that all is not as it seems. The hospital hides a dark secret. Welcome to Bedlam...

Catherine and Liz want to have a baby - well, Catherine does anyway. Doesn't she realize this will change everything? Probably not. Spending hours on the phone with the sperm bank doesn't leave a lot of time to think about family matters. A humorous drama dealing with the current debate on the very real issue of gay and lesbian couples starting families, IVF programs and the evolving community attitudes towards these changes. A buoyant and entertaining journey through dial-up sperm banks, relationships and baby clothes.

Set in the summer of 1910 in Australia the film follows the story of 14 year old Alan Marshall (Alexander Outhread) as he stumbles out of childhood towards the exciting yet forbidding world of adulthood. For Alan, despite the effects of polio, there is only one passion in life - to become a great horseman just like his hero, the reclusive horse trainer East Driscoll (Russell Crowe). Alan is one of East's few friends and also one of the few who knows about the affair between East and the aristocratic English woman Grace McAlister (Charlotte Rampling). Things inevitably take a turn towards the tragic when East becomes determined to force Grace to leave her husband and run away with him. Hammers Over The Anvil is an evocative coming of age film from Australian director Ann Turner.

Imagine eating nothing but traditional, authentic Japanese cooking for 12 weeks. What sort of health benefits would this kind of diet have on one's body? In a dieting experiment similar to Supersize Me, but towards improving health, award-winning actor and comedian Craig Anderson does just this. Through a series of entertaining and educational scenarios filled with culinary secrets and cultural chaos, Craig investigates how the traditional Japanese diet, along with their active lifestyles, results in the Japanese population being the healthiest and longest living people on the planet. Miso Hungry is a light-hearted documentary about one man's journey to find a simple, painless path towards a healthier life.

Imagine eating nothing but traditional, authentic Japanese cooking for 12 weeks. What sort of health benefits would this kind of diet have on one's body? In a dieting experiment similar to Supersize Me, but towards improving health, award-winning actor and comedian Craig Anderson does just this. Through a series of entertaining and educational scenarios filled with culinary secrets and cultural chaos, Craig investigates how the traditional Japanese diet, along with their active lifestyles, results in the Japanese population being the healthiest and longest living people on the planet. Miso Hungry is a light-hearted documentary about one man's journey to find a simple, painless path towards a healthier life.

Via the New York Times: "...reconstructs the true story of a coal miners' strike in the small town of Korumburra in the mid-30's... based on the real-life story of two remarkable characters, Wattie Doig, a miner who became a militant Communist activist, and his wife, Agnes, who progressed from staunch Presbyterianism to membership in the Salvation Army and, finally, to labor organization."

Chan is a Chinese factory worker who lives alone. Every night, she suffers from horrific nightmares involving the woman in the apartment next door, a Japanese office lady.

Teenage boy from a small village learns that he is in fact the secret twin brother of the current corrupt king of France. The four musketeers ask him to replace the king, but in a way that no one finds out about the switch. Burbank Films Australia animated release.

This film is a documentary based on three location scouts, who in the summer of 2010 went missing while on location.

An aboriginal girl is brought up by a white family that adopts her. As a young woman, she is mysteriously drawn to go "Walkabout" as people of her tribe have for hundreds of years.

Third Sherlock Holmes animated film starring Peter O'Toole.

Len, a mildly autistic man, is having trouble with day-to-day life after his mother's death, until she sends him something quite unexpected to help him on his way.

Alongside Sydney's golden beaches stands one of the city's oldest and most mysterious houses - Red Rabbit Lodge, a sanctuary for foreign students during their final college years, including Abigail Mason, trying to put her traumatic past behind her. Unbeknownst to her and the other lodgers, the house has a history of blood and mayhem - and a sadistic killer who still hides within the walls.

After years of silence, Australia's foremost feminist performance poet makes her highly anticipated return.

Four best friends go on a girl’s night out, who end up on a path none of them expected and find out it really does only take one night to change your life.

Two broken people - a Lao-Australian woman and a teenage hitchhiker - must navigate grief, isolation and an unlikely connection forged over one night in a roadside motel.

Jenny Grey a horse loving country girl leaves her widowed father to move to the city after her father's frustrations towards Jenny and her desires to ride horses, after her mother had died from a horse-riding accident. Jenny finds work at a country race track and becomes obsessed with a troublesome horse called "Blue Fire Lady". "Blue Fire Lady" shows promise in Jenny's hands, but around everyone else misbehaves and shows no discipline. When "Blue Fire Lady" is put up for auction it is up to Jenny to either buy her or prove her.

A young Aboriginal boy is torn between his unexpected love of acting and the disintegration of his family.

After a car accident, Ben wakes up in hospital. Not knowing where he is or what is going on, he starts exploring the corridors...only to find that the staff don't have his health in mind! The hapless patient must pull himself together and do everything he can to escape. It's an action/horror/comedy — ending with the wheelchair chase from hell!

The world has been left in ruins following the outbreak of a terrifying disease. Deep in the Australian countryside, a group of survivors are locked in a constant struggle to stay alive.

Eleven souls, trapped in an underground carpark, are attacked by deadly, remote controlled toys. Only a few will survive.

