Didn’t know Australia made 27 films a year, let alone 27 worth watching? You wouldn’t be alone. Australia makes many more films than that – they just often don’t make it to cinemas or aren’t, er, that great.
Last year, Aussie films hit an eight-year low at the local box office with a share of just 3.51%, the lowest figure since 2005’s 2.8%, and below the 10-year average of 3.8%.
Ouch.
That’s INCLUDING the big bucks from Baz Luhrmann’s glossy The Great Gatsby, which industry bible if.com.au estimates came in at $27.4 million down under to become the sixth-highest Australian grossing film of all time.
Here’s the good news: if 2013 was one of the worst on record, then 2014 is about to redeem itself in one hell of a fight for Australian film.
Take a look at recent festivals overseas. Six Australian films were selected for Toronto. A record two were invited to Venice. Two South Australian filmmakers were just honoured with different awards at Sundance last month. And now we have four films about to screen at SXSW.
Hollywood stars working down under over the past 12 months – or just about to start – include Kate Winslet, Adrien Brody, Angelina Jolie, Simon Pegg, Ewan McGregor, Ethan Hawke, Aaron Eckhart, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson, Christina Ricci, Gerard Butler, Josh Hartnett, Vinnie Jones, Stephen Lang and Portia De Rossi. Plus we’ve had French superstars Emmanuelle Beart and Vincent Cassel too.
There’s a mix of thrillers, war dramas, horrors, romances and the odd comedy about to come our way. Let’s take a look at what to expect.
I researched as much as possible but if I’ve made any errors or there’s something you think should be added to this list of 2014 releases, let me know in the comments below!
27 Australian Films to Watch in 2014
1. Kill Me Three Times
Who: Simon Pegg, Teresa Palmer, Sullivan Stapleton, Bryan Brown
What: Thriller
Red Dog director Kriv Stenders brings us this story from the Australian surfing town of Eagle’s Nest, where a young woman is the thread that binds three tales of murder, blackmail and revenge.
Filmed: WA (Perth, Margaret River, Lancelin)
2. I, Frankenstein
Who: Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, Miranda Otto, Yvonne Strahovski, Jai Courtney
What: Action sci-fi
Frankenstein’s creature finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans. Written and directed by Tomorrow When The War Began‘s Stuart Beattie.
Filmed: VIC (Melbourne)
3. Tracks
Who: Mia Wasikowska, Adam Driver
What: Adventure biopic
The true story of Australian travel adventurer Robyn Davidson. A young woman goes on a 1,700 mile trek across the deserts of West Australia with her four camels and faithful dog.
Filmed: SA & NT
4. Son of a Gun
Who: Ewan McGregor, Alicia Vikander, Brenton Thwaites
What: Crime drama
Locked up for a minor crime, 19-year-old JR quickly learns the harsh realities of prison life and finds himself under the watchful eye of Australia’s most notorious criminal, Brendan Lynch. But protection comes at a price – Lynch and his crew have plans for their young protegee.
Filmed: WA (Perth, Kalgoorlie, Fremantle)
5. Drive Hard
Who: John Cusack, Zoe Ventoura, Thomas Jane
What: Action/comedy
BMX Bandits director Brian Trenchard-Smith takes us on a crazy chase across Australia’s Gold Coast when a former race car driver is abducted by a mysterious thief and forced to be the wheel-man for a crime that puts them both in the sights of the cops and the mob.
Filmed: QLD (Gold Coast)
6. The Rover
Who: Robert Pattinson, Guy Pearce, Nash Edgerton
What: Action drama
David Michod’s HIGHLY anticipated follow-up to Sundance hit Animal Kindom tells the story a loner whose car was stolen from a desolate town in the Australian outback and is now tracking the gang of thieves, with the forced assistance of a wounded guy left behind in the wake of the theft.
Filmed: SA (Flinders Ranges, Adelaide, Leigh Creek, Copley, Marree, Hammond)
7. My Mistress
Who: Emmanuelle Beart, Harrison Gilbertson, Rachael Blake, Socratis Otto
What: Romance drama
What starts as a beautiful and strangely innocent affair between a vulnerable teenage romantic and a French S&M mistress (French actress Emmanuelle Beart) soon becomes more dangerous.
