Discoveries from Australia World Cinema

The story of five unique Australians who have been nominated for the Australian of the Year Award. Phil, a rescue hero who saved nine children in a jumping castle accident. Ricky, a Chinese physics genius and aspiring actor. Ja’mie, a charity-minded schoolgirl who sponsors 85 Sudanese children. Daniel and Nathan, hearing impaired teenage twin farm boys embarking on a world first eardrum transplant. And Pat, a disabled suburban housewife turned elite athlete.

Dramatization of Russian ballet star Vaclav Nijinsky's diaries which detail his madness as well as his homosexual relationship with Ballet Russe impresario Sergei Diaghilev and his marriage to his Hungarian wife.

Sam Barlow is a Vietnam veteran who runs a small store that caters to surfers in this action thriller. When his best friend is murdered, Sam takes on the mobsters to avenge the death. With the help of a beautiful blonde, Sam uncovers a sex scandal involving a high-ranking government official. Also implicated are a sadistic soldier of fortune and a corrupt cop who tries to impede the investigation.

How a “gentle giant” from Fremantle, Australia, ended up playing alongside Michael Jordan on the “greatest team of all time.”

A group of filmmakers make a "shockumentary", when visiting an abandoned TV studio. But the tables turn when their lunatic victim sets them up on an insane crazy game show.

Impression and interpretation: A film that relies on sensory techniques to tell a story about depression, alienation and ultimately loneliness.

Bored during the summer holidays and escaping the heat, a group of kids (and their joey!) from Cook, on the Nullarbor Plain, discover a limestone cave with a huge underground lake. Meanwhile in town, a detective is called in from Port Augusta to investigate a stolen car and some sinister kangaroo shooters. When the kids discover their tucker and canoe have disappeared, they decide to do some investigating of their own. An Australian black and white short film written and directed by Tim Burstall (Alvin Purple).

The Princess Miranda lives with her father, King of the Sea, and two sisters in a magical underwater palace. Miranda has the most beautiful voice of all the underwater kingdom, to the delight of all its inhabitants. The princess feels a great curiosity about the world above and why humans do not treat sea creatures with the same respect it. To celebrate its fifteenth birthday her father allows Miranda to see the human world with her faithful friend Acme, an otter. On the way to the coast the princess saves the life of a drowning man, a handsome young prince who falls in love.

When Bella is asked to accompany her troublesome grandfather to the market, they all get a lot more than they bargained for.

At the age of 10, Australian-born Andi Gibson had what she describes as a close encounter with a flying saucer. Naturally, everyone assumed she was bonkers. That is until one notable evening, 17 years later, when an airborne extra-terrestrial armada launches a nation-wide assault on Andi's home country and at the same time, for unspecified reasons, kidnaps her mother. To add to the debacle, it seems the other nations of the world are far too insulted by their exclusion from the attack to come to Australia's aid. Now it is up to Andi, her hypochondriac brother Elliot, retired boxer cousin Keith and documentary filmmaker friend Cam to stop the attack and rescue Andi's mum. Enlisting the help of Andi's equal-parts mysterious and cringeworthy father, the gang must battle car-chasing spaceships, martial-arts aliens, giant killer robots and, perhaps most frighteningly, a deluge of family secrets in their fight to save Australia. Bloody hell, this is gonna be a long night

Angered by all the child abuse in the world, a child psychologist goes vigilante, targeting child sex offenders who escaped severe sentences.

A disillusioned author’s world collides when he crosses paths with a masked vigilante and a charismatic ex-convict scheming to take down a doomsday cult.

Enter the world of an ancient creature that has become an expert weaver, a consummate hunter, and with more than 30,000 faces - a master of adaption.

A young businessman befriends a troubled homeless girl on the streets of Sydney and is drawn into her secret fantasy world. Over a lost weekend they try out new personalities - from hippies to grunting cavemen. But as these games bring them closer together they are forced to confront the frightening reality of each other's lives.

