Discoveries from Australia World Cinema

When technology exceeds humanity...

Rosie returns to her home city on the death of her father, a former policeman. His diaries hint at corruption, and she also receives hints and veiled threats which support her suspicions. Rosie puzzles about who he was, and about her early life and relationship to him.

In 2005, two 7th grade high school students discover an urban legend called the “Duval Dare” that has been passed down to many year groups of students who attended Pitchford High. Thinking it's a refreshing way to spend their school break, the boys accept the dare, but they begin to receive cryptic text messages from a mysterious person named, Ben Duval.

The final night of Mark and Jeremy's relationship, they wait it out, trying to find the way to say goodbye.

A big cat conservationist and his filmmaker brother travel into the Indonesian jungle to find and document the rare and endangered Javan leopard. As they travel deeper and deeper into the jungle they come to the realisation that they are being stalked by a deadly predator.

With Christmas just around the corner, everyone in Greenpatch is busily decorating the town square. Blinky Bill is up to his usual mischief and accidentally breaks Wombo's snowdome. To make amends, he decides to give Wombo a treat by creating a white Christmas in Greenpatch with real snow and a real Christmas tree. So Blinky and Flap begin a quest in search of the rare and mysterious Wollemi Pine Forest in order to cut down a tree for the village square in Greenpatch, while Splodge and Nutsy stay at home and, with a variety of outrageous experiments, try to create snow. Will they make snow it in time for Christmas Eve? Join Blinky Bill and his friends as they celebrate the magic of a traditional European White Christmas in the Australian Bush. Extraordinary!

A down-and-out clerk happens upon a bag of money. Unknown to him, the money is all counterfeit, forcing the innocent man to become involved with gangsters, as well as federal agents.

In a remote Aboriginal community, 10 year old Daniel yearns to be a gangster, like the male role models in his life. Skipping school, getting into fights and running drugs for Linden, who leads the main gang in town.

The world of a lonely deaf Parisian taxidermist is turned upside down and back to front when a dead pigeon arrives on his doorstep.

After the atomic obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, over 36,000 Australian men and women, part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF), marched onto Japanese soil. They were assigned the toughest and most dangerous area of Japan: Hiroshima Prefecture, which included the atom-bombed city. The Forgotten Force tells for the first time the story of Australia's role in Japan. Rare archival and private footage, photographs and eyewitness accounts from both sides vividly recreate the atmosphere of post-war Japan - the horror of Hiroshima and its aftermath; the struggle to build a new "democratic" society while under the heel of military rule; the growth from suspicion and fear to friendship and trust between foes.

John Farrow: Hollywood’s Man in the Shadows is the first documentary ever made about one of Hollywood’s most prolific yet forgotten filmmakers, John Villiers Farrow (1904 -1963). Part mystery, part biography, part film noir – the documentary follows the stranger than fiction story of this Australian born, Oscar-winning filmmaker. As one of Hollywood’s most enigmatic f igures, Farrow was the director of some 50 films; a sailor, a poet, a war hero, best-selling author, a religious scholar, a family man and a philanderer – a man who lived many lives – yet who left behind no memoirs, no interviews and no archival footage – and who today is only a shadow in the pages of film history.

Featuring 20 Show Stopping Songs... -Toot Toot. Chugga Chugga. Beig Red Car -Rock a Bye Your Bear -Lights. Camera. Action. Wiggles! -Hoop-Dee-Doo -The Monkey Dance -D.O.R.O.T.H.Y (My Favourite Dinosaur) -Rolling Down The Sandhills/Running Up The Sandhills -Can You (Point Your Fingers And Do The Twist?) -Where's Jeff -Fruit Salad -Captain Feathersword Fell Asleep On His Pirate Ship (Quack Quack) -...and many more! Not forgetting of course. Hot Potato!

Rachel's girlfriend, Kath, has finally moved in and Rachel has arranged the perfect weekend. Her plans start to unravel, however, when Kath's ex calls...

When disabled Finnish influencer Y-Man attracts a loyal female fanbase, his jealous online girlfriend demands a meeting in America. However, his condition limits his ability to travel, testing the boundaries of his faith.

A teenage boy from Tasmania is drawn into a petty crime gang in Melbourne.

Colgrave rolls out another collection of his crazy, surrealist creatures and this time they are moving to the music.

A man is brutally beaten so he and 4 others head to the beach for refuge and relaxation. It soon becomes clear that they've been imprisoned by person or persons unknown. Then an unknown mad killer begins picking off the vacationers, one by one.

Macarthy is a country town football champ who is kidnapped in a neon lit helicopter by tyrant Colonel Ball-Miller, the tycoon president of the South Melbourne football club.

With only nightmares for childhood memories, Lily Stone returns to her family home to find out what happened to her parents. Despite the locals' warnings about an evil presence cursing the house, Lily crosses the threshold and discovers not all the ghosts that haunt us are dead.

