Curated collections

Australia Daze is an observational documentary shot by 29 different camera crews on the bicentennial anniversary of Australia’s European settlement on 26 January 1988.

Less than a decade after the Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was dismissed on 11 November 1975, an Australian TV drama based on the events was released.

Written and directed by Rolf de Heer, The Tracker features David Gulpilil as an Aboriginal tracker in 1922, who leads three white men in the hunt for a black fugitive.

Five First Nations filmmakers were showcased through the 2002 Dreaming in Motion initiative from the Australian Film Commission (AFC) Indigenous Unit and SBS Independent.

Heath Ledger and Rose Byrne star in this 1999 debut from director Gregor Jordan, one of the first winners of Tropfest.

Harp in the South is a 1986 mini-series, based on Ruth Park’s book, that follows the impoverished Darcy family in Surry Hills during the aftermath of the Second World War. The title refers to Irish immigrants in Australia.

Trespass is a 2002 documentary about Yvonne Margarula and the Mirarr people’s fight against the mining companies.

My Brilliant Career was the first feature of Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) graduate Gillian Armstrong, and the first time most Australians were introduced to Judy Davis, who had recently graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney.

Jedda (1955) is Charles Chauvel’s last film and is historic both for being the first colour feature film made in Australia, but more importantly, because it is arguably the first Australian film to take the emotional lives of Aboriginal people seriously.

Since 1934, MILO has been advertised in a number of ways, changing in style and tone to adapt to its audience.

Bad Boy Bubby was conceived as an experiment on virtually every level. It had 32 different cinematographers, for example.

Dr George Miller's Academy Award-winning animated film about an Emperor penguin chick in Antarctica who can’t sing - but can dance.

Warwick Thornton's feature directorial debut Samson and Delilah is a heartbreaking and thought-provoking film about two First Nations teenagers growing up in central Australia.

Baz Luhrmann’s radical update of Romeo + Juliet boldly shattered conventional wisdom that said Shakespeare as he wrote it would never appeal to a mass audience.

Shifting Sands was a continuation of the ground-breaking Sand to Celluloid initiative for First Nations filmmakers.

Some believe that Newsfront, set in the late 1940s and incorporating extensive newsreel footage, is Australia’s best film.

Heath Ledger stars as Australia’s most famous outlaw in this 2003 drama.

Moulin Rouge! was a risky venture for director Baz Luhrmann but is a tour de force of imagination and appropriation.

Evil Angels is a highlight of 80s Australian cinema but did not perform as well locally as it deserved, perhaps because it presents the dark side of the easygoing ‘g’day mate’ nation.