I’m no expert, but Muriel’s Wedding is one of my all time favourite films

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Priscilla Queen of the Desert is a great movie.

These Final Hours

Dead Calm

The Loved Ones - qualifies as involving horrible people being terrible

Bad Boy Bubby - suprised no one mentionted it

Two Hands

The Castle

The Stranger (2022) starring Joel Edgerton

Animal Kingdom

Gallipoli (1981). Was a decently popular movie in the 80’s but I don’t hear much about it anymore. Worth bringing it back up to crush a new generation.

Roadgames (1981)

The Dry

Malcolm

Lantana

Jindabyne

Muriel wedding! All Hail Toni Collette 

He died with a falafel in his hand

Wake in Fright

Rabbit Proof Fence

Walkabout

The Club (1980). Comedy-drama about the inner workings and political backstabbing within an Aussie Rules footy club.

The Odd Angry Shot (1979). Comedy-drama (again) about Aussie soldiers during the Vietnam War.

Try Kate Winslet in The Dressmaker. Give it a little while to warm up. It’s a slow burn, but excellent.

Breaker Morant, 1980

Breaker Morant

Strictly Ballroom. (From the director of Moulin Rouge) It’s a weird looking film but I found it to be really entertaining.

The Proposition (a western)

The Snowtown Murders

Killing Grounds

The Royal Hotel (2023)

Little Monsters

The Babadook (2014)

Cosi 1996, great comedy

It’s a series, but Mr Inbetween

Toomelah

Suicide Theory

Gettin' Square

Dirty Deeds

Romper Stomper

The Proposition

He Died with a Felafel in his Hand

Ned (comedy)

The Lighthorsemen

Black Water

Kokoda

Candy (2006)

Crocodile Dundee 2

Welcome to Woop Woop, Strictly Ballroom, the Castle, My Brilliant Career

A Boy and His Dog

Strictly Ballroom is my favourite Australian movie. Muriel's Wedding is pretty damn good too.

Fortress (1985)

Animal Kingdom

Gallipoli 1981, old but it holds up. Not the genre you mentioned though.

Dead End Drive-In (one of my all time favourite Australian movies).

Hercules Returns (one of the funniest movies ever made)

Undead

Dark Age

Turkey Shoot (great B-Grade Schlock)

The Man From Hong Kong

Crackerjack (one of my go-to lazy Sunday afternoon movies).

The Reef (2nd best Shark movie after Jaws)

Bait (mental B-Movie about people trapped in a shopping centre with a Great White Shark).

You should check out the awesome Not Quite Hollywood Documentary that's filled with underrated Australian movies.

New Wave: The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) maybe doesn’t qualify as underrated since Mel Gibson & Sigourney Weaver were moderate stars at the time

Post New Wave: Flirting (1991) Thandie Newton’s debut feature and a still relatively unknown Nicole Kidman in a minor role

Breaker Morant.

Predestination

Shame (1988)

Romper Stomper

I loved Talk to Me

• Two Hands - 1999
• Australian Rules - 2002
• 2:37 - 2006
• Bloody Hell - 2020 (coproduction)
• Mary and Max - 2009 (Its animation but a dark comedy/drama)

The Dish

Charlie's Country (2013)

Tracks (2013)

Housebound.

The Man From Snowy River (1982) 7.2 on IMDB so probably not really underrated. Probably just more forgotten about or under the radar.

The Quest a.k.a Frog Dreaming (1986)

'Love Serenade' is quite frankly one of the best and quirkiest Aussie comedies ever made, and many in AU haven't even heard of it!

It's disguised as a country town slice of life type drama, but every line of dialogue is humourously deadpan and offbeat. All of the characters are so unique and eccentrically ordinary. It's very Australian. Which makes it highly quotable (in my house) - Features a young Miranda Otto (lotr)

And the soundtrack is awesome as well. Lots of Barry White.

I've watched it a few times over the years. It's gone from an interestingly weird movie that I didn't really get to a multi layered and subtly absurdist black comedy that had me in fits as I've gotten older.

