Australian films about family life

A mysterious woman is perched between the harsh legacy of World War II and the hope of a new life in Australia. A sweeping romantic drama set in 1950s rural Australia following the lives of the Blighs, a wealthy and complicated pastoralist family, who lives in Inverness, NSW.

A charismatic, crazy hothead transforms a family's life when she becomes the nanny of five girls.

A mother and wife stricken with memory loss allows a dysfunctional family a second chance at harmony and happiness.

Nineteen-year-old Ari confronts both his sexuality and his Greek family. Ari despises his once-beloved parents, former radical activists, for having entombed themselves in insular tradition. Ari is obsessed with gay sex, although he does make an unenthusiastic attempt to satisfy the sister of one of his best friends. While all of this is going on, he's facing problems with his traditional Greek parents, who have no clue about his sexual activities.

Maya is the perfect mother. Her life revolves around her three children, Aleya, Ankush, and Anjali. Who thinks nothing much then the world of her. Despite being divorced from her husband, Aman. Maya has ensured that everything runs smoothly in her house, under her watch, and that they continue to remain a happy family unit. However, when Aman introduces his girlfriend, Shreya a career oriented woman, who has a lot to learn about children's, to the family, the situation immediately takes an unexpected turn. When an incident changes their lives drastically, bringing the two women under the same roof, they find themselves putting to test an unusual situation; can two mothers make a home?

In a Sydney suburb, two nurses, Maria and Flora, a housekeeper, Lotte, and a solicitor, Arnold, attend to Elizabeth Hunter as her expatriate son Sir Basil, a famous but struggling actor in London, and daughter Dorothy, a divorced and down at heel princess, convene at her deathbed. They come to make sure they can leave Australia with their hefty inheritance.

Luke O'Brien, a washed-up salesman turned night law student, decides to sue Satan for $8 trillion dollars. On the last day before Luke files a default judgment, Satan appears to defend himself. On Satan's legal team are 10 of the country's best trial lawyers. The entire world watches on Legal TV to see who will win the Trial of the Century

A woman grieving over the death of her daughter loses grip of reality when she begins to think her girl may still be alive.

Cane Toads: The Conquest is a comic yet provocative account of Australia’s most notorious environmental blunder from filmmaker Mark Lewis.Shot against the harsh and beautiful landscape of northern Australia, Cane Toads: The Conquest tracks the unstoppable journey of the toad across the continent. Director Mark Lewis (Cane Toads: An Unnatural History, The Natural History of the Chicken) injects his trademark irreverence and humor into the story as he follows a trail of human conflict, bizarre culture and extraordinary close encounters.Filmed with high-resolution 3D technology, Cane Toads is the first Australian digital 3D feature film.  Custom designed equipment allows viewers to get up close and personal with these curious creatures like never before. The unique viewing experience is like being immersed in the world of the toad.

In 1825, Claire, a 21-year-old Irish convict, chases a British soldier through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. She enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker who is also marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.

Seventeen talented Australian directors from diverse artistic disciplines each create a chapter of the hauntingly beautiful novel by multi award-winning author Tim Winton. The linking and overlapping stories explore the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people’s lives in a stunning portrait of a small coastal community. As characters face second thoughts and regret, relationships irretrievably alter, resolves are made or broken, and lives change direction forever.

Driving cross-country to a job interview, Colin takes a short cut and comes across a fatal road accident. One of the drivers, Jina, is shaken but unhurt; the other has been killed instantly. Beside the dead body is a briefcase full of money, which Colin turns in to the local police. But getting out of town proves a nightmare, as Colin's good deed causes a series of bizarre events to unfold.

After being infected in the wake of a violent pandemic and with only 48 hours to live, a father struggles to find a new home for his baby daughter.

The Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby is taking an anti-comedy stance in her newest special.

Based on true events, 16 year-old Jamie falls in with his mother's new boyfriend and his crowd of self-appointed neighborhood watchmen, a relationship that leads to a spree of torture and murder.

