Australia has a long and storied cinematic heritage. We made the first feature film with 1906’s The Story of the Kelly Gang, and ever since we’ve been kicking filmic goals. Netflix has a crop of essential films by bold and visionary Australian filmmakers; here are some of the best.
Animal Kingdom (2010)
Watch on NetflixOne of the most influential Australian films of the past decade—and the movie that earned Jacki Weaver an Oscar nomination—Animal Kingdom interrogates the anxious dynamics of Melbourne’s criminal underworld. Also starring Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton and Guy Pearce, David Michod’s debut feature follows the machinations of the Cody family after teenager J (James Frecheville) is taken in by his crime matriarch grandmother.
The Bank (2001)
Watch on NetflixAcclaimed filmmaker Robert Connolly’s directorial debut sees David Wenham as a mathematician whose work on predicting market fluctuations attracts the attention of Anthony LaPaglia’s bank CEO. But things aren’t exactly what they seem in this twisty financial thriller, its criticisms of the banking industry only more pointed now than on first release.
Beneath Clouds (2002)
Watch on NetflixIvan Sen’s first feature film is an intimate drama set against epic landscapes as two teens, Danielle Hall’s mixed-heritage runaway and Damian Pitt’s prison escapee, meet while on the lam. She wants to track down her absentee white father, he wants to see his dying Indigenous mother, and their journey to Sydney is as much an emotional odyssey as a physical one. Brilliant, empathic and strangely underappreciated.
Blueback (2022)
WATCH ON NETFLIXRobert Connolly adapts Tim Winton’s beloved children’s book, which sees Mia Masikowska’s oceanographer return to her idyllic coastal hometown after her environmentalist mother (Radha Mitchell) suffers a stroke, determined to protect local marine life from greedy developers. Clarence Ryan and Eric Bana co-star, while the titular fish, a symbol of the idyllic ocean, is a genuinely impressive puppet in this conservationist parable.
Cargo (2018)
Watch on NetflixIt’s tough enough protecting a baby during a zombie apocalypse. It’s even tougher protecting a baby, and a young Indigenous girl, and knowing you’ve been bitten and need to find a safe harbour for your charges before you try to eat them. But that’s the challenge facing Martin Freeman’s everyman in this homegrown horror. Expanding their 2013 short of the same name, writer/director team Ben Howling and Yolande Ramke bring nuance and emotional resonance to a genre that was all but played out.
The Dry (2020)
Watch on NetflixRobert Connolly adapts Jane Harper’s bestselling novel, sending Eric Bana’s federal cop back to his hometown to investigate a murder-suicide involving a childhood friend. But this is a town where everyone has secrets, and the sins of the past loom large over the present tragedy. An incredible sense of place and a top notch supporting cast elevate this instant classic outback noir.
Felony (2013)
WATCH ON NETFLIXMatthew Saville directs and co-star Joel Egerton writes this gritty drama that kicks off when a cop (Edgo) drunkenly runs down a small boy. While Tom Wilkinsons’ cynical senior detective tries to cover for his colleague, Jai Courtenay’s idealistic rookie decides to dig deeper, leading to a tense examination of guilt, loyalty and the slippery nature of justice. A low-key gem.
The Furnace (2020)
Watch on NetflixIn the Western Australian goldfields of the 19th century, Afghan cameleer Hanif (Ahmed Malek) teams up with criminal Mal (David Wenham) to get a stash of stolen gold to a secret furnace where it can be melted down into untraceable ingots. On their trail are the local cop Sergeant Shaw (Jay Ryan), and Mal’s terrifying former partner, Yates (Goran D. Kleut). Director Roderick McKay’s meat pie Western delves into a forgotten corner of Australian history and finds gold.
