Greatest Australian Drama Films, Ranked

Hando (Russell Crowe) and Davey (Daniel Pollock) lead a racist youth gang. They attack Asian immigrants in a rough part of Melbourne at night. After losing a fight against the new Vietnamese pub owners, the pair meet junkie Gabe (Jacqueline McKenzie). Gabe suggests robbing her rich, sexually abusive father (Leigh Russell)'s mansion. The girl's presence splits the longtime friends.

A dystopian future arrives. Oil runs out; the world faces war, famine, and financial chaos. Australia's last law enforcement tries to stop a vicious biker gang. Max (Mel Gibson), a Main Force Patrol officer, seeks revenge against the gang. His wife (Joanne Samuel) and son are hunted and killed. Max has only survival and revenge left.

Mad Max 2 shows a world wrecked by a massive energy crisis. Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), a former highway patrol officer now a survivalist, travels the empty Australian wasteland. He agrees to help a small, gas-filled community escape bandits led by the ruthless Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson). The film features intense action and post-apocalyptic scenes. It won the Saturn Award for Best International Film in 1982. The movie pushes survival and sacrifice amid chaos.

Archy (Mark Lee) and Frank (Mel Gibson) are young Australian sprinters. They seek army service to meet their duty. They are rejected because they are too young. The pair take a freight train to Perth, where they join. They board a troop ship to Cairo. After training near the Great Pyramids, the boys reach the front line. Their speed makes them candidates for messengers in a war's deadliest battle.

Muriel Heslop (Toni Collette) wants only marriage. Her politician father (Bill Hunter) prevents her from dating. Ostracized by friends, Muriel meets outcast Rhonda Epinstalk (Rachel Griffiths). They move from their small Australian town to Sydney. Muriel changes her name and starts the hard work of reshaping her life to fit her dreams.

This tells the true story of three Aboriginal girls. The Australian government forced them from their families in 1931 for domestic service training. They escape and start a 1,500-mile journey home. They follow the rabbit-proof fence that cuts the Australian continent, with authorities chasing them.

During the Second Boer War in South Africa, Australian Army Lieutenants Harry "Breaker" Morant (Edward Woodward), Peter Handcock (Bryan Brown), and George Witton (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) faced charges for killing six Boer prisoners and assassinating a German missionary. British Commander-in-Chief Lord Kitchener sought guilty verdicts for these men, planning to use them as leverage in peace talks with the Boers.

Nineteen-year-old strip club promoter Jimmy (Heath Ledger) scrapes by in Sydney's red-light district. Local crime lord Pando (Bryan Brown) offers Jimmy a job with his syndicate. Jimmy accepts the chance to deliver a costly package. Kids attack Jimmy, leaving him owing the gangster $10,000. Jimmy schemes to rob a bank to save himself and a girl he wants (Rose Byrne) from death.

Rae Ingram (Nicole Kidman) and her husband, John (Sam Neill), fight to move past their young son's sudden death. The couple sails their yacht for a long vacation. Far at sea, they find a sinking schooner and rescue the only survivor, Hughie Warriner (Billy Zane). Hughie claims the ship's crew died from food poisoning. Rae feels for Hughie; John doubts his story.

In this gritty Australian crime drama, young Joshua "J" Cody (James Frecheville) is taken in after his mother dies from an overdose. This branch of the Cody clan, run by J's scheming grandmother, Janine (Jacki Weaver), engages in criminal acts. They quickly turn the boy to their lifestyle. A cop named Leckie (Guy Pearce) tries to help J leave the family fold.

Years after civilization fell, the tyrant Immortan Joe enslaves survivors inside the Citadel fortress in the desert. Warrior Imperator Furiosa leads Joe's five wives in a daring escape. She partners with Max Rockatansky, a lone former captive. Inside the War Rig, they chase the warlord and his men in a fast, deadly run through the Wasteland.

A geologist (John Meillon) pretends to have a picnic. He takes his teenage daughter (Jenny Agutter) and six-year-old son (Lucien John) into the Australian outback and tries to shoot them. When the attempt fails, he shoots himself. The city kids must survive the harsh wilderness alone. An Aborigine boy (David Gulpilil) saves them, teaching them survival skills. This shows the clash between nature and modern life.

A dressmaker, Kate Winslet, returns to her small Australian town seeking revenge on locals who wronged her, facing murder accusations from her childhood.

Grief over her daughter Valerie Somers (Barbara Hershey)'s murder plagues her. She suspects her husband John (Geoffrey Rush) cheats. When Valerie vanishes, Detective Leon Zat (Anthony LaPaglia) tries to solve the mystery. Love, sex, and deceit tangle four couples; their partners distrust each other.