John Brandy is an ex-cop on holiday in Singapore with his girlfriend Ginger when he hears an old Perth banker friend of his, Frank Newman, has committed suicide. He travels to Perth and discovers that Newman killed himself after being drugged at a party and found himself in a pornographic film; he was blackmailed and embezzled money to pay off his tormentors, but when the film was distributed anyway he decided to take his own life. Newman and Ginger decide to investigate who is behind the blackmail racket.

Svenja and her 16-year-old daughter Kira have traveled the world a lot. Svenja is a hotel manager and is currently bringing an aging hotel in Australia back into shape. But her biggest challenge is her daughter, who has switched to complete refusal and doesn't let Svenja tell her anything anymore. Kira doesn't avoid confrontations at school either, which in turn leads to conflicts with Svenja. After another argument, Kira decides to go to Jack. Jack is Aboriginal and Kira's only friend. Together, the two young people go in search of their “special place”, their own particular locality. Svenja is beside herself with worry when she notices Kira's disappearance and gives chase with Jack's father Kalti, a deeply relaxed hotel boat guide whom Svenja had released two days earlier. An adventurous journey begins in the barren deserted Outback - for Svenja and Kira a strange world, fascinating, but also life-threatening!

Haunted by his tragic past, Basant befriends a married woman even as the migrant community of Salt Bridge frowns upon this relationship.

A story through a child's eyes about living through a drought.

A documentary short film in which three men recount their respective father's history with the Fiat Topolino.

A celebrated darts player and die-hard drinker is visited by death at the pub. The two soon find themselves locked in an epic game of darts with Terry's soul and status at stake.

A Northern Territory policeman, is given the job of taking an Aboriginal prisoner Emu Foot, to Alice Springs to be tried for a tribal killing. Bayard is wounded during a revenge attack by tribesmen, and Emu Foot helps him get to a remote cattle station. But there Bayard gets involved in a domestic crisis involving Julie Kirkbride, the neurotic, bored wife of the station owner, and is tempted by the head stockman's daughter Chris Palady.

Sixteen-year-old Billie’s reluctant path to independence is accelerated when her mother reveals plans for gender transition, and their time together becomes limited to Tuesdays. This emotionally charged story of desire, responsibility, and transformation was filmed over the course of a year—once a week, every week, only on Tuesdays.

Documentary on the history of gay and lesbian film.

An unflinchingly funny satire following three millennial couples whose relationships are thrown into disarray when they descend on a luxury Southern Highlands farmstay for a birthday weekend they'll never forget.

Jarred by the loss of his closest friend, a farmer on Tasmania’s remote West Coast, begins to mentor at-risk local youth. In an area renowned for its poverty, low literacy, and high suicide rates, Stafford Heres is determined to provide opportunities for kids who have few. Eden Alone Surpasses Thee explores his relationship with the land, loss, and the young men he takes under his wing.

Tuuli grows up in an oppressively religious and abusive family in Finland. To escape from the shadow of her angelic twin sister she travels to Melbourne, Australia. Curious of sexuality, she becomes a nude model for art classes. Her innocent surface reveals sordid cracks as she sets about exerting her twisted version of righteousness.

Outlaws kidnap their 14-year-old cousin and hold her for ransom. The girl is being chaperoned by a visiting nun, who refuses to abandon her during the kidnapping.

After finding himself on the wrong side of the law, a young man, Noah, awakes in a mysterious facility. As a medical researcher draws closer to the truth, everyone involved must question the consequences of choices made.

Oscar©, a powerful exploration of the life and writings of literary legend, Oscar Wilde. A spectacular new full-length ballet by Tony Award-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon In a celebration of the beauty and complexity of love in all its forms, Oscar© brings queer romance to life through Wheeldon’s innovative and heart-stirring choreography. Oscar© journeys through the extraordinary life of Wilde – a man who dared to live and write with unapologetic boldness – while masterfully integrating two of Wilde’s best-known works, The Nightingale and the Rose and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Actress Maria, and filmmaker Luke, travelled from LA to Spain in March 2020 to get married. The pandemic caused them to cancel the wedding, and forced them into lockdown with Luke’s mum, Karen, who had travelled all the way from Australia. Luke filmed it all and put it online as a series. They cancelled their wedding again when Maria fell pregnant. Luke filmed that too. Maria is now determined to get married. Luke, feeling stuck in Spain, thinks the only way to enjoy the wedding and cling to his old dreams is to film it. For Maria, sick of their life being public, it’s the final straw.

Dr. Helen Caldicott, firebrand anti-nuclear campaigner, celebrated author, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, is too alarmed to retire. Certain that the White House's War on Terror is escalating the global nuclear arms race, she embarks on an explosive crusade across post 9/11 USA, armed with her fifth book, 'The New Nuclear Danger', and a furious determination to rally the American people against Star Wars and the new nuclear weapons labs before it is too late.

Tackling Peace is the inspirational story of Israeli and Palestinian youths who unite over the game of Australian football. Tackling Peace goes behind the scenes as young men from different sides of a bloody political war set aside a lifetime of prejudice and hostility to compete as a team in the Australian Football League's International Cup. Few of the aspirant players had ever heard of the game and none imagined befriending teammates from across the political divide.