Filmed: QLD (Gold Coast)
8. Singularity
Who: Josh Hartnett, Alice Englert, Tamsin Egerton, Claire Van Der Boom, Bille Brown
What: Adventure romance
Great Barrier Reef, 2020. After a dangerous dive to save his wife Laura, marine archeologist Jay Fennel lies brain dead in a Boston hospital. Fennel’s dream-like coma takes us back in time to Pune, India in 1778 where the British East India Company is invading the palaces and a young captain named James Stewart, who bears a striking resemblance to Fennel, is about to embark on a dangerous mission.
Filmed: QLD; India; UK
9. The Water Diviner
Who: Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, Jai Courtney, Isabel Lucas, Ryan Corr
What: War drama
Russell Crowe’s directorial debut follows an Australian man who travels to Turkey after the Battle of Gallipoli to try and locate his three missing sons.
Filmed: SA (Port August); NSW (Fox Studios, The Rocks); Turkey
10. The Little Death
Who: Bojana Novakovich, Josh Lawson, Ben Lawson, Lisa McClune, Lachy Hulme, Kate Mulvany, Zoe Carides
What: Comedy
This ensemble comedy explores the sexual tensions and desires that brim beneath five apparently normal couples and marks the directorial debut of Anchorman 2‘s Josh Lawson.
Filmed: NSW (Sydney)
11. Wolf Creek 2
Who: John Jarratt, Ryan Corr, Shannon Ashlyn
What: Horror
Nine years after the original Wolf Creek, the outback once more becomes a place of horror as another unwitting tourist becomes the prey for crazed, serial-killing pig-shooter Mick Taylor.
Filmed: SA (Adelaide)
12. The 34th Battalion
Who: Vinnie Jones, Stephen Lang, Luke Hemsworth, Claire Van Der Boom, Vince Colosimo
What: War action
Australia, 1916. After the death toll at Gallipoli, a group of friends are forced to choose between their lives at home or the call of duty in France. They soon find themselves in some of the worst battles the world had seen.
Filmed: NSW & QLD
13. Backtrack
Who: Adrien Brody, Sam Neill, Robin McLeavy, Anna Lise Phillips
What: Supernatural thriller
The second directorial feature from screenwriter Michael Petroni (The Book Thief) follows a psychologist whose life is thrown into turmoil when he discovers his patients are all ghosts of people who died in an accident 20 years ago.
Filmed: NSW (Sydney, Camperdown)
14. Now Add Honey
Who: Portia De Rossi, Hamish Blake, Angus Sampson, Ben Lawson, Lucy Fry
What: Comedy
Wayne Hope directs his wife Robyn Butler (who wrote the film) alongside De Rossi (now Mrs Ellen DeGeneres) in this film where normal life implodes for a suburban family when their pop-star cousin comes to stay.
Filmed: VIC (Melbourne)
15. Felony
Who: Joel Edgerton, Tom Wilkinson, Jai Courtney, Melissa George
What: Crime thriller
Three male detectives become embroiled in a tense struggle after a tragic accident leaves a child in a coma. One is guilty of a crime, one will try to cover it up, and the other attempts to expose it. How far will these men go to both disguise and unravel the truth? Written by Joel Edgerton.
Filmed: NSW (Sydney)
16. Partisan
Who: Vincent Cassel, Sapidah Kian, Jeremy Chabriel
What: Dramatic thriller
From the producers of Snowtown comes the tale of young Alexander who, raised to see the world through cult leader Gregori’s eyes whilst growing up in a commune, is starting to think for himself.
Filmed: VIC (Morning Star Estate, Mount Eliza)
17. The Babadook
Who: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall
What: Horror
A single mother, plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son’s fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her.
Filmed: SA (Adelaide)
18. The Reckoning
Who: Jonathan LaPaglia, Luke Hemsworth, Hanna Mangan Lawrence, Viva Bianca
What: Mystery thriller
After his partner is murdered, a detective must track down two teenage runaways whose video footage contains the identity of the killer.