Martin (Hugo Weaving), a blind Australian man with childhood trust issues, takes photos for others to describe the world. Martin labels these photos in Braille. His housekeeper, Celia (Genevieve Picot), rearranges furniture and secretly loves him. Martin meets Andy (Russell Crowe), a dishwasher who can describe things well.

Eccentric scientists run a satellite dish on a remote Australian sheep farm. NASA worries. The unconventional Aussie team, led by Cliff Buxton (Sam Neill), offers the only hope for historic moon landing images. The crew faces many mishaps with local characters' help.

Harry (Jack Thompson), a middle-aged father, seeks new dates after his wife's death. Harry shares a home with his gay son, Jeff (Russell Crowe), who wants a serious relationship. Harry and Jeff help each other find partners. Jeff finds a boyfriend still closeted, and Harry dates Joyce (Deborah Kennedy), who dislikes gays, putting Harry in a tough spot.

A celebration of love and creativity happens in the gaudy, glamorous Parisian nightclub near the turn of the 20th century. A young poet (Ewan McGregor) enters the Moulin Rouge world and starts a passionate affair with the club's most famous star, Nicole Kidman.

David Helfgott's (Geoffrey Rush) musical goals clash with his controlling father, Peter (Armin Mueller-Stahl). Helfgott gains piano fame after traveling to London. Fame pressure and childhood trauma bring Helfgott's latent schizophrenia to the surface; he moves between mental institutions for years.

World War II looms. Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) travels from Britain to Australia. She inspects a cattle ranch she inherited. She joins forces with a rugged local, the Drover (Hugh Jackman). They drive cattle across harsh terrain for hundreds of miles to save the ranch. They reach Darwin, but they face the same Japanese bombers that hit Pearl Harbor.

Motorists, Nathan Phillips and Cassandra Magrath, get trapped. A murderous bushman, John Jarratt, offers to fix their vehicle. He then takes them captive.

Police seize a man from his bed. They bring him to an interview room. Officers interrogate him for hours. Initially, the topic is a stolen car. Slowly, the interrogation reveals a serial killing. Internal Affairs investigates how investigating officers work.

A fatherly chemistry professor (Geoffrey Rush) lets two young lovers (Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish) increase their heroin use. Candy, an artist, and Dan, an aspiring poet, get caught in a spiral of drug addiction and failed attempts to quit.

Lost and alone in the harsh Australian Outback, 12-year-old Ridley finds an ally in a wild dog. Together, they journey through adventure and survival to find home.

Ten years after a plague turned most people into vampires, a blood shortage causes panic and gruesome mutations among the reanimated. Edward (Ethan Hawke), a vampire hematologist, tries to create a blood substitute. He meets Lionel (Willem Dafoe) and Audrey (Claudia Karvan), fugitive humans who claim a cure. Edward joins them, hoping to perfect the cure before it is too late.

In 1880s Australia, a lawman (Ray Winstone) gives renegade Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) a hard choice. Charlie must hunt down and kill his older brother (Danny Huston) to save him from the gallows. Venturing into a harsh Outback region, Charlie faces a terrible moral choice that leads to violence.

A federal agent investigates the decades-old death of a teenage girl in his drought-stricken hometown.

Sandy (Toni Collette), co-owner of a software company, ensures a Japanese businessman, Hiromitsu Tachibana (Gotaro Tsunashima), is managed while they work on a deal. A power play starts immediately; Hiromitsu treats Sandy as a subordinate, and she accepts it. Their relationship worsens when they get stuck in the desert alone.

Two decades after splitting up, members of a popular boy band reunite. They hope to capture a new audience.

Pianist Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) and her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) arrive on a New Zealand beach after a long voyage from Scotland. Ada, who has been mute since childhood, marries Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neill). Ada soon becomes interested in Alisdair's Maori-friendly acquaintance, George Baines (Harvey Keitel), causing tense, life-altering conflicts.

The Babadook explores grief and fear through psychological horror. Amelia (Essie Davis), a widowed mother, struggles with her son Samuel's (Noah Wiseman) nightmarish visions of a killer. Reality blurs as they find a sinister storybook, Mister Babadook. As the scary events grow, Amelia must face the presence in their home. Jennifer Kent directed this Australian horror film, which won the AACTA Award for Best.

Four teenage orphans at an Australian outback convent watch their younger comrades find new parents, realizing they might never be adopted. The Reverend Mother sends the four boys on a seaside vacation. There, they meet Teresa and Fearless, a couple who could be perfect parents. The youths compete to be the ones Teresa and Fearless choose to adopt.

High Ground is a 2020 Australian meat pie Western action adventure war drama film. Stephen Maxwell Johnson directed it. After fighting in World War I as a sniper, Travis (Simon Baker), now a policeman in northern Australia, loses control of an operation. This results in the massacre of an Aboriginal Australian tribe in 1919.

