Matinees

Celebrate cinema at a sensible hour with our thoughtfully curated line-up of films from Australia and around the world.

A Melbourne Spring doesn’t just start suddenly, we ease into the warmer weather slowly and this year, we’re easing into our Spring Matinees program in much the same way.

Our Winter program finishes with Frederick Wiseman’s La Danse and Spring opens with the new 4K restoration of his 1981 documentary Model: Frederick Wiseman’s attentive examination of a Manhattan modelling agency at the dawn of the supermodel era. Expect style. Expect sophistication.

During Spring, our matinees program has a pronounced factual thread binding everything together. National Geographic’s new documentary Sally reveals the personal and professional life of the first American woman in space: Sally Ride. And Yurlu | Country documents the mining industry’s horrendous impact on country in the Pilbara.

There’s plenty of room for escapism, too. We’ll journey to Zambia for Rungano Nyoni’s Cannes favourite On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, to southern India for Tiger’s Pond and to the Snowy Mountains with the new 4K restoration of Cate Shortland’s Somersault.

And we can’t forget Hollywood. Join us as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of Billy Wilder’s classic Hollywood tragi-noir Sunset Boulevard, again beautifully restored in 4K.

Matinee sessions run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday throughout Spring with new films beginning every fortnight.

- Reece Goodwin, Curator (Film & TV)