Celebrate the impactful work of Australian women in film, television, radio and podcasting with this collection of works that you can stream right now. Featuring titles by award-winning trailblazers and exciting emerging talent—many of whom are AFTRS alumni—there’s plenty here to take care of your content needs well beyond this International Women’s Day.
FEATURE FILMS
THE POWER OF THE DOG (2021)
Director: Jane Campion
A domineering but charismatic rancher wages a war of intimidation on his brother’s new wife and her teen son — until long-hidden secrets come to light. Winner of the Venice Film Festival Silver Lion, Best Drama Film and Best Director Golden Globes, and nominated for twelve Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.
Technically speaking, Campion is a New Zealander, but given she resides in Sydney and is an AFTRS graduate, we’re claiming her as one of our own.
Watch on Netflix
LITTLE WOMEN (1994)
Director: Gillian Armstrong
After their father leaves to fight in the Union Army, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, the four March sisters, and their mother, struggle to live in a 19th century America amidst the Civil War.
Watch on Apple TV, Google Play and Amazon Prime Video
BRAN NUE DAE (2009)
Director: Rachel Perkins
A young man is filled with the life of the idyllic old pearling port Broome until his mother returns him to the religious mission. After being punished for an act of youthful rebellion, he runs away on a journey that ultimately leads him back home.
Watch on Stan and Apple TV
SOMERSAULT (2004)
Director: Cate Shortland
16-year-old Heidi flees her home for the small Australian ski town of Jindabyne. Entranced by the startling beauty of the wintry landscapes and falling snow, she begins to create a new life for herself.
Watch on Apple TV, Google Play and YouTube
BABYTEETH (2019)
When a seriously ill teenager falls for a small-time drug dealer, her parents disapprove. However, she soon finds a new lust for life from her blossoming romance.
Watch on Foxtel, YouTube, Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video
52 TUESDAYS (2013)
Director: Sophie Hyde
16-year-old Billie’s reluctant path to independence is accelerated when her mother reveals plans to gender transition and their time together becomes limited to Tuesday afternoons.
Watch on Stan
THE BLACK BALLOON (2008)
Director: Elissa Down
When Thomas and his family move to a new home and he has to start a new school, all he wants is to fit in. A funny, confronting and ultimately heartwarming story about fitting in, discovering love and accepting your family.
Watch on ABC iview
SLEEPING BEAUTY (2011)
Director: Julia Leigh
A haunting portrait of Lucy, a young university student drawn into a mysterious hidden world of unspoken desires.
Watch on SBS on Demand, Netflix or Binge
ELLIE AND ABBIE (AND ELLIE’S DEAD AUNT) (2020)
Director: Monica Zanetti
Ellie is struggling to ask her classmate, Abbie, to their school formal when her dead Aunt Tara shows up to offer her advice.
Watch on SBS on Demand
SUBURBAN WILDLIFE (2018)
Director: Imogen McCluskey
With one week left before the departure of their best friend, a close-knit group of university graduates are left facing decisions that will define the rest of their lives.
Also check out McCluskey’s TikTok series, Love Bug, about dating a soft boi during a pandemic.
Watch on Apple TV
PROOF (1991)
Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse
The life of a blind photographer who is looked after by an obsessive housekeeper is disrupted by the arrival of an agreeable restaurant worker.
Stream on Stan
I AM WOMAN (2019)
Director: Unjoo Moon
In the 1960s, Australian singer Helen Reddy struggles with misogyny in the music business — until she records an anthem for the women’s movement.
Watch on Stan
MY TEHRAN FOR SALE (2009)
Director: Granaz Moussavi
Marzieh is a young actress living in Tehran. The authorities ban her theatre work and, like all young people in Iran, she is forced to lead a secret life in order to express herself artistically.
Watch on ABC iview
LOVE SERENADE (1996)
Director: Shirley Barrett
Two lonely sisters looking for Mr. Right square off in a hilarious competition to win the affections of a smooth-talking radio DJ.
Watch on Netflix
STRANGE COLOURS (2017)
Director: Alena Lodkina
Milena visits her ailing, estranged father in a remote opal mining community and soon finds herself caught up in his puzzling world, where men can escape from real life and enjoy their shared ideals of freedom.
Watch on SBS on Demand
VACANT POSSESSION (1995)
Director: Margot Nash
Vacant Possession is the story of two families – one white, one Aboriginal – both living in the shadow of the past. A past fragmented by events too long unresolved. Weaving dream, memory, fantasy, present and past, VACANT POSSESSION is a story of conflict and the complexities of reconciliation.
Watch on Kanopy
BEDEVIL (1993)
Director: Tracey Moffatt
A trilogy of supernatural stories that traverse the outback to the city and Australia’s Indigenous-Anglo divide.
Watch on SBS on Demand
MY FIRST SUMMER (2020)
Director: Katie Found
Isolated Claudia hides away on a remote property after her mother’s death. Shocked when spirited local teen Grace appears in her garden, the pair find support and love in each other.
Watch on Stan
LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI (2000)
Director: Kate Woods
At seventeen Josie Alibrandi is about to enter her final year as a scholarship student at an exclusive Catholic College. It’s the year her life is turned upside down and changed forever.