Carl Fitzgerald (Sam Neill), a reserved man needing a job, finds work at a Greek restaurant. Carl begins dating the attractive waitress Sophie (Zoe Carides). Things seem to improve for Carl, but an unexpected event causes the death of Mustafa (Nick Lathouris), a shady coworker. Carl must cover up the incident and enlists his friend Dave (John Clarke) to dispose of Mustafa's body.

Mankind's greed and excess push civilization to its limit. Society declines; the rule of law breaks down. Hardened drifter Eric (Guy Pearce) wanders this dangerous, desolate area. Thieves steal Eric's car, his only possession, leaving Rey (Robert Pattinson), a wounded comrade. Eric forces Rey to help him hunt the gang in a quest to reclaim what matters to him.

Justin Kurzel directed the 2020 British-Australian western film, True History of the Kelly Gang. The film uses the novel of the same name. It tells the story of Australian bushrangler Ned Kelly (George MacKay) and his gang fleeing authorities during the 1870s.

John Grant (Gary Bond) looks forward to holiday time in Sydney after finishing school in a remote outback town. John gets stuck in a mining town; a gambling spree leaves him broke. He quickly joins hard-drinking locals. They force him into a gruesome kangaroo hunt. Disgusted, John tries to hitchhike out. When that fails, he starts thinking about suicide.

As Time Goes By is an 1988 Australian sci-fi comedy. Its original title was The Cricketer. The Australian version of the film has the title song, but overseas prints lack it because of high costs.

Franka Potente's increasingly erratic behavior impacts her husband (Eric Bana), her lover (Russell Dykstra), and her son (Kodi Smit-McPhee).

Young Furiosa gets caught between two warlords. As the tyrants fight for control, Furiosa battles nonstop to get home.

In 1930s Australia, Anglican clergyman Anthony Campion (Hugh Grant) and his wife, Estella (Tara Fitzgerald), visit painter Norman Lindsay (Sam Neill). Lindsay's planned art exhibit is seen as blasphemous. While Campion and Lindsay argue, Estella attracts three models sitting for the painter: Sheela (Elle Macpherson), Pru (Kate Fischer), and Giddy (Portia De Rossi).

Swimming Upstream, a 2003 Australian film, Tony Fingleton wrote it and Russell Mulcahy directed it. Jesse Spencer, Geoffrey Rush, and Judy Davis star. The movie shows Fingleton's life from childhood through adulthood and dealing with a strange family. It uses Fingleton's autobiography, also called Swimming Upstream. Steven O'Donnell, the Good Game host, plays a small role as a lifeguard.

Gregor Jordan directed the 2020 romantic drama Dirt Music, based on Tim Winton's novel. A poacher has an affair with a woman and then runs across Western Australia.

Australian teenager Heidi (Abbie Cornish) must leave home after being caught with her mother's boyfriend. With few options, Heidi ends up in Jindabyne. Meeting Joe (Sam Worthington) at a bar starts a relationship. Heidi tries to find normal life by getting a job and a place to stay, but her relationship with Joe faces many problems.

A young man (Ryan Corr) matches wits with a sadistic killer (John Jarratt). This killer lives in an underground, booby-trapped lair in the Australian outback.

A charismatic but violent predator (Daniel Henshall) takes his girlfriend's teenage son (Lucas Pittaway) under his wing. He makes the son an accomplice in a murder spree.

Brett (David Wenham), out of prison on parole, returns to his family home. He catches up with his mother, Sandra (Lynette Curran), and his brothers, Stevie (Anthony Hayes) and Glenn (John Polson). The day turns bad as the brothers start drinking and doing drugs. Tension between Brett and his girlfriend, Michelle (Toni Collette), leads to a violent fight. Brett and his brothers start a night of excess they struggle to forget.

Three troubled people face life-changing events as the weekend approaches. After her father dies, Meryl (Justine Clarke) cuts her grief short to meet a work deadline. Nick (William McInnes), a reporter, waits for his cancer test results. His photographer Andy (Anthony Hayes) focuses on his girlfriend's unplanned pregnancy. A train crashes near Meryl. Nick and Andy interview her, sparking a romance between Nick and the grieving woman.

Newcastle is a 2008 Australian drama film. It is set in the city of Newcastle, New South Wales.

Harry (John Lynch) is a patient at a psychiatric clinic, treated for schizophrenia. He meets Kate (Jacqueline McKenzie), another schizophrenic, during group therapy. They quickly start a passionate affair. Their intense love stems from their belief they were made for each other. After moving in, they think their love will let them stop their medication. But doing so causes disaster.