A young artist sits on the sidewalk, struggling to make a living. She makes drawings for the passersby. A businessman recognises her talents and offers her a paying job. The prospect seems inviting but the reality threatens to kill her imagination.

When the clubhouse of a group of country kids, known as the "Terrible ten" needs money for funding they invent numerous ways to make money. During their attempts at making puddings and selling mineral water they stumble on a formula for breeding coloured sheep.

When a man discovers a golden braid hidden inside an antique he has purchased, he becomes obsessed with the fantasy of a love affair from time past and the woman he imagines the braid belonged to.

Follows Janet Paine, a well-intentioned but deeply insecure Manhattan PR executive with a specialty for smear campaigns.

Frank Hurley's photos of Antarctic heroes, World Wars and mysterious natives in faraway jungles grabbed the attention of all who saw them. But just how real were they? Was he a giant in photography or just a conjurer with a camera?

Generally regarded as Australia's finest railway film and winner of many awards the world over, A Steam Train Passes is a nostalgic, imaginative essay on one of the majestic C38 class steam locomotives, 3801. The locomotive has recently returned to service and is currently operating out of the NSW Rail Museum at Thirlmere, south of Sydney.

Ali is a gay Lebanese probationary constable and kicking against her Muslim brother's controlling behaviour. When she attends a 'concern for welfare' and discovers the body of an elderly man who died alone and unnoticed, she realises the value of a loving family, even if they can be misguided.

During the week, they are white-collar professionals with responsible jobs, families and mortgages. Come the weekend, they transform into Lycra-clad super heroes; road warriors on expensive carbon framed bikes traveling in packs and competing with other males for dominance in the group. MAMIL is a feature length documentary that dares to enter this secret world of middle-aged men to uncover the reasons they take to the road.

A 1979 documentary on Java and Bali, written and directed by Phillip Noyce. The end credits say this film was produced for QANTAS Airways, which suggests it was used as some sort of promotional piece for travel to these particular locations.

Madisha’s morning couldn’t get any worse: a rootless Gen Z already struggling to find her purpose in life, she’s just learned that her housemate is ditching her and is still reeling from having lost her most recent job under cloudy circumstances. So when she gets a call advising her of fraudulent activity on her bank account and urgently requesting that she withdraw all of her money in cash, Madisha is sent on a panicked odyssey through the Melbourne CBD – a pursuit that leads her to ominous alleyways, busy street corners, an alcohol-soaked house party and, perhaps, the fledgling desire to take charge of her own life.

The creator of a time machine becomes trapped inside his own creation where he must figure out the timing of his mistakes.

The Northern Bank chain was owned by the National Australia Bank. Diana, a young Australian police detective who is in Belfast at the same time, seizes the opportunity to investigate the biggest crime of her career and prove herself to her misogynistic bosses back home who have passed her over for promotion. Diana is teamed with Crawford, a gruff, veteran Northern Irish police detective who does not want her help. As the case takes one more bizarre turn after another, Diana and Crawford learn to grudgingly respect each other. As they almost give up hope of catching the criminals, Diana comes up with an ingenious plan which will make the stolen millions worthless.

Through lyrical images, Manganinnie journeys across mountains towards the coast with Joanna, a white girl, in search of Manganinnie's vanished tribe. The poignancy of this film derives from the Aboriginal woman's gradual realization that her people and the tribal way of life are forever gone. It is the story of the Black Drive of 1830, the near-genocide of the Tasmanian Aborigines.

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

Damon Kennedy (Tamblyn Lord, The River Kings) is an impressionable young man ready to begin university life. On the other side of the tracks live Terry (Craig Pearce, co-author of Strictly Ballroom), Felix (John Godden) and Benny (Kelly Dingwall) — who get their kicks out of robbing houses and chasing girls. But they're broke and all out of cash. During a routine burglary the gang discover an innocent Damon. Brushing off the intrusion and pretending they are looking for some mates, the gang flee the scene but bored Damon follows them and joins their group for the day, hoping to find some fun.When the gang picks up two girls, things become unhinged as a drunk Damon brags about some of his family's many affluent friends. Forced to take them to one of his cash-rich contacts, Damon's nightmare has only just begun. As Terry discovers that the wealthy don't always carry cash, what starts as a burglary soon turns into a killing spree.