Watch on Apple TV or Amazon Prime Video
THE NIGHTINGALE (2019)
Director: Jennifer Kent
Set in 1825, Clare, a young Irish convict woman, chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. On the way, she enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy, who is also marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.
Watch on YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV
HEAD ON (1998)
Director: Anna Kokkinos
This drama follows 19-year-old Ari (Alex Demetriades), a gay Greek-Australian whose roiling ethnic and sexual identity struggles lead to a wild, 24-hour odyssey.
Watch on Netflix
DOCUMENTARIES
AFTER THE APOLOGY (2017)
Director: Larissa Behrendt
Four grandmothers begin a national movement to tackle the removal of children and the rising number of Indigenous children in out-of-home care by involving their extended families. You can also stream other factual works by Larissa Behrendt, including AACTA Award-winning documentary Maralinga Tjarutja, and Araatika: Rise Up!.
Watch on SBS on Demand
UKRAINE IS NOT A BROTHEL (2013)
Director: Kitty Green
Ukraine’s topless feminist sensation, Femen, has stirred up a press frenzy across Europe. Outraged by the world’s image of Ukrainian women as either brides for sale or commodities of sex tourism, Femen bare their breasts in protest.
Watch on Kanopy
FORBIDDEN LIES (2007)
Director: Anna Broinowski
A dramatised documentary investigates the honesty of author Norma Khouri, who was accused of falsifying a biographical tale of a Muslim friend who was killed for dating a Christian.
Watch on YouTube and Google Play
WOMEN OF STEEL (2020)
Director: Robynne Murphy
A rousing Australian documentary, many years in the making, that follows a group of determined local women in their 14-year fight for the right to work in Wollongong’s steel industry.
Watch on ABC iview
JANDAMARRA’S WAR (2011)
Director: Mitch Torres
Jandamarra’s War tells the story of Jandamarra, the almost mythic hero from the Bunuba Aboriginal people who led the resistance against colonial power in the Kimberley in the latter part of the 19th century.
Watch on Vimeo
THE OPPOSITION (2016)
Director: Hollie Fifer
In a David-and-Goliath battle over a slice of Papua New Guinea paradise, Joe Moses, leader of the Paga Hill Settlement, struggles to save his 3,000 people before they are evicted. Battling it out in the courts, Joe may find his community replaced with a five-star hotel and marina.
Watch on Vimeo, DocPlay and Apple TV
IN MY BLOOD IT RUNS (2019)
Director: Maya Newell
The powerful story of 10-year-old Dujuan and his family, as they struggle to balance his traditional Arrernte/Garrwa upbringing with a Western-style education.
Watch on Netflix
MY SURVIVAL AS AN ABORIGINAL (1979)
Director: Essie Coffey
In a landmark film, and the first documentary directed by an Indigenous Australian woman, Murrawarri woman and activist Essie Coffey documents the hardships faced by Australian Aboriginals and their continuing struggle for cultural survival.
Watch on SBS on Demand
TELEVISION SERIES
FIRST DAY (2020-present)
Director: Julie Kalceff
Hannah Bradford, a 12-year-old transgender girl, begins her first year of middle school while trying to live as her authentic self. You can also catch Julie Kalceff’s web series, Starting From Now here.
Watch on ABC iview
REDFERN NOW (2012-2013)
Directors: Catriona McKenzie, Rachel Perkins, Leah Purcell, Beck Cole, Wayne Blair, Adrian Russell Wills
Six different families, all of whose lives are changed by a moment’s decision, an accident or a seemingly insignificant incident. This kaleidoscopic drama explores Indigenous life in Australia’s most infamous suburb, Redfern.
Watch on ABC iview and Stan
CLEVERMAN (2016-2017)
Directors: Leah Purcell, Wayne Blair
In the near future, creatures from ancient Aboriginal mythology with extraordinary physical traits battle for survival in a world that wants to exploit and destroy them. One young man struggles with his responsibility to unite this divided world.
Watch on Stan
BLACK COMEDY (2014-2020)
Beck Cole, Erica Glynn, Nakkiah Lui, Steven McGregor, Craig Anderson
A sketch comedy show by Blackfellas, for everyone. Featuring an ensemble cast of Indigenous writers and performers and many special guest cameo appearances as well.
Watch on ABC iview
EDEN (2019-present)
Creator: Vanessa Gazy
Writers: Vanessa Gazy, Anya Beyersdorf, Jess Brittain, Penelope Chai, Clare Sladden
Directors: Mirrah Foulkes, John Curran, Peter Andrikidis
In an idyllic coastal town in Australia, the disappearance of a young woman triggers a devastating chain of events and lays bare the dark heart of the community and long-buried secrets are dragged into the open.
Watch on Stan
GET KRACK!N (2017-2019)
Creators, writers, executive producers, co-directors and stars: Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney
Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney take a Sassy Swipe at the bright chirpy world of morning TV, with their signature brand of social awkwardness.