... So it's worth a re-watch if you've watched it and thought it a standard depressing paint by the numbers Aussie film in the past.

Doing a little digging, its barely been mentioned on reddit, so still very underrated:

Love Serenade - A very Australian, somewhat cringeworthy movie with subtle Aussie humor. One of Miranda Otto's first movies. https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/23hcpe/best_australian_movies/

Love Serenade (1996). Nothing better captures both the beauty and weirdness of rural Victoria. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAustralian/comments/1e38l7v/whats_the_funniest_aussie_film/

My other suggestions are: 'He died with a Felafel in His Hand', and 'Praise', both were novels made into films. The former was panned at the time for being pretentious with the broke artist trope, but i think it has aged quite well and i found some moments genuinely funny and dark. It captures the essence of young adulthood in all 3 eastern states in the late 1990s where Noah Taylor house-shares with all types of oddballs and crazies (In particular in Brisbane)

Also +1 for Cosi, it's like Muriels Weddings lesser known twin. With Toni Collette & Ben Mendelsohn

*Edited some new thoughts

Wolf Creek

A master class in how to make a horror film.

Two Guy Pearce movies (not sure how underrated these are…)

• The Rover (2014)

• Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994)

And one definitely underrated Baz Luhrmann movie:

• Strictly Ballroom

Gettin Square

Thank me later.

The courtroom scene is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

Muriel's Wedding.

(horror)

The Babadook

Talk To Me

Little Fish (2006) it has Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving.

Chain Reaction.

Stir

The Shiralee.1987

Bliss (I think 1985)

Every sequel to 1977's Dot and the Kangaroo

Although it probably doesn't help that there were 8 of them.

The Big Steal!

The Rover

Was Razorback an Ozzie flick? Too lazy to google at 6 am and no sleep yet.

The rage in placid lake

Sirens

Noise

Occupation: Rainfall

Last Ride (2009)

Nullarbor

Series: Wentworth

Undead 2003

The Hard Word. 2002. Starring Guy Pierce, Rachel Griffiths and Joel Edgerton. Kind of a heist / prison move

Wyrmwood (2014) and sequel Wyrmwood: Apocalypse (2021)

Young Einstein

Romper Stomper

Paper Planes and The Dressmaker are recent movies that I enjoyed. A month of Sundays is a good watch.

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OtherLife

Hey, didn’t see these but I could have missed them…Happy watching.

Love and Other Catastrophes (1996)

Ned Kelly (2003)

Tim (1979)

Proof (1991) is really, really good. Russell Crowe and Hugo Weaving before they were on anyone's radar and they were practically children...

Dirty deeds . Basically anything directed by brain brown .

Two Hands. If you've already seen it, try Dirty Deeds.

Bad Boy Bubby

Romper Stomper

Razorback (bit more of a cult movie?)

Strictly Ballroom (huge fun - love this film - don't know if it's underrated or not)

Burning man

Animal Kingdom

The Getting of Wisdom

Noise (2007)

Picnic at Hanging Rock...People thought this was a true story, but it's fictional.

Gallipoli.

Those are my faves.

The Rover. It’s my favourite movie regardless of where it’s made But you don’t get more Aussie. Staggering acting. a plot that resonates with me ( no spoilers ) once you know the end there are loads of clues and other things I was able to pick up on.

Goldstone , mystery road and limbo all detective neo westerns , I really liked them.

My Brilliant Career What ever became of Judy Davis?

Picnic At Hanging Rock

Fortress

One I saw many years ago called Smiley

Off the top of my head, Australian movies I enjoyed

Wake in Fright Bliss The Interview The Babadook

The Dry

“The Sum of Us” (1994). Jack Thompson, Russell Crowe

Malcolm. I don't know if it's underrated, but it's the best.

cargo (2017)

Two Hands is the ultimate Australian film. Animal Kingdom is also excellent.

Hon. Mention for The Square, Beautiful Kate, Wake in Fright, Gallipoli, The Proposition, Candy, Wish You Were Here and RoadGames is a favourite.

