SYDNEY CINEMATHEQUE LAUNCH PUTS HARBOUR CITY CINEMA IN THE SPOTLIGHT

The Art Gallery of New South Wales will launch Sydney Cinémathèque this March, relaunching its iconic  film program with more screenings, director retrospectives, Q&As and family sessions.

Since 2000, generations of audiences have come together to watch films at the Art Gallery. Sydney Cinémathèque will continue to serve as a living school of cinema, providing a dedicated space for the weekly celebration of film as an art form and social experience. Our free and ticketed offerings take place on Wednesdays and weekends.

Actor and Sydney resident Hugo Weaving, Ambassador for the AGNSW Sydney Cinematheque, has thrown his support behind the retro programming initiative. "The experience of going to the cinema still matters profoundly. Sitting in a darkened room with strangers and surrendering yourself to a story, old or new, is something you simply can’t replicate at home," says Weaving (picture, right). "The Art Gallery cinema has long been a space for curiosity, risk and conversation. For a city like Sydney, cultural meeting places like Sydney Cinémathèque are vital."

The program will unfold across several new strands of programming, with a unashamed parochialism for its home state and city driving seceral selections. The Opening Season strands are:

OUR NICOLE (Saturdays 14 March – 2 May): Traces the Sydney north-shore raised actress' career from local ingénue to Hollywood icon, during a formidable run of daring, auteur-led work. Perhaps not surprising for a performer whose first screen hero was the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, Kidman has always been drawn to complex roles, reckoning with the most perverse parts of the female psyche on screen. Includes BMX Bandits (1983), Dead Calm (1989), Portrait of a Lady (1996), To Die For (1995), Practical Magic (1998), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Moulin Rouge (2001), The Hours (2002), Dogville (2003; below), The Others (2001), Birth (2004).

HARBOUR CITY CINEMA (7 March – 31 May 2026): A major retrospective of hometown cinema. From neon-lit thrillers in Kings Cross to suburban comedies to post-punk musicals in The Rocks, this season maps the city’s cinematic terrain. Includes Starstruck (1982; below), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), Sydney Refracted: The Films of Paul Winkler, A Life in Celluloid: The Films of Robert Herbert, Sydney New Wave Shorts, Puberty Blues (1981), Stone (1974), The Cars That Ate Paris (1974), My Survival as an Aboriginal (1978), Heatwave (1982), Legends of the Sydney Filmmakers Co-op, Rocking the Foundations (1985), Going Down (1982), Tender Hooks (1988), Sweetie (1989), The Well (1997), Strictly Ballroom (1992), New Perspectives of Asian-Australian Cinema, Floating Life (1996), Muriel's Wedding (1994), Eternity (1994), Dating the Enemy (1996), Billal (1996), Two Hands (1999), The Matrix (1999), Looking for Alibrandi (2000), Rats in the Ranks (1996), Death of an Undertaker (2024), Beaneath Clouds (2002), Somersault (2004), Mad Max Fury Road (2015) and Friends and Strangers (2021).

SPACE NOISE 3D (11 March 2026): Tokyo-based artist Makino Takashi makes hallucinatory films and live performances from dense layers of sound, image and light. Space Noise 3D is part cinema, part sensory onslaught, this immersive work combines 16mm and video projection, live sound and the use of 3D glasses to rupture the screen itself. Images spill into the room, enveloping the audience in waves of pulsing light and energy.

BLAK FILM CLUB (from 22 March 2026): Experience the past, present and future of First Nations cinema with Blak Film Club: a new bimonthly program spotlighting Indigenous filmmaking across Australia. The first screening will be Pauline Clague's The Colleano Heart, the largely-forgotten story of the world famous Aboriginal circus family.

CINEMATHEQUE JUNIOR (from 18 March 2026): Fortnightly screenings designed to inspire and delight, these relaxed family sessions take place in a lightly dimmed theatre, with easy pram access, with visitors welcome to come and go at any time throughout the session. Includes Fantastic Mr Fox (2009), Moomin and the Midsummer Madness (2008), Babe (1995), Finding Nemo (2003), Microcosmos (1996) and Ratatouille (2007).

For full program details include venue information, session times and classifications, visit the AGNSW Sydney Cinematheque website.