Watch on Apple TV or YouTube
MISS FISHER’S MURDER MYSTERIES (2012-2015)
Co-creators and producers: Fiona Eagger and Deb Cox
Set in 1920’s Melbourne, this compelling crime-drama follows Miss Phyrne Fisher as she solves crime and fights injustice with her pearl-handled pistol and her dagger-sharp wit.
Watch on ABC iview
WEB SERIES
THE FORMAL (2020-present)
Creators/writers/directors/producers: Hannah Rae-Meegan and Monique Terry
A schoolyard mockumentary series following two very different girls as they plan the biggest night of the year, nay, the biggest night of their lives. The Year 12 Formal.
Watch on TikTok
GUT FEELING (2018-present)
Director: Hattie Archibald
Liv, a 28-year-old advertising creative, is pretty happy. Good job, nice Sydney apartment, and a good enough relationship with her boyfriend Luke. Things are ticking along nicely, until the day she meets her intuition Uta.
Watch on ABC iview
ROSALINE’S UNTAMING (2020)
Creator/director: Olivia Suleimon
A series of intimate portraits on the female African Australian experience through hair, hosted by Rosaline Kanneh.
Watch on ABC’s YouTube
LOVE SONGS (2020-present)
Creators/producers: Hayley Adams and Michelle Melky
Directors: Hayley Adams, Michelle Melky, Imogen McCluskey
One of the first narrative web series produced exclusively for TikTok, rom-com Love Songs is an instant hit, with more than 150k followers, 20 million views and 2.8 million likes, and a highly anticipated second season directed by alum Imogen McCluskey, and released in partnership with Tinder.
Watch on TikTok
GIRL, INTERPRETED (2020)
Creator/writer/director: Grace Feng Fang Juan
Inspired by Grace Feng Fang Juan’s professional experience as an interpreter, Girl, Interpreted is a bilingual comedy web series about Lillian, a newbie Mandarin interpreter reluctantly caught in a tussle of words and cultures during the most unexpected assignments.
Watch on YouTube
SHEILAS (2018)
Creators/writers/directors: Hannah Reilly and Eliza Reilly
It’s been said that “well-behaved women seldom make history”, but the handful of white boys who wrote our History books conveniently left out most of them out. Whoops! To rectify this situation, twenty-something sisters Hannah and Eliza are setting out to revive the forgotten stories of the badass sheilas of Australian History.
Watch on YouTube
PODCASTS AND AUDIO FEATURES
DEBUTANTE: RACE, RESISTANCE AND GIRL POWER (2020)
By Nakkiah Lui and Miranda Tapsell
Miranda Tapsell and Nakkiah Lui explore the history, culture, adaptation and modernisation of the debutante ball, and how First Nations women across the globe have made this tradition their own.
Listen on Audible
LIVED IT (2022)
Executive producer: Pariya Taherzadeh
Comedians Gen Fricker and AFTRS alum Alexei Toliopoulos speak to everyday Aussies and Kiwis who didn’t just watch the show or movie everyone’s bangin’ on about – they lived it! Lived In features real stories from real people on a cinematic scale.
Listen on Spotify
Hear more work by AFTRS’ Selwyn Speight Scholarship recipient Pariya Taherzadeh in her New York Festivals Radio Awards-winning documentary Escape from Iran for ABC’s The History Listen, and Jaleh’s Drive for Freedom, which aired on ABC’s Days Like These.
KUKENARUP: POSSIBILITIES OF PLACE (2021)
Presented by Fiona Pepper, originally aired on ABC’s Off Track.
Kukenarup is a 65,000 ha area that sits halfway between Albany and Esperance in the southwest corner of WA. It’s a place of ecological significance, home to the endangered Carnaby’s black cockatoo, salmon Gum woodlands and many species endemic to the south-west. But it’s also the site of a horrific massacre.
Listen at fionapepper.com.au
FULL STORY (2019)
Presented by Laura Murphy-Oates
Supervising audio producer: Karla Arnall
In Full Story, Guardian journalists go beyond the headlines to provide a deeper understanding of the news in Australia and beyond.AFTRS alum Karla Arnall is also the producer of ABC’s musical comedy series CrossBread.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify
SHORT FILMS
I WANT TO MAKE A FILM ABOUT WOMEN (2020)
Director: Karen Pearlman
A love letter to Russia’s most revolutionary female artists of the 1920s, and what they might have achieved if not for Stalin’s suppression.
Watch on SBS on Demand
AMELIA ROSE TOWERS (1991)
Director: Jackie Farkas
Amelia Rose Towers, whose initials spell ART, faces off against an adversary whose initials spell MAN, after passing through surrealistic chambers and screens offering images of a personal identity that can never be reconciled.
Watch on Vimeo
WIRRIYA: SMALL BOY (2004)
Director: Catriona McKenzie
A warm account of family narrated by eight-year-old Ricco, who lives with his foster mother in an Indigenous Australian town camp near Alice Springs.
Watch on Vimeo
AFTRS STUDENT FILMS
ABC iview’s Short Films: Focus on Female Directors collection features AFTRS student works by Jane Campion, Gillian Armstrong, Catriona McKenzie, Cate Shortland and Shannon Murphy and more.
Watch on ABC iview