Born with an energetic power to absorb fear from others, a young woman must find love to balance the fears of her own and fight an ever growing storm of negative energy.

Prostitute. Hooker. Sex Worker. Whore. Candid and seductive, Angie is determined to set the record straight about sex. As she reveals herself, layer-by-layer, she also exposes the man who is interviewing her. Sometimes provocative and confronting, sometimes tender, poignant and sexy, Black & White & Sex takes you behind the scenes and into Angies very special world. There's a question here for every man and an answer for every woman. Anyone who pays is welcome - but leave your expectations at the door sex is never black and white. Written by Angie Winter

GOLDSTONE, the award-winning new feature from Australian auteur Ivan Sen (Mystery Road), is a complex and stylish crime thriller that explores themes of racism, human trafficking, police corruption, corporate malfeasance, and the trampling of indigenous people’s rights. On the trail of a missing person, troubled indigenous detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen, Mystery Road) finds himself in the small mining town of Goldstone, where he is arrested for drunk driving by local cop Josh (Alex Russell, CBS’s “S.W.A.T.”). When Jay’s motel room is blasted with gun fire, it becomes clear that something larger is at play. While struggling to overcome their mutual distrust, Jay and Josh uncover a web of crime and corruption, which leads directly to the town’s cold-blooded Mayor (two-time Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook) and its smarmy gold mine director (David Wenham, Lord of the Rings).

Dean Randall has sponsored a young Chinese orphan Mei Mei for many years, when she arrives in Sydney out of the blue to thank him, their lives are changed forever.

When young urbanites Ian and Sam decide to go camping, they arrive at their isolated destination to discover another tent already set up, but no sign of its owners. With the other campers at large, Ian and Sam's discovery of a child wandering alone sets off a terrifying chain of events that will push them to their limits – and beyond.

South Africa, 1978. Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, two white political activists from the African National Congress imprisoned by the apartheid regime, put a plan in motion to escape from the infamous Pretoria Prison.

A comedy film that looks into the loosely connected lives of people with strange sexual fantasies. A woman with a dangerous fantasy and her partner's struggle to please her. A man who begins an affair with his own wife without her knowing anything about it. A couple struggling to keep things together after a sexual experiment spins out of control. A woman who can only find pleasure in her husband's pain. A call centre operator caught in the middle of a dirty and chaotic phone call. And the distractingly charming new neighbour who connects them all.

Beneath the placid facade of Canberra, amidst rising tension between China and America, senior political journalist Harriet Dunkley uncovers a secret city of interlocked conspiracies, putting innocent lives in danger including her own.

In 1989, known as Mendax, Julian Assange and two friends formed a group called the International Subversives. Using early home computers and defining themselves as white hat hackers - those who look but don’t steal – they broke into some of the world’s most powerful and secretive organisations. In the eyes of the US Government, they were a major threat to national security.

Griff, office worker by day, superhero by night, has his world turned upside down when he meets Melody, a beautiful young scientist who shares his passion for the impossible.

When a solar eclipse sends a colossal blast of super chilled air towards the earth, it then sets off a catastrophic chain of events that threatens to engulf the world in ice and begin a new Ice Age.

A young social outcast in Australia steals money from her parents to finance a vacation where she hopes to find happiness, and perhaps love.

The story of Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup.

To escape the outback, a young Afghan cameleer falls in with a mysterious bushman on the run with stolen Crown gold.

A great white shark hunts the crew of a capsized sailboat along the Great Barrier Reef.

What would you do on the last day on Earth? With the end of the world only hours away, the self-absorbed James heads to the ultimate party-to-end-all-parties. On his way there, he saves the life of a young girl named Rose who is searching desperately for her missing father. This simple act sets James on a path to redemption.

The uncensored story of one of Australia's most successful bands, INXS. A story of mateship, a story of success and excess, talent and sheer bloody will, set to a pulsating soundtrack including all of INXSs greatest hits.

