Australian movie website flicks.com.au has conducted the largest poll of Australian film critics in history, to answer the question “What are the greatest Australian films of the 21st century?”
Today they have announced the top 25, revealing that director George Miller’s dystopian action movie Mad Max: Fury Road has been voted by local critics as the best Australian film, to date, of the new millennium.
David Michôd’s crime drama Animal Kingdom came in second, whilst third place went to Warwick Thornton’s Samson & Delilah. The other titles to make the top ten were Chopper, Lantana, The Babadook, The Proposition, Sweet Country, Snowtown and Mystery Road. Any feature-length Australian film (fiction or documentary) released from the year 2000 onwards was eligible.
A total of 51 Australian film critics took part in the initiative, comprising 26 men and 25 women. The critics were drawn from a range of places including major news outlets, magazines, commercial and community radio, podcasts, television programs and blogs.
Participating critics included David Stratton, Margaret Pomeranz, Flicks’ and The Guardian’s Luke Buckmaster, Fairfax’s Sandra Hall and Jake Wilson, News Corp’s Vicky Roach and Leigh Paatsch, ABC Radio’s Jason Di Rosso, the Seven Network’s Jason Davis, The Saturday Paper and The Lifted Brow’s Rebecca Harkins-Cross and many others.
“We wanted to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of Australian filmmakers,” says Flicks.com.au publisher Paul Scantlebury. “This poll recognizes some incredible work and reveals interesting things. For example, half of the ten highest rated films were directed by first-time filmmakers.”
“And two filmmakers had more than one film in the top 25. They were Warwick Thornton with Samson & Delilah and Sweet Country, and Rolf de Heer with Ten Canoes and The Tracker.”
For more information and to view the top 25, visit: www.flicks.com.au for details.
Image: Mad Max: Fury Road (film still)