A record six Australian feature films will screen at next month's Sundance Film Festival in the US, including the world premiere of Bruna Papandrea's Little Monsters.
Three of the Australian films are directed by women.
"The fact that all the films revolve around central female characters, and half of the films are directed by women, is a milestone for the Australian industry," Screen Australia chief executive Graeme Mason said.
"Change is coming - slowly, but surely."
Sundance has become an Oscar launching pad for Australian films with Geoffrey Rush's Academy Award-winning performance in Shine in 1996 and Jackie Weaver's nominated role in Animal Kingdom in 2010 making their debuts in the snow in Park City, Utah.
The Sundance Film Festival will be held from January 24 to February 3.
Australian super producer Papandrea's dark comedy, Little Monsters (directed by Abe Forsythe and starring Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o), Judy and Punch (directed by Mirrah Foulkes and starring Mia Wasikowska and Damon Herriman), Animals (directed by Sophie Hyde and starring Holliday Grainger), I Am Mother (directed by Grant Sputore and starring Hilary Swank) and Top End Wedding (directed by Wayne Blair and starring Miranda Tapsell) will make their world premieres.
The Nightingale (writer/director Jennifer Kent and starring Aisling Franciosi), after winning the Venice Film Festival's Special Jury Prize, will have its North American premiere at Sundance.
The six Australian films selected by Sundance officials beats the five that screened at Sundance in 1997.
The 1985 and 1986 Sundance festivals had more Australian films due to dedicated Australian showcases.
"The six films selected by Sundance display the array of stories Australians now tell, and the demand for our screen content internationally," Mason said.
"From quintessentially Australian tales Top End Wedding and The Nightingale, to Australian takes on sci-fi and dark comedy I Am Mother and Little Monsters, to international stories Animals and Judy and Punch - this is an incredible slate of premieres."
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