Vicki Maloney is randomly abducted from a suburban street by a disturbed couple. As she observes the dynamic between her captors she quickly realises she must drive a wedge between them if she is to survive.

Laura and Tyler are best friends and drinking buddies whose hedonistic existence falls under the creeping horror of adulthood when Laura gets engaged to Jim – an ambitious pianist who surprisingly decides to go teetotal.

American high school sweethearts, Wade and Lisa, travel to Australia to experience nature at its finest. As their relationship strains, they head inland to Uluru, navigating remote dirt roads with an unreliable GPS. Soon, they find themselves stranded and ill- prepared and, with only each other to rely on, the two are driven to extremes in order to stay alive in the harsh and unforgiving Outback.

Jack Irish is thrown into a world of club owners, drug dealers and killers when he is hired by a judge to find a mysterious red book.

A pair of teenagers in Western Australia looking to escape the monotony of life in a small town take up surfing lessons from a guy named Sando.

In the Australian Outback, two brothers discover old secrets and family lies. As their friends start to go missing they fear they are being stalked by someone or something from their worst nightmares - But is it just - A story? A legend? A hoax? Or is it real?

In the last days of a dying logging town, Christian returns to his family home for his father Henry’s wedding. While home, Christian reconnects with his childhood friend Oliver, who has stayed in town working at Henry’s timber mill and is now out of a job. As Christian gets to know Oliver’s wife Charlotte, daughter Hedvig, and father Walter, he discovers a secret that could tear Oliver’s family apart.

Dr Lucien Blake left Ballarat as a young man. But now he finds himself returning to take over not only his dead father's medical practice, but also his on-call role as the town's police surgeon, only to find change is afoot, nothing is sacred, and no one is safe.

When a pop-star cousin comes to stay, a family's once normal life changes drastically.

Aaron Falk returns to his drought-stricken hometown to attend a tragic funeral. But his return opens a decades-old wound - the unsolved death of a teenage girl.

The story of Helen Reddy, who, in 1966, landed in New York with her three-year-old daughter, a suitcase, and $230 in her pocket. Within weeks, she was broke. Within months, she was in love. Within five years, she was one of the biggest superstars of her time and an icon of the 1970s feminist movement who wrote a song which galvanized a generation of women to fight for change.

In 1919, Australian farmer Joshua Connor travels to Turkey to discover the fate of his three sons, reported missing in action. Holding on to hope, Joshua must travel across the war-torn landscape to find the truth and his own peace.

Explores the early events leading up to Red Dog's discovery on the road to Dampier, and his ultimate rise from ordinary dog to Australian legend.

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. (TIFF)

Locked up for a minor crime, 19 year old JR quickly learns the harsh realities of prison life. Protection, if you can get it, is paramount. JR soon finds himself under the watchful eye of Australia's most notorious criminal, Brendan Lynch, but protection comes at a price.

16 year old Alice Palmer drowns in a local dam. When her body is recovered and, her grieving family buries her. The family experiences a series of strange, inexplicable events centered in and around their home. Unsettled, the Palmers seek the help of psychic and parapsychologist, Ray Kemeny. Ray discovers that Alice led a secret, double life. At Lake Mungo, Alice's secret past emerges.

Thomas is turning 16. His dad's in the army and they've just moved to a town in New South Wales; his mom is pregnant; his older brother, Charlie, who's autistic, has his own adolescent sexual issues. Thomas finds Charlie an embarrassment in public, so when Thomas is attracted to Jackie, a girl in his swim class, Charlie presents any number of obstacles when she drops by their house, when the three of them go for a walk, and during a family birthday dinner. Can Thomas find a way to enter the world of teen romance and still be his brother's keeper, or is Charlie's disability going to prove more than Thomas can handle?

Young police officer Shane Cooper's first day on duty, after relocating to the small town of Red Hill, rapidly turns into a nightmare. News of a prison break, involving convicted murderer Jimmy Conway, sends the local law enforcement officers - led by the town's ruling presence, Old Bill - into a panic and leads to a terrifying and bloody confrontation.