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The Age's top 50 Australian films

I love a good list. I love a good movie. When The Age published their top 50 Australian movies of all time, I was ecstatic.

The only trouble with a list like this is that you want to do something with it. You want to track down the titles you haven’t seen, find out where they’re streaming, maybe fall down an IMDB rabbit hole at eleven on a Sunday night. That means cutting and pasting titles into JustWatch, opening new tabs, searching again. Tab after tab after tab.

So I’ve done that work once and put it all in one place.

Here is the reference list. Each of the fifty films comes with an AI-generated plot summary - no spoilers - and links directly to JustWatch AU for current streaming and rental options and IMDB for cast, crew and background. The list is searchable and sortable by year, director or title.

Do go and read the original article at The Age. The commentary is excellent. The judging panel includes some serious figures from Australian cinema - Margaret Pomeranz, Warwick Thornton, Gillian Armstrong, Jennifer Kent, Phillip Noyce and David Michôd among the twenty-four - and the reasoning behind each placement is worth your time. The Age encourages readers to submit their own votes, and if you have opinions, this is a list that will generate them.

The top spot goes to Samson & Delilah (2009), which is a defensible and quietly brave call. Thornton’s near-wordless love story took the Caméra d’Or at Cannes and remains one of the most original Australian films ever made. It edges out Gallipoli at #2 and Picnic at Hanging Rock at #3.

The Castle lands at #22, which will scandalise some people. It is Australian scripture. But then again, so are a few of the films ranked above it.

George Miller has three entries - Mad Max at #5, Mad Max 2 at #19 and Fury Road at #21 - which feels both entirely correct and still somehow surprising when you see it written down. No other director comes close for sheer franchise dominance on a list like this.

Worth noting: the list does some creative accounting with the word “Australian.” The Piano is set and shot in colonial New Zealand. Moulin Rouge! takes place in Paris. Romeo + Juliet in fictional Verona Beach. Better Man is a biopic of a British pop star filmed largely in Melbourne. The judges are clearly running with “made by an Australian director with Australian money” as the qualifying criterion - which is fair enough, even if it stretches the concept a little.

The full fifty are over at Top 50 Australian Movies - with links.

You’re welcome.

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