Feeling the Pinch? The Best Free Movies and Where to Watch Them in Australia

Don’t know what to watch this evening? Feeling the cost of living crunch?

From cinema classics to hot recent releases, from kids flicks to action movies, here are a bunch of films you can watch for free on easy-access free-to-air apps including ABC iView, 7plus, 10 Play and SBS On Demand on Fetch.

Note that the availability of these movies on these services is subject to change.

ABC iView

Spotlight

This riveting Oscar Best Picture-winning drama tells the haunting true-life story of a group of intrepid Boston Globe journalists who uncovered a massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese. Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton and Liev Schreiber are amongst the celebrated cast.

Brooklyn

This breathtaking period drama chronicles the story of a young Irish immigrant Eilis Lace (Saoirse Ronan) as she navigates her way through 1950s Brooklyn. Eilis departs Ireland and the comfort of her mother’s home for the shores of New York City, with the initial shackles of homesickness quickly diminishing as a fresh romance sweeps Eilis into the intoxicating charm of love.

Boy

Boy is a charming family-friendly comedy from the mind of Taika Waititi (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), his second feature film. Boy (James Rolleston), an 11-year-old child and devout Michael Jackson fan who lives on the east coast of New Zealand in 1984, gets a chance to know his absentee criminal father (Waititi) who has returned to find a bag of money he buried years ago.

American Sniper

Directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring a committed performance from Bradley Cooper, American Sniper details the military success of Chris Kyle, who would become one of the deadliest marksmen in U.S. Military history. The film captures his harrowing experiences across four tours in the Iraq War, and details the heavy toll his service took on his personal and family life.

Looking for Alibrandi

Looking for Alibrandi is a classic Australian coming-of-age story, self-adapted by Melina Marchetta from her own novel of the same name. Pia Miranda stars as the ambitious and outspoken 17-year-old, Josie Alibrandi, whose final year as a scholarship student at an exclusive Catholic College turns her life upside down in unexpected ways.

SBS On-Demand

Parasite

One of the most celebrated movies of 2019 – and the eventual Best Picture winner at the 2020 Academy Awards – Bong Joon-ho’s provocative film rewards repeat visits. Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan, when they take advantage of a unique opportunity to all work within the same household.

Drive

This stylish and brutally violent crime thriller is the perfect encapsulation of the familiar aesthetics of filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (Only God Forgives), punctuated by pulsating car chase sequences and an explosive soundtrack. In the film a mysterious Hollywood action film stuntman, played with stoic intensity by Ryan Gosling, gets in trouble with gangsters when he tries to help his neighbor’s husband rob a pawn shop while serving as his getaway driver. Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac and Albert Brooks co-star.

Another Round

Headlined by Mads Mikkelsen, the latest film from renowned Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg is an enlightening exploration of midlife crises. Four middle-aged friends test a theory stating that a certain level of blood alcohol content aids creativity, in an attempt to enliven their stale and banal lives. However, they find themselves in a mess after they take the experiment a bit too far.

The Father

Anthony Hopkins’ astonishing Academy Award-winning performance must be seen to be believed, and this powerful and complex analysis of aging and mental illness is an unforgettable experience. Anthony (Hopkins) suffers from dementia and is cared for by his daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman). But when Anne decides to move to Paris and Anthony must deal with this change, he finds himself losing his grip on reality.

Boiling Point

Set entirely within a restaurant, and the product of an extraordinary single unbroken take, Boiling Point serves up a stress test of the highest order. On the busiest night of the year at one of the hottest restaurants in London, charismatic and commanding head chef Andy Jones (a riveting Stephen Graham) balances along a knife’s edge as multiple personal and professional crises threaten to destroy everything he’s worked for.

7plus

Where the Crawdads Sing

Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones of Normal People fame, and based on Delia Owens’ best-selling novel, Where the Crawdads Sing presents an intriguing mystery and is one of the most recent releases available on 7plus. The story follows an abandoned yet defiant girl, Kya, who raises herself to adulthood in a North Carolina marshland, becoming a naturalist in the process. When the town’s hotshot, and Kya’s former boyfriend, is found dead, she becomes the prime suspect in the investigation.

Final Score

This high-octane action movie serves up exactly what you would expect, and is elevated by a strong cast including Dave Bautista and Pierce Brosnan. The plot sees an American former soldier (Bautista) take on a terrorist organization, who threaten to blow up a packed association football stadium and kill his teenage protégée, unless an elusive spectator is turned over to them before the game ends.

13 Going on 30

A rom-com blast from the past that still entertains to the day, 13 Going on 30 is like a big warm hug. Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo star in this charming story of Jenna Rink, who makes an unusual wish on her birthday. Miraculously, her wish comes true and the 13-year-old Jenna wakes up the next day as a 30-year-old woman.

The Player

Robert Altman’s The Player is a bonafide classic of the ’90s, mixing elements of film noir with sly Hollywood-insider satire and a stunning who’s who supporting cast. In the film a Hollywood studio executive with a shaky moral compass (Tim Robbins) finds himself caught up in a criminal situation that would be right at home in one of his movie projects.

Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse

One of the most spectacular animated movies ever made, spawning an equally well-respected sequel last year, is free to enjoy again and again. If you’re a Spidey fan this instantly became the definite representation of the beloved superhero. After gaining superpowers from a spider bite, Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) protects the city as Spider-Man. Soon, he meets alternate versions of himself and gets embroiled in an epic battle to save the multiverse.

10 Play

Minority Report

One of Steven Spielberg’s more underrated movies of the 2000s, this meaty sci-fi thriller has a very serious and intensely committed performance from Tom Cruise. Minority Report is a chase film, a whodunit and a tech-noir, as John Anderton – the Chief of PreCrime, a specialised police department that apprehends criminals based on foreknowledge of their crimes – attempts to clear his name after he is linked to a murder in the future.

Cast Away

Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) teamed up again for the emotional survival drama that remains a treat to re-visit. Hanks delivers arguably his finest performance as Chuck Noland, a FedEx executive who wakes up on a deserted island after his plane crash-lands into the Pacific. Now, he must harness every skill he knows to survive the mental and physical agony of living alone.

Mean Girls

Tina Fey’s quintessential high school-set coming-of-age comedy remains as quotable today as when it was released (an incredible 20 years ago). Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is a hit with The Plastics, the A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George (Rachel McAdams).

Charlie’s Country

One of the finest Australian films ever made, and starring the late great David Gulpilil, Charlie’s Country is another powerful collaboration between Gulpilil and filmmaker Rolf De Heer (The Tracker). Displeased with the intervention of whitefella laws, and lamenting the loss of his culture in modern Australia, Charlie takes off to live the old way and sets off a chain reaction of enlightening difficulties.

Monster High: The Movie

Based on the Monster High fashion doll franchise, this musical fantasy film was released in tandem with an animated series. With some catchy song and dance numbers as well as thoughtful themes of inclusion and acceptance this is a lively high school coming of age story with a lightly spooky twist. The story follows Clawdeen Wolf (Miia Harris) who was born half human and half werewolf, after she arrives at her new school, Monster High. She quickly makes friends with her classmates Frankie Stein and Draculaura but when a devious plan to destroy Monster High threatens to reveal her real identity, Clawdeen must learn to embrace her true monster heart and find a way to save the day alongside her new friends.