Goldstone (2016)
Watch on NetflixIvan Sen’s follow up to Mystery Road sees Indigenous detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) once again investigating dark doings in the outback, this time centered on a human trafficking operation in a remote gold mining settlement. Either helping, hindering or straight up shooting at him are a roster of great Australian actors, including David Gulpilil, Tom E. Lewis, David Wenham and Jacki Weaver. A searing outback noir, Goldstone cemented Swan as the most fascinating character in modern Australian crime fiction, and Sen as one of our most vital directors.
Gurrumul (2018)
Watch on NetflixA moving and insightful documentary about the life, art, and struggles of Dr G. Yunupingu, the acclaimed Yolngu multi-instrumentalist who rose to international fame before sadly passing away in 2017 at the age of 46. Director Paul Damien Williams grants us an impressively intimate view of Gurrumul’s word, offering a portrait not only of an incredible artist, but of Indigenous life in contemporary Australia.
I Am Mother (2019)
What to watchAfter the apocalypse, a young woman (Clara Rugaard) is raised in a sealed bunker by a robot called Mother (voiced by Rose Byrne). Her education is interrupted when she comes across a wounded older woman (Hilary Swank) whose stories of other survivors bring into question everything she has been led to believe. Grant Sputore’s minimalist sci-fi is more drama than thriller, throwing ethical questions at both its characters and the audience while at the same time methodically peeling back layers of mystery regarding the fate of the human race.
Jasper Jones (2015)
WATCH ON NETFLIXRachel Perkins directs this take on Craig Silvey’s superb debut novel, a 60s-set coming-of-age tale that sees Levi Miller’s precocious Charlie forge a bond with Aaron L. McGrath’s Indigenous outcast, Jasper. Meanwhile the disappearance of a local girl brings tensions in their tiny country town to a boil. Hugo Weaving, Angourie Rice, Matt Nable, Toni Collette and Dan Wyllie co-star in this excellent teen drama.
Kenny (2006)
WATCH ON NETFLIXThis delightful mockumentary from the brothers Jacobson sees director Shane (with brother Clayton cowriting) as the titular everyman, a plumber who approaches life with an admirable sense of humility and humour. Looked down upon for his lowly job, the protagonist’s inherent decency and refusal to judge people reframes him as a hero of the common man, even if he frequently has to deal with smells “that will outlast religion.”
Last Cab to Darwin (2015)
Watch on NetflixMichael Caton gives a career best performance as Rex, a terminally ill taxi driver who undertakes an epic cross-country journey to the Northern Territory, where euthanasia is legal. Adapting their own play, Jeremy Sims and co-writer Reg Cribb give us a life-affirming story about death, featuring excellent supporting turns from Ningali Lawford, Mark Coles Smith, and Jacki Weaver.
The Last Wave (1977)
Watch on NetflixThe recently retired Peter Weir brings us this culture clash drama in which Richard Chamberlain’s Sydney lawyer defending four Indigenous men charged with murder—including David Gulpilil. Haunted by strange dreams, he comes to suspect that the killing was a traditional, not to mention mystical, execution. It’s not quite folk horror, but The Last Wave’s sense of impending doom will stay with you.
Mad Bastards (2011)
Watch on NetflixYears after he abandoned his family, rough nut TJ (Dean Daley-Jones) returns to his far north hometown to try and reconcile with his teenage son, Bullet (Lucas Yeeda), who is beginning down the same path of petty crime and substance abuse as his father. Local cop Texas (Greg Tait) runs a support group for reformed “mad bastards”, but knows that the pressures of poverty, boredom and lack of opportunity may well doom Bullet to crime and imprisonment, just like his father. Writer and director Brendan Fletcher’s first—and to date only—feature film is an unsentimental but deeply moving look at Indigenous masculinity in crisis.
Measure for Measure (2020)
Watch on NetflixDirector Paul Ireland and the late Damian Hill, who gave us the excellent Pawno, relocate the Shakespeare play of the same name to a Melbourne housing commission tower presided over by Hugo Weaving’s ruminative crime boss—trading the original’s comedy for grit and pathos. When a cross-cultural romance brews between young Muslim woman, Jaiwara (Megan Hajjar) and musician Claudio (Harrison Gilbertson), her brother Farouk (Fayssal Bazzi) swears to put an end to it, putting the fragile peace of the neighbourhood in jeopardy.