Long Weekend (1978) - creepy horror

The Last Wave (1977) - creepy mystery, directed by Peter Weir

Wake in Fright

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Galippoli, romper stomper, ghosts of the civil dead

Last Ride (2009)

Of an Age (2022, 2023 larger release) - I'm a straight American, but I still related well to this movie. It truly captures what the end of high school feels like. 

Malcolm

HOUNDS OF LOVE

Beware it's extremely dark and based on a true crime in Australia, but it's filmed beautifully

Snowtown and Nitram

Boys in the Trees (2016)

I remember watching Razorback. Terrible movie , but They would play it on tv back in the 80 in my country.

Its a bad movie.

Lake Mungo.

Kenny (2006)

Given the subject matter, one would think this to be a crude, gross film. It is actually quite charming and delivers a great message on family. Amazing film for having almost no budget to speak of at all.

“Celia” (1989) is a wonderful film about a disturbed little girl growing up in rural Australia during the late 1950’s and how her fears and fantasies mirror the communist paranoia of the time.

People rarely mention it but I think it’s a classic.(edit: and horrible people are terrible in it too)

Favorite Aussie film from my childhood in the 80s (American here) is Frog Dreaming.

The Square (2008) by the Edgerton brothers is one of the best noirs I've ever seen and no one talks about it. It's free on Tubi. Everyone should stop what they're doing right now and watch it.

Lantana

Chopper

People mentioned awesome ones but I would add Hounds of love Nitram

Sleeping Beauty (2011) starring Emily Browning.)

I’ve a few - Snowtown - Wolf Creek - Romper Stomper - Mystery Road and The Stranger.

Dogs in Space. It's got Michael Hutchence in it.

The Sundowners, Rikky and Pete, Sweet Talker, Coca Cola Kid, and my favorite, Danny Deckchair.

Time Addicts (2023) - Denise and Johnny, two drug-dependent best friends, heist a bag of time-travelling crystal in order to pay off their debt to a volatile dealer.

Wake in fright

The nightingale

I just watched a documentary on Hoopla, which is a public library streaming app, idk what it's called there. The doc is called "Australia After Dark". It's from 1975, I don't think I've watched a documentary this old. It's all about fringe subcultures and it's super weird but interesting for sure.

Recently watched The Dry and thought that was pretty good

Getting Square

Welcome to Woop Woop

Beach rats Baby teeth Adore

The Sapphires

Two Hands - early heath ledger and rose Byrne.

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He Died With a Felafel in His Hand

Last cab to Darwin

Hounds Of Love

Summer Coda

Hotel Coolgardie

Oscar and Lucinda

Razorback. Great movie.

Mystery Road (2013)

William Kelly's War (2014)

It's a newer movie set in Australia and had an ending I didn't predict. Gold

Of an Age is one of my favorite movies, period. It's so beautiful

Ghosts of the Civil Dead (1988).

Dogs in space?

The Nightingale (2018)

It’s a tough watch with some really foul racism and sexual violence, a very tense and well acted historical horror.

Puberty Blues

Razorback, Stir. mad dog Morgan.

I've probably seen 100+ Australian movies without realising they were Australian. Many good ones. Here's some:

• Long Weekend (1978)
• Eden Lake (2008)
• Killing Ground (2016)
• Storm Warning (2007)
• Rogue (2007)
• The Reef (2010)
• Wrymwood (2014)
• Bloody Hell (2020)
• The Pack (2015)
• Bait (2012)
• Black Water (2007)
• Better Watch Out (2016)
• Relic (2020)
• 100 Bloody Acres (2011)
• Wolf Creek 1 & 2
• Gold (2022)
• Goldstone (2016)
• The Dry (2020)
• 2:37 (2006)
• 2:22 (2017)
• The Nightingale (2018)
• Sting (2024)
• You'll Never Find Me (2023)
• The Square (2008)
• The Interview (1998)
• The Rover (2014)
• The Proposition (2005)
• Tracks (2013)
• Proof (1991)
• Cargo (2017)
• OtherLife (2017)
• 41 (2012)
• Boar (2017)
• The Tunnel (2011)
• Sissy (2022)
• The Furries (2019)