Peter Lindsay Weir is an Australian retired film director. He is known for directing films crossing various genres over forty years with films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Gallipoli (1981), The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Witness (1985), Dead Poets Society (1989), Fearless (1993), The Truman Show (1998), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), and The Way Back (2010). He has received six Academy Award nominations. In 2022 he was awarded the Academy Honorary Award for his lifetime achievement career. In 2024, he received an honorary life-time achievement award at the Venice Film Festival.
Mad Max is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller, who co-wrote the screenplay with James McCausland, based on a story by Miller and Byron Kennedy. Mel Gibson stars as "Mad" Max Rockatansky, a police officer turned vigilante in a dystopian near-future Australia in the midst of societal collapse. Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns and Roger Ward also appear in supporting roles.
Targets is a 1968 American crime thriller film directed by Peter Bogdanovich in his theatrical directorial debut, and starring Tim O'Kelly, Boris Karloff, Nancy Hsueh, Bogdanovich, James Brown, Arthur Peterson and Sandy Baron. The film depicts two parallel narratives which converge during the climax: one follows Bobby Thompson, a seemingly ordinary and wholesome young man who embarks on an unprovoked killing spree; the other depicts Byron Orlok, an iconic horror film actor who, disillusioned by real-life violence, is contemplating retirement.
The Australian New Wave was an era of resurgence in the worldwide popularity of the Australian cinema, particularly in the United States. It began in the early 1970s and lasted until the mid-late 1980s. The era also marked the emergence of Ozploitation, a film genre characterised by the exploitation of colloquial Australian culture.
Frankenstein Unbound is a 1990 science fiction horror film based on Brian Aldiss' 1973 novel of the same name, starring John Hurt, Raul Julia, Bridget Fonda, Jason Patric, and Nick Brimble. The film is co-written and directed by Roger Corman, returning to the director's chair after a hiatus of almost fifteen years. This is his final film as a director before his death in 2024. He was paid $1 million to direct.
The Car is a 1977 American supernatural horror film directed by Elliot Silverstein and written by Michael Butler, Dennis Shryack and Lane Slate. The film stars James Brolin, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley and Ronny Cox, along with real-life sisters Kim and Kyle Richards. It tells the story of a black unmanned self-driving mysterious car that goes on a murderous rampage, terrorizing the residents of a small town.
Sofala is a village in New South Wales, Australia, 255 kilometres (158 mi) north-west of Sydney, within Bathurst Regional Council. It is located beside the Turon River. Sofala is just off the Bathurst-Ilford Road, with only local traffic through the town itself. At the 2006 census, Sofala had a population of 208.
Terrance Camilleri is a Maltese-born Australian actor who has performed actively in both the United Kingdom and United States. He is best recognised for portraying Emperor Napoleon I in the blockbuster comedy film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989).
The Last Wave is a 1977 Australian mystery drama film directed by Peter Weir. It is about a white solicitor in Sydney whose seemingly normal life is disrupted after he takes on a murder case and discovers that he shares a strange, mystical connection with the small group of local Aboriginal people accused of the crime.
Bloody Mama is a 1970 American exploitation crime film directed by Roger Corman, and starring Shelley Winters in the title role, with Bruce Dern, Don Stroud, Robert Walden, Alex Nicol and Robert De Niro in supporting roles. It was very loosely based on the real story of Ma Barker, who is depicted as a corrupt, mentally-disturbed mother who encourages and organizes the criminality of her four adult sons in Depression-era southern United States.
Dead End Drive-In is a 1986 Australian dystopian action film about a teenage couple trapped in a drive-in theatre which is really a concentration camp for societal rejects. The inmates, many of whom sport punk fashion, are placated with a steady diet of junk food, new wave music, drugs, and exploitation films. The film was directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith and stars Ned Manning and Natalie McCurry as the captive couple, and Peter Whitford as the manager of the drive-in. Mad Max 2 stuntman Guy Norris did some of the stunts. The soundtrack includes contemporary popular music performed by such bands as Kids in the Kitchen and Hunters and Collectors. The song during the rolling credits is "Playing With Fire" by Lisa Edwards.
Ozploitation films are exploitation films – a category of low-budget horror, comedy, sexploitation and action films – made in Australia after the introduction of the R rating in 1971. The year also marked the beginnings of the Australian New Wave movement, and the Ozploitation style peaked within the same time frame.
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! is a 2008 documentary film about the Australian New Wave of 1970s and 1980s low-budget cinema. The film was written and directed by Mark Hartley, who interviewed over eighty Australian, American and British actors, directors, screenwriters and producers, including Quentin Tarantino, Brian Trenchard-Smith, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dennis Hopper, George Lazenby, George Miller, Barry Humphries, Stacy Keach, John Seale and Roger Ward.
The Man from Hong Kong, originally released in the US as The Dragon Flies, is a 1975 action film written and directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith in his directorial debut and starring Jimmy Wang Yu and George Lazenby, with Hugh Keays-Byrne, Roger Ward, Rosalind Speirs, Rebecca Gilling, Sammo Hung, Grant Page and Frank Thring in supporting roles. The first film to be made as an international coproduction between Australia and Hong Kong, it serves as a satire of the James Bond and Dirty Harry franchises, combined with tropes of the concurrent chopsocky craze. Its plot follows Inspector Fang Sing Leng (Wang) of the RHKPF's Special Branch, who travels to Sydney to perform an extradition, only to find himself locked in battle with Jack Wilton (Lazenby), the city's most powerful crime lord.
The Plumber is a 1979 Australian psychological thriller film about a psychotic plumber who terrorizes a grad student. Written and directed by Peter Weir, The Plumber was originally made and broadcast as a television film in Australia in 1979 but was subsequently released to theatres in several countries beginning with the United States in 1981. The film was made shortly after Weir's critically acclaimed Picnic at Hanging Rock became one of the first Australian films to appeal to an international audience. The film stars Judy Morris, Ivar Kants, and Robert Coleby, all of them being most notable at the time as actors in Australian soap operas.
The Wild Racers is a 1968 American film directed by Daniel Haller and starring Fabian, Mimsy Farmer, and Judy Cornwell. The screenplay concerns a Grand Prix racing car driver.
Eat My Dust! is a 1976 American action comedy film written and directed by Charles B. Griffith, and starring Ron Howard.
Inn of the Damned is a 1975 Australian western horror film, directed by Terry Bourke. It has been called Australia's first "horror Western".
Death Race 2050 is a 2017 American satirical science fiction action direct-to-video film directed by G.J. Echternkamp, and starring Manu Bennett, Marci Miller and Malcolm McDowell. It is a sequel to the 1975 film Death Race 2000. Both films were produced by Roger Corman, who described the film as "a car-racing picture with some black humor."
Nitram is a 2021 Australian biographical psychological drama film directed by Justin Kurzel from a screenplay by Shaun Grant. The film revolves around the life and behaviors of a mentally distressed young man called "Nitram", and the events leading to his involvement in the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania. The film stars Caleb Landry Jones, Judy Davis, Essie Davis and Anthony LaPaglia.