Eleven-year-old Marco (Daniel D'Amico) is cunning and smart, and he knows it. With the face of an angel and the heart of a trickster, his pranks are the terror of the neighborhood and everyone is fair game for his cunning imagination. Can Marco get away with his annoying behavior or will he end up behind the eight ball? Can the town be made safe from Marco the Menace?

A portrait of a man confronting the dread of another day in grief and solitude by the seaside.

Documentary from Kiwi filmmaker Florian Habicht on the most successful haunted attraction in the Southern Hemisphere, Auckland’s Spookers.

It's Grand Final Day and in a suburban police station about to be replaced by an AI 'Terminal', the two remaining cops (Nicolette Minster and Ray O'Leary) are tasked with babysitting a drug dealer for 24 hours.

A gem with magic powers falls into the wrong hands. A man known as "The Protector" is charged with tracking down the criminals who stole it and getting it back.

A conflicted gay man struggles to teach his younger self about the challenges of adult life. Searching for answers inside stories from his past, he must confront his nature and the man he will become. Documentary meets musical feature in this experimental coming of age drama about power and masculinity in modern day Australia.

In a world that judges people by their number, Zero faces constant prejudice and persecution. He walks a lonely path until a chance encounter changes his life forever: he meets a female zero. Together they prove that through determination, courage, and love, nothing can be truly something.

Leaving a broken marriage and finding a job at a motel could be the best thing that's happened to Marion in years. Disturbing phone messages however soon begin to threaten her sanity.

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?

The desperate misadventures of a young man, racing against the clock toward a mysterious destination. This was the first short film that Nash wrote and directed. It was made for $80 and won first prize at Tropfest in 1997.

Anne Hamilton-Byrne was beautiful, charismatic and delusional. She was also incredibly dangerous. Convinced she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, Hamilton-Byrne headed an apocalyptic sect called The Family, which was prominent in Melbourne from the 1960s through to the 1990s. With her husband Bill, she acquired numerous children – some through adoption scams, some born to cult members – and raised them as her own. Isolated from the outside world, the children were dressed in matching outfits, had identical dyed blonde hair, and were allegedly beaten, starved and injected with LSD. Taught that Hamilton-Byrne was both their mother and the messiah, the children were eventually rescued during a police raid in 1987, but their trauma had only just begun.

Lolly has always searched for her father who abandoned her and her sister DeDe, believing that finding him will right all wrongs. Her quest leads her into an adult world, which it seems, is no place for a child. The answers Lolly seeks are secreted in the unspoken past. As the doors close on her efforts, Lolly is faced with the harshest of realities. Nobody’s Child is a coming of age story about a young girl searching for her identity.

Upon completing his six years in jail, after taking the wrap for his brother Chris's crime, Rick finds his family in financial hardship and he is unable to acquire a job to help provide. In the hopes of finding financial freedom for their family, Rick is lured by Chris into a uniquely well devised and low risk method of bank robbing, and the boys quickly become successful career criminals. Their success is short lived as Rick is unaware that his older brother stole this full-proof method from another career criminal, who is now demanding full compensation, drawing the brothers into a high-stakes conflict for their freedom, family, the money, and redemption.

Pop. Bang. Crash. It’s an epic historical yarn. Gabriel Bath’s Ships That Bear takes the audience on a journey that starts in the Cuban plains and ends in The Big Apple, all whilst his camera never leaves good ol’ Adelaide.

