“What are the best Australian New Wave Movies?” We looked at 117 of the top Australian New-Wave, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 18 films, all appearing on 4 or more “Best Australian New-Wave” movie lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 75+ movies, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!
Top 18 Australian New Wave Movies
18 .) Bliss (1985) directed by Ray Lawrence
Lists It Appears On:
- High On Films
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
An advertising executive dies and goes to hell… except nothing changes. Well, his daughter is buying drugs with sexual favours from her brother, and the number of cancer-causing products is on the increase. But the notes he writes to himself to prove he hasn’t gone insane are getting more disjointed, and he runs off with an ex-prostitute called Honey Barbera.
17 .) Crocodile Dundee (1986) directed by Peter Faiman
Lists It Appears On:
- Flick Chart
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
When a New York reporter plucks crocodile hunter Dundee from the Australian Outback for a visit to the Big Apple, it’s a clash of cultures and a recipe for good-natured comedy as naïve Dundee negotiates the concrete jungle. Dundee proves that his instincts are quite useful in the city and adeptly handles everything from wily muggers to high-society snoots without breaking a sweat.
16 .) Crocodile Dundee II (1988) directed by John Cornell
Lists It Appears On:
- Flick Chart
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
Australian outback expert protects his New York love from gangsters who’ve followed her down under.
15 .) Don’s Party (1976) directed by Bruce Beresford
Lists It Appears On:
- High On Films
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
Don’s Party stars John Hargreaves as Don Henderson, a schoolteacher living with his wife, Kath (Jeanie Drynan), in 1969. Out of boredom, he invites a small group of friends to celebrate a predicted Australian Labor Party (ALP) election victory, much to the dismay of his wife.
14 .) My Brilliant Career (1979) directed by Gillian Armstrong
Lists It Appears On:
- Flick Chart
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
A young woman who is determined to maintain her independence finds herself at odds with her family who wants her to tame her wild side and get married.
13 .) Newsfront (1978) directed by Phillip Noyce
Lists It Appears On:
- High On Films
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
Surprisingly adventurous saga of an intrepid group of cinematographers and reporters who risk life and limb to capture footage of breaking news for the movie-going public.
12 .) Sunday Too Far Away (1975) directed by Ken Hannam
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
- Taste Of Cinema
Friday night he’s too tired. Saturday night too drunk.
11 .) The Road Warrior (1981) directed by George Miller
Lists It Appears On:
- Flick Chart
- IMDB
- Revolvy
- Taste Of Cinema
Max Rockatansky returns as the heroic loner who drives the dusty roads of a postapocalyptic Australian Outback in an unending search for gasoline. Arrayed against him and the other scraggly defendants of a fuel-depot encampment are the bizarre warriors commanded by the charismatic Lord Humungus, a violent leader whose scruples are as barren as the surrounding landscape.
10 .) The Year My Voice Broke (1987) directed by John Duigan
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
- Taste Of Cinema
Set in 1962, a young prepubescent boy in rural Australia watches painfully as his best friend and first love blossoms into womanhood and falls for a thuggish rugby player, changing the lives of everyone involved.
9 .) Walkabout (1971) directed by Nicolas Roeg
Lists It Appears On:
- Flick Chart
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
Under the pretense of having a picnic, a geologist takes his teenage daughter and 6-year-old son into the Australian outback and attempts to shoot them. When he fails, he turns the gun on himself, and the two city-bred children must contend with harsh wilderness alone. They are saved by a chance encounter with an Aborigine boy who shows them how to survive, and in the process underscores the disharmony between nature and modern life.
8 .) Gallipoli (1981) directed by Peter Weir
Lists It Appears On:
- Flick Chart
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
- Taste Of Cinema
As World War I rages, brave and youthful Australians Archy and Frank, both agile runners, become friends and enlist in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps together. They later find themselves part of the Dardanelles Campaign on the Gallipoli peninsula, a brutal eight-month conflict which pit the British and their allies against the Ottoman Empire and left over 500,000 men dead.
7 .) Mad Max (1979) directed by George Miller
Lists It Appears On:
- Flick Chart
- IMDB
- Revolvy
- Taste Of Cinema
- Wikivisually
In a self-destructing world, a vengeful Australian policeman sets out to stop a violent motorcycle gang.
6 .) The Devil’s Playground (1976) directed by Fred Schepisi
Lists It Appears On:
- High On Films
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
- Taste Of Cinema
A powerful drama relating the intimate aspect of teenage boys and their priest/educators behind the walls of a religious institution where rigid discipline backfires natural feelings are deemed unnatural acts and human lives are controlled in the names of good intentions.
