With Australia Day around the corner, popping on the air conditioning and chilling in front of the television is an appealing option. But if you’re wanting to still celebrate Australia, then add these Aussie films classics to your watchlist, as suggested by the mums in our Facebook group…
Getting ready for a quiet day in this Australia Day? Or perhaps simply wanting to relax back after a busy day spent celebrating with friends and family. If you’re hanging at home and after some great Aussie films to watch this Australia Day, then check out these choices:
1. Australia
Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin, Australia, by Japanese forces firsthand.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 2008
- Stars: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Shea Adams
2. Crocodile Dundee
If you’re looking for one of those classic Aussie films you can literally laugh out loud the entire way through, this is it. An American reporter goes to the Australian outback to meet an eccentric crocodile poacher and invites him to New York City.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 1968
- Stars: Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, John Meillon
3. Happy Feet
Now here’s one for the kids (big and small!). In the great nation of Emperor Penguins, deep in Antarctica, you’re nobody unless you can sing – which is unfortunate for Mumble, who is the worst singer in the world. He is born dancing to his own tune…tap dancing.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 2006
- Stars: Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman
4. He Died With A Felafel In His Hand
A nightmare chase through hell in a never-ending, unrequited daisy chain of desire… A search for love, meaning and bathroom solitude. Danny goes through a series of shared housing experiences in a succession of cities on the east coast of Australia.
- Rated: M
- Released: 2001
- Stars: Noah Taylor, Emily Hamilton, Romane Bohringer
5. Kenny
From the biggest festival to the smallest church social, Kenny Smyth delivers porta-loos to them all. Ignored and unappreciated, he is one of the cogs in society’s machinery; a knight in shining overalls taking care of business with his faithful ‘Splashdown’ crew. Follow Kenny as he tackles every septic challenge that comes his way, culminating in a pilgrimage to that Mecca of waste management, the International Pumper and Cleaner Expo in Nashville Tennessee – or as Kenny affectionately calls it, “Poo HQ”.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 2006
- Stars: Shane Jacobson, Travis Golland, Chris Davis
6. Ladies In Black
The lives of a group of department store employees in 1959 Sydney.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 2018
- Stars: Julia Ormond, Angourie Rice, Rachael Taylor
7. Lantana
If you’re looking for an Aussie film that will send chills down your spine, then buckle up! The relationships of four couples unravel after the discovery of a young woman’s body in Lantana bush in suburban Sydney.
- Rated: MA 15+
- Released: 2001
- Stars: Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush, Rachael Blake
8. Lion
A five-year-old Indian boy is adopted by an Australian couple after getting lost hundreds of kilometres from home. 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 2016
- Stars: Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara
9. Looking For Alibrandi
This movie is sure to stir up a few memories! Alibrandi ultimately concerns a senior high school girl embracing her Italian heritage, but moving toward the less traditional Australian way of life. A wonderful cast who play their roles superbly. The film plays on several levels. It will make you laugh and cry and ultimately better realise the dramas in life, how we adapt and how cope.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 2000
- Stars: Greta Scacchi, Anthony LaPaglia, Elena Cotta
10. Muriel’s Wedding
A young social outcast in Australia steals money from her parents to finance a vacation where she hopes to find happiness, and perhaps love.
- Rated: M
- Released: 1994
- Stars: Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Bill Hunter
11. Odd Ball
An eccentric chicken farmer, with the help of his granddaughter, trains his mischievous dog Oddball to protect a penguin sanctuary from fox attacks in an attempt to reunite his family and save their seaside town.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 2015
- Stars: Shane Jacobson, Sarah Snook, Alan Tudyk
12. Paper Planes
An imaginative children’s film about a young Australian boy’s passion for flight and his challenge to compete in the World Paper Plane Championships in Japan.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 2014
- Stars: Sam Worthington, Steve Worland, Dylan Parker
13. Paperback Hero
Jack Willis is a handsome roadtrain driver with a secret – he has just become a top-selling romance novelist. However, being a ‘man’s man’ in the Australian outlook, to avoid embarrassment, he needs a name, a woman’s name – and he chooses that of his best friend, Ruby Vale. He must do some fancy footwork to continue the charade when the glamorous city publisher, Ziggy, arrives in dusty outback Lucktown to sign ‘Ruby Vale’ to a major book deal. Ruby agrees to help Jack though it’s for her own gain as well – the publisher will pay for her coming wedding.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 1999
- Stars: Claudia Karvan, Hugh Jackman, Angie Milliken
14. Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.
- Rated: MA 15+
- Released: 1994
- Stars: Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Terence Stamp
15. Proof
The life of a blind photographer who is looked after by a housekeeper is disrupted by the arrival of an agreeable restaurant worker.
- Rated: MA 15+
- Released: 1991
- Stars: Hugo Weaving, Genevieve Picot, Russell Crowe
16. Reckless Kelly!
“Reckless Kelly is the Australian Robin Hood”. Kelly is a bank robber, a pop-culture hero and video shop owner. This modern story tells how he is furious when a Japanese company wants to buy his band’s farm.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 1993
- Stars: Yahoo Serious, Melora Hardin, Alexei Sayle
17. Red Dog
One of the best Aussie films out there (if you ask us!). Based on the legendary true story of the Red Dog who united a disparate local community while roaming the Australian outback in search of his long lost master.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 2011
- Stars: Josh Lucas, Rachael Taylor, Rohan Nichol
18. Starstruck
Jessica Olsen was expecting a normal trip to California with her family to visit her grandma. However, she agrees to join her older sister to find the famous pop star, Christopher Wilde.
- Rated: G
- Released: 2010
- Stars: Sterling Knight, Danielle Campbell, Maggie Castle
19. Storm Boy
When Michael Kingley, a successful retired businessman starts to see images from his past that he can’t explain, he’s forced to remember his childhood and how, as a boy, he rescued and raised an extraordinary orphaned pelican, Mr Percival.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 2019
- Stars: Finn Little, Jai Courtney, Geoffrey Rush
20. Strictly Ballroom
Here’s one to get you into the dancing mood. A maverick dancer risks his career by performing an unusual routine and sets out to succeed with a new partner.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 1992
- Stars: Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter
21. The Boy From Oz
An Australian documentary about Peter Allen, the Australian entertainer, with celebrity interviews like Bernadette Peters; Carole Bayer Sager; Lily Tomlin and more.
- Released: 1995
- Stars: Peter Allen, Jack Thompson, Chris Allen
22. The Castle
A working-class family from Melbourne, Australia fights city hall after being told they must vacate their beloved family home to allow for infrastructural expansion.
- Rated: M
- Released: 1997
- Stars: Michael Caton, Anne Tenney, Stephen Curry
23. The Dish
A remote Australian community, populated by quirky characters, plays a key role in the first Apollo moon landing.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 2000
- Stars: Sam Neill, Billy Mitchell, Roz Hammond
24. The Dressmaker
A glamorous woman returns to her small town in rural Australia. With her sewing machine and haute couture style, she transforms the women and exacts sweet revenge on those who did her wrong.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 2015
- Stars: Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth
25. Rabbit Proof Fence
In 1931, three half-white, half-Aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their houses to be trained as domestic staff, and set off on a journey across the Outback.
- Rated: PG
- Released: 2002
- Stars: Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, Kenneth Branagh