Set in 1901, the film follows the progress of Constable Peterson (Matthaei) on his quest to bring an Aboriginal man (Kamahl) to justice under the White Man's law. Having heard of a killing that took place under tribal law, Peterson embarks on a mission to arrest the accused man with the help of Black Tracker Jubbal (Devereaux) and bring him back to Melbourne for trial. It is a journey of discovery for both Peterson and Jubbal. Jubbal finds himself caught between black and white society, eventually dying following a curse placed on him during a traditional bone pointing ceremony. Peterson is left to try take the prisoner back to Melbourne alone, but cannot negotiate the pitfalls of the desert without the help of his prisoner. During the latter stages of his return, Peterson begins to understand the folly of his mission, releasing the Aboriginal man to return to his people. Finally, the metaphorical journey out of darkness is the one made by Peterson.

Filmed in India over six years and narrated by Academy Award winning actor, Helen Mirren, YES MADAM, SIR is a ‘David and Goliath’ epic story profiling Asia Nobel Prize winner, Kiran Bedi – India’s first woman police officer.

Explores the true story of a courageous group of New York City firemen who experienced the worst disaster to happen to the FDNY since 9/11 and a fallout that resulted in the biggest civil trial in New York history.

An architect and a prisoner work on the same construction project.

Paul as a young boy witnessed the notorious hit man “The Snake” kill a few lowlifes and since that moment he has dedicated his life to cleaning up the streets of all evil doers. Helping Paul with contract killings is his best friend George who has been having an affair with Paul’s wife.

Packed with drama, high emotions and cliff-hanger moments, Australia Says Yes is the intimate and personal history of struggle and perseverance that propelled Australia to say Yes to marriage equality. The film shows how a group of determined individuals fought tirelessly against unjust laws that treated LGBTIQ people as second-class citizens, creating a movement that saw them go from criminals to legally equal over the course of five decades.

12-year-old Terry is in emergency care with guardians after his mother’s arrest. Cheeky and living with a disability, he outwits one guardian and connects with the other in a surprising way.

A mockumentary following a Brown man who no longer identifies as a person of colour.

After a strange nightmare, a young factory worker's life and home become haunted by bizarre phantoms.

A profile of two men who go to exceptional lengths to improve – and in some cases, save – the lives of those with nowhere else to turn. They risk their freedom by supplying black market medicinal cannabis to thousands suffering from chronic and terminal illnesses.

The lives of a struggling family are upended when a runaway criminal dressed as Santa Claus crashes onto their property. A wily teenager seizes the opportunity to save the farm—and bring her fractured family back together.

Surfer Jeff sees the return of The Wiggles original singer, Greg Page! Join The Wiggles on their most exciting adventure ever! Jeff meets Gino the Genie who grants him three wishes, so Jeff decides to visit exotic locations such as Abu Dhabi, London, Rome, Paris and Sydneys Royal Botanic Garden! With songs from around the world, children will be captivated by the magic of The wiggles in their 21st year with Surfer Jeff.

Bee Sting takes in love and complications as a father and son fall for the same woman on the schoolyard.

Set in the middle ages, this is the wonderful, poignant story of a deaf hunchback, "Quasimodo", and his undying but unrequited love for the beautiful Gypsy girl, "Esmeralda", with whom, it seems, everyone falls in love. Follow their escape from the besotted Captain of the Royal Guards, Frollo. A classic tale that is retold in a lighter fashion in superb animation to delight the children of the world.

9-year-old Jewish boy Jimmy dresses up as a Sheep for a school play, much to the chagrin of his mother. On their way to school, Jimmy and his mother suffer through a series of unfortunate mishaps that see them in a state of stress and pushing for time.

When a pair of young lovers are discovered dead, a tangled web of deception unravels revealing that behind the passionate tragedy lies a dangerous truth.

Cassie thought that the deserted beach town would be the perfect escape from the past, from her unfaithful lover and painful memories. Peace is short-lived. In this serene town hides a sickening evil. Her only escape may be in the obscurity of a mental asylum. However, it is here the evil will find her also.