5 .) The Last Wave (1977) directed by Peter Weir
Lists It Appears On:
- Flick Chart
- High On Films
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
White Australian lawyer David Burton agrees with reluctance to defend a group of aborigines charged with murdering one of their own. He suspects the victim was targeted for violating a tribal taboo, but the defendants deny any tribal association. Burton, plagued by apocalyptic visions of water, slowly realizes danger may come from his own involvement with the aborigines and their prophecies.
4 .) The Man from Snowy River (1982) directed by George Miller
Lists It Appears On:
- Flick Chart
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
- Taste Of Cinema
Jim Craig has lived his first 18 years in the mountains of Australia on his father’s farm. The death of his father forces him to go to the low lands to earn enough money to get the farm back on its feet. Kirk Douglas plays two roles as twin brothers who haven’t spoken for years, one of whom was Jim’s father’s best friend and the other of whom is the father of the girl he wants to marry.
3 .) The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) directed by Peter Weir
Lists It Appears On:
- Flick Chart
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
- Taste Of Cinema
Australian journalist Guy Hamilton travels to Indonesia to cover civil strife in 1965. There, on the eve of an attempted coup, he befriends a Chinese Australian photographer with a deep connection to and vast knowledge of the Indonesian people and also falls in love with a British national.
2 .) Wake in Fright (1971) directed by Ted Kotcheff
Lists It Appears On:
- Flick Chart
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
- Taste Of Cinema
Wake in Fright is the story of John Grant, a bonded teacher who arrives in the rough outback mining town of Bundanyabba planning to stay overnight before catching the plane to Sydney, but as one night stretches into several he plunges headlong into his own destruction.
1 .) Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) directed by Peter Weir
Lists It Appears On:
- Flick Chart
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
- Revolvy
- Taste Of Cinema
- Wikivisually
In the early 1900s, Miranda attends a girls boarding school in Australia. One Valentine’s Day, the school’s typically strict headmistress treats the girls to a picnic field trip to an unusual but scenic volcanic formation called Hanging Rock. Despite rules against it, Miranda and several other girls venture off. It’s not until the end of the day that the faculty realizes the girls and one of the teachers have disappeared mysteriously.
The 75+ Additional Best New Wave Movies From Australia
| # | Movies | Directors | Lists |
| 19 | Backroads (1977) | Phillip Noyce | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 20 | Caddie (1976) | Donald Crombie | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 21 | Careful, He Might Hear You (1983) | Carl Schultz | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 22 | Celia (1989) | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | High On Films |
| 23 | Dead Calm (1989) | Phillip Noyce | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Flick Chart |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 24 | Dead End Drive-In (1986) | Brian Trenchard-Smith | Flick Chart |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| – | – | – | Revolvy |
| 25 | Heatwave (1982) | Phillip Noyce | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 26 | Lonely Hearts (1982) | Paul Cox | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 27 | Long Weekend (1978) | Colin Eggleston | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Flick Chart |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 28 | Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) | George Miller | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Flick Chart |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 29 | Malcolm (1986) | Nadia Tass | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 30 | Puberty Blues (1981) | Bruce Beresford | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 31 | Razorback (1984) | Russell Mulcahy | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Flick Chart |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 32 | Stone (1974) | Sandy Harbutt | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Wikivisually |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 33 | Storm Boy (1976) | Henri Safran | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 34 | Summerfield (1977) | Ken Hannam | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 35 | The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) | Peter Weir | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Flick Chart |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 36 | The Chain Reaction | Wikivisually | |
| – | – | – | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 37 | The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) | Fred Schepisi | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 38 | The Club (1980) | Bruce Beresford | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 39 | The Fringe Dwellers (1986) | Bruce Beresford | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 40 | The Getting of Wisdom (1977) | Bruce Beresford | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 41 | The Lighthorsemen (1987) | Simon Wincer | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 42 | The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988) | Vincent Ward | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 43 | The Odd Angry Shot (1979) | Tom Jeffrey | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 44 | The Plumber (1979) | Peter Weir | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 45 | 3 to Go | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 46 | A Street to Die | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 47 | Annie’s Coming Out | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 48 | Attack Force Z | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 49 | Babe | Wikipedia | |
| – | – | – | Wikivisually |
| 50 | BMX Bandits | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 51 | Breaker Morant | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 52 | Breaker Morant (1980) | Bruce Beresford | Flick Chart |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 53 | Burke & Wills | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 54 | Dot and the Kangaroo | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 55 | Emerald City | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 56 | Evil Angels | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 57 | Kiss or Kill | Wikipedia | |
| – | – | – | Wikivisually |
| 58 | Love Serenade | Wikipedia | |
| – | – | – | Wikivisually |
| 59 | Mad Dog Morgan (1976) | Philippe Mora | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 60 | Manganinnie | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 61 | Monkey Grip | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 62 | Muriel’s Wedding | Wikipedia | |
| – | – | – | Wikivisually |
| 63 | My First Wife | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 64 | Next of Kin (1982) | Tony Williams | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 65 | Patrick (1978) | Richard Franklin | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 66 | Petersen (1974) | Tim Burstall | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 67 | Phar Lap | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 68 | Proof | Wikipedia | |
| – | – | – | Wikivisually |
| 69 | Roadgames | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Flick Chart |
| 70 | Romper Stomper | Wikipedia | |
| – | – | – | Wikivisually |
| 71 | Shine | Wikipedia | |
| – | – | – | Wikivisually |
| 72 | Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 73 | Stork (1971) | Tim Burstall | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 74 | Strictly Ballroom | Wikipedia | |
| – | – | – | Wikivisually |
| 75 | The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972) | Bruce Beresford | Revolvy |
| – | – | – | IMDB |
| 76 | The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert | Wikipedia | |
| – | – | – | Wikivisually |
| 77 | The Big Steal | Wikipedia | |
| – | – | – | Wikivisually |
| 78 | The Boy Who Had Everything | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 79 | The Castle | Wikipedia | |
| – | – | – | Wikivisually |
| 80 | The Killing of Angel Street | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 81 | We of the Never Never | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 82 | Winter of Our Dreams | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 83 | Young Einstein | Revolvy | |
| – | – | – | Rate Your Music |
| 84 | 27A (1974) | High On Films | |
| 85 | A Test of Love (1984) | Gil Brealey | IMDB |
| 86 | Alvin Purple | Revolvy | |
| 87 | Backlash | Revolvy | |
| 88 | Culture of Australia | Wikivisually | |
| 89 | Deathcheaters | Revolvy | |
| 90 | Eliza Fraser | Revolvy | |
| 91 | Fantasm | Revolvy | |
| 92 | Fantasm Comes Again | Revolvy | |
| 93 | Fortress | Revolvy | |
| 94 | Ghosts … of the Civil Dead (1988) | High On Films | |
| 95 | Going Down | Revolvy | |
| 96 | Gorton Government | Wikivisually | |
| 97 | Grease (film) | Wikivisually | |
| 98 | Harlequin | Revolvy | |
| 99 | Hollywood | Wikivisually | |
| 100 | Hoodwink | Revolvy | |
| 101 | Malpractice | Revolvy | |
| 102 | Money Movers | Revolvy | |
| 103 | Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! | Wikivisually | |
| 104 | Quentin Tarantino | Wikivisually | |
| 105 | Road Games (1981) | Richard Franklin | IMDB |
| 106 | Shame | Revolvy | |
| 107 | Snapshot | Revolvy | |
| 108 | The Dragon Flies (1975) | Brian Trenchard-Smith | IMDB |
| 109 | The FJ Holden | Revolvy | |
| 110 | The Man from Hong Kong | Revolvy | |
| 111 | The Man From Snowy River II [Return to Snowy River] | Rate Your Music | |
| 112 | The Removalists (1975) | High On Films | |
| 113 | The Rollicking Adventures of Eliza Fraser (1976) | Tim Burstall | IMDB |
| 114 | The Sex Therapist (1973) | Tim Burstall | IMDB |
| 115 | Thirst | Revolvy | |
| 116 | Whitlam Government | Wikivisually | |
| 117 | World War II | Wikivisually |
8 Best Australian New-Wave Film Sources/Lists
| Source | Article |
| Flick Chart | The Best Australian New Wave Movies of All Time – Flickchart |
| High On Films | The 9 Best Films of the Australian New Wave – High On Films |
| IMDB | Australian New Wave – IMDb |
| Rate Your Music | Australian New Wave films – Rate Your Music |
| Revolvy | Australian New Wave | Revolvy |
| Taste Of Cinema | The 10 Best Films of The Australian New Wave « Taste of Cinema |
| Wikipedia | Australian New Wave – Wikipedia |
| Wikivisually | Australian New Wave – WikiVisually |