Best Australian Movies You Must See During The Australian Open

Photo by American Int/Everett / Rex Features

“Livin’ in a land down under, where women glow and men plunder,” sang 80’s pop group Men At Work.

As most of the United States is buried under cold and snowy temps, Australia is having balmy warm weather. The country of marmite, koalas and kangaroos, and the Great Barrier Reef is currently hosting the first of the tennis grand slams of 2018, The Australian Open.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic hits a shot during a training session ahead of the Australian Open tennis tournament, in Melbourne, Australia January 15, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato

The list of actors and actresses hailing from the sixth largest nation include Errol Flynn, Peter Finch, Rod Taylor, Mel Gibson, Guy Pearce, Nicole Kidman, Geoffrey Rush, Toni Collette, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Ben Mendelsohn, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Hugo Weaving, Naomi Watts, Abbie Cornish, Eric Bana, Joel Edgerton, Mia Wasikowska, Margot Robbie, Chris Hemsworth, and Sam Worthington.

1994 proved to be a great year in Aussie films with such movies as THE SUM OF US, SIRENS, THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT and MURIEL’S WEDDING.

As you catch the tennis matches, check out our list of the best of Australian cinema.

THE DISH

The gem of a film is a must see for every NASA enthusiast. Starring Patrick Warburton and Sam Neill, THE DISH tells the true story of the Parkes Observatory’s role in relaying live television of man’s first steps on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. It was the top grossing film in Australia in 2000. One of our favorites!

ANIMAL KINGDOM

Animal Kingdom is a 2010 Australian crime drama film written and directed by David Michôd, and starring Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, James Frecheville, Luke Ford, Jacki Weaver, and Sullivan Stapleton.

Michôd’s script was inspired by events which involved the Pettingill criminal family of Melbourne, Australia. In 1991, two brothers Trevor Pettingill and Victor Peirce (along with two other men: Anthony Leigh Farrell and Peter David McEvoy) were acquitted in the 1988 shooting murder of two Victorian police officers. Animal Kingdom was critically acclaimed. It received 36 awards and 39 nominations, and Jacki Weaver received multiple awards for her performance, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

MAD MAX

The 1979 Australian dystopian action film was directed by George Miller, produced by Byron Kennedy, and starred Mel Gibson as “Mad” Max Rockatansky. The film presented a tale of societal collapse, murder, and revenge set in a future Australia, in which a policeman becomes embroiled in a violent feud with a savage motorcycle gang. Principal photography took place in and around Melbourne, Australia, and lasted six weeks.

The film initially received a polarized reception upon its release in April 1979, although it won three AACTA Awards and attracted a cult following. The film became the first in a series, giving rise to three sequels, Mad Max 2 (1981), Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and Fury Road (2015).

GALLIPOLI

Another Mel Gibson vehicle, the 1981 Australian drama war film was directed by Peter Weir and is the story of how the irresistible lure of adventure and the unknown, combined with national pride, bring two young men (Mel Gibson and Mark Lee) together in the Australian army in 1915.

THE SUM OF US

Directed by Kevin Dowling and Geoff Burton, the film starred Russell Crowe and Jack Thompson. Released in 1994, the delightful film is the story of a father and son and a real-tearjerker. A widowed father has to deal with two complex issues: while he is searching for “Miss Right,” his son, who is in his 20s and gay, is searching for “Mr. Right.” Thompson just about steals the film away from Crowe, who previously starred in ROMPER STOMPER, and to this day it’s still one Crowe’s best performances.

THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT

Two drag queens and a transsexual get a cabaret gig in the middle of the desert in THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT. The film was a surprise worldwide hit and starred Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce. It received great reviews and won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design at the 67th Academy Awards.

CROCODILE DUNDEE

Paul Hogan’s hilarious, endearing performance made “Crocodile” Dundee the biggest box-office comedy smash of 1986! Michael J. “Crocodile” Dundee (Hogan) is a free spirited Australian who hunts crocodiles with his bare hands, stares down giant water buffaloes, and drinks mere mortals under the table. But he’s about to face the ultimate torture test–a trip to New York City. Beautiful and tenacious reporter Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski) gets more than just a story as the “wonder from Down Under” rocks the Big Apple to its core. It was followed by two sequels: Crocodile Dundee II (1988) and Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001).