Filmed: WA (Perth)
19. Paper Planes
Who: Sam Worthington, Anthony LaPaglia, Ed Oxenbould
What: Family drama
Fresh off his cinematic adaptation of The Turning, director and co-writer Robert Connolly is bringing this true story to the big screen about an 11-year-old boy obsessed with flight. Brought up by his father in a remote town in country Australia, the young boy’s life changes when he wins a spot at the regional Paper Planes Championships in Sydney.
Filmed: WA (Perth) & Japan (Tokyo)
20. Unbroken
Who: Garrett Hedlund, Domhnall Gleeson, Jai Courtney, Alex Russell, Maddalena Ischiale
What: War drama
An international story with serious Hollywood cred (the screenplay is from the Coen Brothers and Angelina Jolie is directing), Unbroken chronicles of the tale of real life Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.
Filmed: NSW & QLD
21. Healing
Who: Hugo Weaving, Xavier Samuel, Don Hany, Laura Brent, Justine Clarke
What: Drama
At the tail end of a 16-year sentence, an inmate is sent to a low-security, pre-release prison with a special program that pairs men with injured game birds.
Filmed: VIC (Kyneton, Healesville, Melbourne)
22. Around the Block
Who: Christina Ricci, Damian Walshe-Howling, Jack Thompson, Hunter Page-Lochard
What: Gritty drama
A young Aboriginal boy is torn between his unexpected love of acting and the disintegration of his family.
Filmed: NSW (Sydney)
23. Predestination
Who: Ethan Hawke, Noah Taylor, Sarah Snook
What: Sci-fi thriller
Director/writer brother duo Michael and Peter Spierig re-teamed with their Daybreakers lead star Ethan Hawke in this story about the life of a time-traveling Temporal Agent. On his final assignment, he must pursue the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time.
Filmed: VIC (Melbourne)
24. Charlie’s Country
Who: David Gulpilil, Luke Ford
What: Biopic
Writer/director Rolf de Heer and David Gulpilil’s latest collaboration throws the spotlight on the colonialist relationship between white law and Indigenous people. It follows Ten Canoes and The Tracker.
Filmed: Arnhem Land (NT)
25. Galore
Who: Ashleigh Cummings, Lily Sullivan, Toby Wallace, Oscar Redding
What: Teen drama
Billie and Laura, two reckless teenage best friends, share everything, except for Billie’s biggest secret; she’s crazy in love with Laura’s boyfriend. Screens at 2014 Berlinale this month.
Filmed: ACT (Canberra)
26. Cut Snake
Who: Sullivan Stapleton, Alex Russell, Jessica De Gouw
What: 70s thriller
A pair of ex-cons hatch a scheme to burn down a nightclub in Brisbane in this tense 1970s crime-thriller about one man’s struggle to escape his past.
Filmed: VIC (Melbourne)
27. Maya the Bee Movie
Who: Voiced by Jacki Weaver, Noah Taylor, Richard Roxburgh, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Miriam Margoyles, Umbilical Brothers
What: Kids animation
Based on the much-loved television series, Maya the Bee first began in the 1970s and continues today with the popular CG television series seen on ABC TV in Australia. Now Flying Bark Productions is bringing it to the big screen with this Australian-German co-production about misfit ants and a couple of baby bees named Maya and Willi.
Plus Coming Soon…
The Dressmaker (2015)
Who: Kate Winslet, Judy Davis
What: Dramedy
Based on Rosalie Ham’s best selling novel and to be directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, 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.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Who: Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whitely
What: Post-apocalyptic action
The fourth film of Australian director George Miller’s Mad Max franchise, Mad Max: Fury Road is an interquel set between the events of the first and second instalments. Shortly after avenging his wife and son’s death, Max Rockatansky has left MFP for the Outback, and is now on his own as the world slowly plummets in the aftermath of the oil crisis and the global war.
Filmed: NSW (Penrith, Sydney); Namibia; South Africa
Gods of Egypt (2016)
Who: Gerard Butler, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Geoffrey Rush, Brenton Thwaites, Courtney Eaton
What: Adventure fantasy
A common thief joins a mythical god on a quest through Egypt.
To be filmed: Fox Studios Sydney, NSW
(Synopsis info & images via imdb, Facebook and production companies)
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