The Alexander Ball is an observational documentary extravaganza celebrating Samoan-Māori-Australian trans woman of colour, Ella Ganza, and the Meanjin (Brisbane) ballroom scene, as she and her ballroom family prepare for one of the biggest pride events of the year: The Alexander Ball.

An elderly English doctor and his 14-year old American nephew go on a perilous journey to Africa in an hot air balloon with an African guide, to retrieve a precious diamond from the top of a volcanic rock, as a gift for Queen Victoria.

Imagine what it would be like if black settlers arrived to settle a continent inhabited by white natives? In 1788, the first white settlers arrived in Botany Bay to begin the process of white colonisation of Australia. But in Babakiueria, the roles are reversed in a delightful and light-hearted look at colonisation of a different kind. This satirical examination of black-white relations in Australia first screened on ABC TV in 1986 to widespread acclaim with both critics and audiences alike. This is the story of the fictitious land of Babakiueria, where white people are the minority and must obey black laws. Aboriginal actors Michelle Torres and Bob Maza (Heartland) and supported by a number of familiar faces from the time, including Cecily Polson (E-Street) and Tony Barry, who starred in major ABC-TV hits such as I Can Jump Puddles and his Penguin award-winning Scales of Justice. Babakiueria was awarded the United Nations Media Peace Prize in 1987.

In the final film in the Chameleon trilogy, the genetically-engineered agent Kam must thwart the plans of her evil twin brother.

Friends and family gather around the death bed of Gavin, where they assist in the dying man's suicide. But though Gavin's pain has been laid to rest, the grief felt by everyone there has only begun, and Walking on Water compassionately follows the attempts of Gavin's closest friends Anna and Charlie to recover from their loss.

A chance encounter with an online dating match turns awkward when an unexpected presence reveals their true colours. A comedy on moral masking.

A teenager moves in with his 20-something Aunt to finish his final year at school and falls for her house-mate.

Every safari needs a guide. Especially if it's a wiggly safari. After all, there are lots of animals in Australia. So, who better to lead The Wiggles on an animal adventure than the Crocodile Hunter himself?! That's right, Steve Irwin, together with his wife Terri and daughter Bindi, have teamed up with The Wiggles for a wiggly, giggly good time at Australia Zoo. Come along on a song-and-dance-filled adventure with the dingos, emus, kookaburras and more. But don't forget, on this safari, crocs rule! Crikey, get ready t0 wiggle!

Ten years ago, a baby was killed in a house arson fire after a violent home invasion. The parents used the tragedy as a motivation to help build an evangelical community church but now the mother has comes to Jack for help. Jack agrees to look into the still unsolved crime but in looking for the truth Jack will have to fight the system and his own conscience to uncover a tangled web of lies and deception. In the end, Jack must decide if the truth should prevail over the interests of the innocent.

A young man in trouble is forced to drag his family into the problem.

An American brother and sister move to Australia to manage a cattle station, but the brother's racist attitude causes problems. After hearing a message by evangelist Billy Graham on the radio though, he has a change of heart and learns to accept the Aboriginal people.

From the moment Peter Daicos stepped onto the playing fields in a Collingwood guernsey it was obvious that he was different from other players. The Peter Daicos story follows the Macedonian Marvel's rise to football's highest peak and is essential viewing for all lovers of football at it's best.

The damning files which expose the evil of American billionaire and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Tara Brown investigates.

For the first 18 years of her life, Mozart’s sister shared equal billing with her brother. Musical partners and collaborators, Wolfgang Mozart and Maria-Anna Mozart played together before Kings and Queens, and were the talk of Europe. What happened to her? Forced into retirement by age 16 because she was a woman, a stunning new investigation explores why she was retired against her will and the explosive theory: did Maria-Anna Mozart continue to compose in secret?

In Southern Rhodesia in the 1940s, city-dweller Mary marries farmer Dick Turner and is plucked from the comforts of her cosmopolitan life and forced to live on his unsuccessful farm. Mary slowly goes insane and has a sexual affair with her black servant, Moses. When the affair is discovered, Mary asks Moses to leave the farm, but he returns and murders her.

Alvin Purple, a man who can't hold down a job because of his voracious sexual appetite, impersonates a dead American Gangster.

My First Wife is about the dramatic collapse of the marriage between John and Helen. It is also a film about our children and the future we offer them. Helen has decided to leave, and it is John who lacks the inner resources to cope with the impending tragedy. Slowly he is sucked into a tunnel of despair – fighting his conservative nature and the romantic memories of his married life.

An Alien invasion sees mankind mutated into monstrous slaves and women rounded up for alien hybrid breeding experiments. A few brave women find the strength to fight back.

Alcohol, drugs and filth all do their best to ruin the plans of two burnout losers. Friendship and the desire to change one's circumstances drive the pair in their frantic hunt for their car keys. Will this drunken pair find the keys to their new life?

Tony is released from prison and goes in search of what once was happiness: Anna. He hits the road hoping to find her and makes a friend along the way.

In 1944, Australia a World War 1 vet encounters an escaped Japanese P.O.W on his rural farm.

A girl stands on a lonely road looking into the distance and into her future.

As notions of civil rights transformed across the world, so was the screen landscape reformed by the ascension of grassroots film movements seeking to challenge the mainstream. Some aspired to push form to its limit; others worked to destabilise what they saw as a homogenous industry, or to provoke questions around gender, sexuality, migration and race.