Mountain (2017)
Watch on NetflixHaving made Sherpa, Jennifer Peedom’s next documentary goes from the specific to the universal. Willem Dafoe narrates this exercise in slow cinema as we are asked to ruminate on humanity’s relationship with mountains, aided by some truly stunning landscape cinematography. Non-narrative and meditative, this visual essay is as intriguing as it is soothing.
OneFour: Against All Odds (2023)
WATCH ON NETFLIXThis blistering music documentary from Gabriel Gasparinatos takes us into the world of the controversial Samoan-Australia rap crew, paying particular attention to their various legal entanglements, which include organised crime and violence but also a concerted police effort to censor their music and cancel performances. When does prevention become censorship, and how do we draw the line? Few answers are offered, but hey: the soundtrack’s great.
Rabbit Proof Fence (2002)
Watch on NetflixBased on a true story, this superb drama from director Philip Noyce follows three young Indigenous girls (Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, and Laura Monaghan) as they follow the titular fence across the length of Western Australia to reunite with their families after being stolen as part of the government’s child removal policy. David Gulpilil, Jason Clarke, and Kenneth Branagh co-star in this moving story of the Stolen Generations.
Storm Boy (1976)
WATCH ON NETFLIXColin Thiele’s novel is a primary school perennial familiar to every Australian schoolkid, who almost certainly saw this adaptation in class. The titular character is Mike (Greg Rowe), a lonely boy living on a remote beach with his outcast father, Hideaway Tom (Peter Cummins). Befriending local Indigenous man Fingerbone Bill (the late and great David Gulpilil), Storm Boy undertakes to raise three orphaned pelicans, in the process coming to understand much about life, death, loss, and his place in the world.
The Stranger (2022)
Watch on NetflixA none-more-grim psychological thriller based on true events that sees Sean Harris’ itinerant criminal fall in with Joel Edgerton’s fellow outlaw, who begins grooming him for a position in the underworld organisation he represents. But Edgerton’s crim is actually an undercover cop, and Harris’ character is suspected of a brutal child murder. Director Thomas M. Wright steeps us in grimy atmosphere and ratchets the tension to a nigh-unbearable degree in this relentless drama.
Sweet Country (2017)
Watch on NetflixWarwick Thornton’s gut-punch of a western is more tragedy than action movie, following the events that unfold after an Indigenous man, Sam Kelly (Hamilton Morris) is forced to shoot a white settler (Ewen Leslie) in self-defence. Fleeing into the bush with his wife, Lizzie (Natassia Gorey-Furber), he is pursued by local cop Fletcher (Bryan Brown) and a posse that includes the god-fearing Fred Smith (Sam Neill). Sweet Country is an unblinking look at the brutal realities of colonialism.
Talk to Me (2023)
WATCH ON NETFLIXDanny and Michael Philippou make a stunning feature debut in this suburbia-set shocker centring on a mysterious mummified hand that lets people commune with the dead. Bereaved Mia (Sophia Wilde) naturally wants to talk to her late mother—and things get rapidly and horribly worse from there. A stone cold modern classic.
Toomelah (2011)
Watch on NetflixSet in the titular rural New South Wales town, Ivan Sen’s second feature draws on his own youthful experiences, as a troubled ten-year-old (Daniel Connors) falls into the orbit of a local drug dealer (Christopher Edwards) just as a turf war is brewing with a recently paroled rival. An observational drama rather than a crime thriller, Toomelah’s cast of non-professional actors give it a palpable sense of authenticity.
This guide is regularly updated to reflect changes in Netflix’s catalogue. For a list of capsule reviews that have been removed from this page because they are no longer available on the platform, visit here.
