From The Final Quarter to Judy & Punch: the best Australian films of 2019

Plus Jennifer Kent’s elegant and brutal colonial drama, Lupita Nyong’o battling zombies, and the best biopic since Chopper

Do impressive box office results indicate a film is worth seeing? Should good business be considered as important as rave reviews?

The dichotomy between great art and popular art is almost as old as art itself. This year in Australian cinema there was a profound disconnect between the best locally produced films and the ones audiences most wanted to see. Titles such as Ride Like a Girl, Palm Beach and Storm Boy, for instance, did commendable business at the box office, but all were artistically wanting, to say the least.

In this context, as always, the role of the critic is surely to separate the wheat from the chaff. To qualify for this list, films must have had either some kind of theatrical release this year outside the festival circuit or a direct-to-television/streaming release. Without further ado, here are the 10 best Australian films of 2019.

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