A conservatively raised capitalist travels the world on an evolutionary journey exploring alternative economic and political models in a pursuit for greater global peace, unity and wealth equality.

A disillusioned musician's romantic spark is ignited by a young trans man as they work together to save his community nightclub for the deaf.

A socially anxious teen faces his ultimate boss battle: buying a video game. His overactive imagination turns a simple transaction into an epic disaster, proving that the real enemy is just awkward small talk.

This visually stunning short film set in the rural wheat belt of Western Australia, provides a candid insight into the life of Ronan, a 14 yr old boy who's been bullied his whole life at school. This accurate & controversial portrayal of life for someone who has fallen victim to bullying and the repercussions which exist, is told by director A.J. Carter in a unique, exposition intensive format with very little use of dialogue. Ronan's Escape presents arbitrary scenes rather than traditional storytelling which provokes audiences into discussion and interpretation of the scenes on a more personal level while reflecting on their own experiences.

Two women battle for control of an inner-city boxing school.

The first Australian film to feature Auslan (Australian Sign Language). "A Silent Agreement" tells the story of Reuben, a sensitive writer, who grapples with a speech impediment. His boyfriend, Derek, a profoundly deaf Human Rights activist, provides strategies to restore his confidence and communication skills. When Reuben approaches an over-the-hill film producer with his autobiographical screenplay, the producer betrays him and Reuben is forced to overcome the long-term effects of bullying in order to succeed.

At Sturnley’s Supamart, a faded family grocery store, awkward checkout clerk Nora dreams of singing the store jingle. But when a customer mistakes small talk for life-changing wisdom, Nora is thrust into the spotlight as the store’s new mascot. Overnight, she is elevated from trainee to the face of the Sturnley empire, caught between her power-hungry father, her jealous brother, and the zealous locals. As Nora’s influence spirals into absurdity, she must decide whether to stick to the script or use her own voice.

Ian Leslie (The Aussie Geraldo Rivera) focuses on well known cases of Satanic killings in the United States and England. It gathers a group of victims, heavy metal singers, clergymen, experts and Satanic leaders for a lively studio debate. The Australian counterpart to Exposing Satan's Underground.

Stories of injury, fear, humour and falling in love from soldiers caught up in conflicts from World War II, Vietnam and Afghanistan. Discover the people behind the new sculptures in Greensborough War Memorial Park.

Trapped in the care of her lonely uncle, a young girl’s nightmares about a bizarre kitchen appliance manifest into reality.

This 1971 animated movie tells the well-known story of Jim Hawkins and his adventures in search of treasure of Treasure Island.

Two boys are talking after a bicycle accident. The older is bragging about his experience with girls, but is that just a boast?

Fourth adaptation and first made for television of the classic Australian bushranger novel "Robbery Under Arms" by Rolf Boldrewood. Made by the South Australian Film Corporation during the mini-series boom of the 1980s and lensed in the Flinders Ranges, it stars Sam Neill as the infamous Captain Starlight.

Emilia Kong - a filmmaker on the verge of being evicted who applies for funding through fictional organisation Film Reach to get her script financed and appease her landlord. Funding officer Shannon Edmunds is her only hope, but he soon falls for her best friend, Zoe Chadwick, leading them to open a can of worms on their past.

A young couple in tropical Australia is trapped in their home by three fugitives carrying a mysterious icebox containing unknown contents, and they must rely on their wits and cunning to survive as a severe tropical cyclone looms.

A neighborhood is plagued by mysterious tragedies when a young man becomes the conduit for an unknown spirit, the "Aiyai," which lures victims to their chilling fates.

With good King Richard away at war, the greedy Sheriff has forced the residents of Nottingham to pay all their money to him. But Robin Hood, with the help of his friend Maid Marion, a spy in the Sheriff's castle, is out to thwart the evil Sheriff and return the Kind to his rightful throne.

A young man discovers a hole in the floor of a local motel that leads to yesterday.

After losing their beloved mentor days before the big national Scooter Race, the inexperienced Norah and her two best friends seek out the guidance of a reclusive idol to take down a wealthy, rival crew.

Jack Shindo and Stanley Haggard are astronauts doing research on the planet Mars. On a routine mission to survey the desolate landscape, they found out that there are other living creatures on the planet! Their biggest threat is Goudis, whose monsters have been ordered to kill all life on earth. Returning from a mission on Mars, the Ultraman has to take on Goudis to save the planet and all the human beings on Earth!

During the 1860s, Dave Powers, apprentice to a horse trainer, volunteers to ride Archer to the Melbourne Cup race. Their start is 600 miles from Melbourne, and the journey is anything but easy. Of course, the pair have numerous adventures along the way, and in the end Archer competes in the Melbourne Cup race.

When Sarah becomes a remote carer to escape her violent city past, she discovers your demons can follow, turning tranquility into a terrifying nightmare.

This pulse-racing real-life adventure follows two of Australia's greatest surf legends on their quest to hunt down and ride the Pacific's biggest and most dangerous waves. With 3D cameras installed on their boards, Ross Clarke-Jones and Tom Carroll defy middle age by pushing the limits of what they — and cinema technology — can do.