Australia

The best Australian badass movie since Chopper, David Michôd’s Sundance winner shows us a violent Melbourne crime family imploding in the iron grip of its pint-sized matriarch. With Guy Pearce, Joel Edgerton, Jacki Weaver.

Wild tales, great characters, a colourful sprinkling of laughs, a catchy song or two, different ways to play with your food, and plenty of surprises from the international world of animation. Recommended for ages 5–9.

Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career) has been documenting the lives of three Adelaide women since they were 14. We meet them now at 47. “A moving and challenging insight into the heroism of ordinary lives.” — ABC Radio

Sean Byrne’s macabre kidnapping tale is like a demented blend of Misery and an 80s high school prom flick. “Byrne spills blood, boils brains and cannibalises naked teens with wicked energy.” — Screendaily

Rare, colourful films from the earliest days of The Moving Picture are vividly reanimated in this entertaining Live Cinema show presented by The Film Archive with Free Theatre performers Chris Reddington and Dr Ryan Reynolds.

West Papuans speak (and sing) of years of persecution in this potent activist film by a white Australian who first travelled to West Papua as a tourist in 1999 and found himself caught up in the independence cause.

French director Julie Bertuccelli brings a startled outsider eye to this poetic Australian/French movie about a young widow (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her little daughter’s solemn obsession with a giant tree.

UK genre wunderkind Christopher Smith’s follow-up to Severance is as mystifying and haunting as is its connection to the Bermuda Triangle. With Melissa George. “A smart, supernatural time-shift chiller.” — The Guardian