TEN CANOES

It is the first ever movie entirely filmed in Australian Aboriginal languages. Ten Canoes won the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and was was chosen as Australia’s official entry into the Best Foreign Language Film category for the 2007 Academy Awards.

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

This 1975 Australian mystery drama film, directed by Peter Weir, helped usher in a new era of Australian cinema. Based on an acclaimed 1967 novel by Joan Lindsay, AT HANGING ROCK is set at the turn of the twentieth century and concerns a small group of students from an all- female college who vanish, along with a chaperone, while on a St. Valentine’s Day outing. Less a mystery than a journey into the mystic, as well as an inquiry into issues of class and sexual repression in Australian society, Weir’s gorgeous, disquieting film is a work of poetic horror whose secrets haunt viewers to this day.

MURIEL’S WEDDING

Misfit Muriel has always escaped her humdrum small-town life by listening to ABBA songs and dreaming about marriage. Ready to take control of her life, she and her best friend, Rhonda head for the big city where they end up having the exciting adventure of their lives. Everyone back home suddenly takes notice when Muriel becomes engaged to a handsome and popular sports hero, but Muriel discovers that even when it seems all her dreams are coming true, her path to the altar still has plenty of surprising twists. Starred Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths and Bill Hunter and directed by P.J. Hogan. The film received multiple award nominations, including a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (Collette)

AUSTRALIA

Starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, it was the third-highest grossing Australian film of all time, behind Crocodile Dundee and Mad Max: Fury Road. AUSTRALIA is a character story, set between 1939 and 1942 against a dramatized backdrop of events across northern Australia at the time, such as the bombing of Darwin during World War II.

Strictly Ballroom is a 1992 Australian romantic comedy film directed and co-written by Luhrmann. The film, Luhrmann’s début, was the first in his The Red Curtain Trilogy of theatre-motif-related films; it was followed by Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!.

Other stellar Aussie films to catch are PROOF, (trailer) a 1991 Australian comedy-drama film written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, and starring Hugo Weaving, Geneviève Picot and Russell Crowe. The film was released in Australia on 15 August 1991. It was chosen as “Best Film” at the 1991 Australian Film Institute Awards; THE ROVER, (trailer) a 2014 Australian dystopian drama film written and directed by David Michôd and based on a story by Michôd and Joel Edgerton. It is a contemporary western taking place in the Australian outback, ten years after a global economic collapse. The film features Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson, and Scoot McNairy; NED KELLY features gripping action and powerful performances in this epic story of a real-life outlaw who defied the law and inspired his people. Heath Ledger (The Four Feathers, A Knight’s Tale) brings a raw intensity to the role of Ned Kelly, an innocent man driven to fight the corrupt authorities oppressing his people. Joining Ned’s legendary gang is his best friend, Joe, played with devilish charm by Orlando Bloom (Troy, Pirates of the Caribbean) and Naomi Watts (21 Grams, The Ring) as Ned’s lover, Julia. Overnight, the Kelly Gang become heroes to their people. But as their popularity grows, they quickly find themselves the target of a ruthless lawman, (Geoffrey Rush) who soon makes them the most wanted men the world has ever known, and RABBIT PROOF FENCE, (trailer) a 2002 Australian drama film directed by Phillip Noyce based on the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara. It is loosely based on a true story concerning the author’s mother Molly, as well as two other mixed-race Aboriginal girls, who ran away from the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, Western Australia, to return to their Aboriginal families, after being placed there in 1931.

Wait, wait… one more! BRAN NUE DAE is a charming new Australian-based, music-driven road movie/romantic comedy starring Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush that literally bursts onto the screen with unbridled energy and fun. Loosely based on one of Australia’s most beloved and popular musicals, Bran Nue Dae is a foot stomping tour-de-force centering on the romantic adventures of a young aboriginal couple set against the spectacularly beautiful Australian landscape.

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Contributed by Michelle Hannett and Melissa Thompson