Melbourne Cinémathèque

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Melbourne Cinémathèque

The Melbourne Cinémathèque is a not-for-profit, volunteer-run film society. We hold screenings at ACMI, Fed Square every Wednesday night for most of the year.

Admission is by membership, which can be obtained on a short-term or yearly basis. Screening programmes include a diverse selection of classic and contemporary films showcasing director retrospectives, special guest appearances and thematic series including archival material and new or restored prints. We have on occasion hosted numerous seminars featuring renowned film scholars such as David Bordwell and Ian Christie. Comments on posts will be moderated for community standards.

01/06/2026

Join us this Wednesday 3 June at ACMI for the second double bill of our season in which No One Here Gets Out Alive: Johnnie To, Dancing While the Building Burns.

At 7pm we will screen To’s tenth co-director collaboration with Wai Ka-Fai, RUNNING ON KARMA (2003), a supernatural buddy movie that unites an ex-monk turned bodybuilder (Andy Lau, donning an impressive muscle suit) with a kind cop (Cecilia Cheung) in an unpredictable adventure underpinned by Buddhist themes.

This will be followed at 9pm by LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE (2011), a cautionary tale and ironic farce of criminal opportunism in which three desperate and very different characters risk it all to solve their financial problems. Part of the post-GFC trickle of “we should’ve seen this coming” cinema, capitalism reveals itself as just another of To’s rigged games.

Both films will be screened on 35mm prints courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

Memberships: https://www.acmi.net.au/cteq

31/05/2026

Head to Senses of Cinema for CTEQ Annotations on the first films of our season on Johnnie To, Hong Kong filmmaker.

Kevin Bui annotates ELECTION (2005), for which "the director strips away any hints of romanticism typically found in Hong Kong crime pictures", To’s own included: https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/cteq/knives-out-johnnie-tos-election/

An example, David Sanjek annotates EXILED (2006), where "To’s camera and his characters revel in their abandon": https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2007/cteq/exiled/

Our Johnnie To season continues this Wednesday 3 June at ACMI with RUNNING ON KARMA (2003) from 7pm and LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE (2011) from 8.45pm, both on 35mm prints.

30/05/2026

Our Julie Christie season is over now, but head to Senses of Cinema for CTEQ Annotations on the final films in it.

Gabrielle O’Brien annotates THE GO-BETWEEN (1971), where "there is a lurking sense of disquiet" beneath the "pristine formal composition and beguiling Edwardian setting": https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/cteq/the-go-between/

Isabella Gullifer-Laurie annotates THE GOLD DIGGERS (1983), for which director Sally "Potter was interested in the currency and circulation of Christie’s image as a celebrity who represented both the trappings and performance of specifically fragile, white femininity": https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/cteq/through-the-looking-glass-the-gold-diggers/

Grace Boschetti annotates AWAY FROM HER (2006), in which "Christie is immediately credible, commanding and astonishingly beautiful on screen": https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/cteq/away-from-her/

27/05/2026

The Melbourne Cinémathèque is a completely independent, volunteer-run, not-for-profit film society. To help us continue our mission of screening rare and significant films drawn from the full history of international cinema – in both the form of 35mm prints and new restorations – we’re asking for your help.

Today we have launched an Australian Cultural Fund (ACF) campaign to support our 2027 screening program. If you can, head to our ACF fundraising page to make a donation: https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2EMn00000gHCMgMAO/melbourne-cin%C3%A9math%C3%A8que-2027-program

Contributions of any amount up to 30 June 2026 will help us present a program that maintains our renowned level of quality. All donations over $2 are tax deductible.

Why do we need your help? The majority of our operating budget comes from our members (anyone who buys a Mini or Annual pass – maybe that’s you). We strive to keep our memberships as affordable as possible so that the whole community, including students and low-income earners, can enjoy the films we screen, many of which are unavailable elsewhere.

We’re proud of the program we put on every year despite working with a modest budget and a committee composed of unpaid volunteers. However, in recent years we’ve faced a number of financial challenges. Securing arts funding has become more difficult, and film rental and freight costs have increased.

That’s why every dollar we receive through this fundraising campaign helps to protect your Cinémathèque’s future in uncertain times. No matter how small. Thank you!

25/05/2026

Join us this Wednesday 27 May at ACMI for the opening night of our season exploring why No One Here Gets Out Alive: Johnnie To, Dancing While the Building Burns.

At 7pm we will screen ELECTION (2005). Often cited as Johnnie To’s magnum opus, the film features a large ensemble led by Tony Leung Ka-Fai and Simon Yam as opposing gang leaders engaged in a vicious struggle for power. Winner of Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay at the Hong Kong Film Awards, it brought a fresh perspective to the Hong Kong crime genre with its sobering view of that underworld.

This will be followed at 9pm by EXILED (2006), wherein a quartet of hitmen in pre-handover Macau find the bonds of friendship tested when they fall on opposite sides of an assignment. Staged with To’s typical feel for pauses, hesitations and sudden eruptions, the film showcases his regular players playing in brilliant harmony - Anthony Wong most fully embodying the film’s bruised humour and weary grace. Also featuring Lam Suet, Francis Ng, Roy Cheung, Nick Cheung, Josie Ho, Richie Jen, and Simon Yam.

Both films will be screened on 35mm print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

Memberships: https://www.acmi.net.au/cteq

19/05/2026

Join us this Wednesday 20 May at ACMI for the last night of our season focused on A Woman of Her Time: Julie Christie.

At 7pm we will screen THE GOLD DIGGERS (1983), an astonishing landmark of 1980s feminist counter-cinema, made with an entirely female crew and directed by Sally Potter. When the film’s protagonist (Christie) has to try to recollect her memories in order to discover who (or what) she is, the viewer shares her labour in putting the fragments together. An inventive and provocative fantasy of song and dance featuring an abundance of allegorical motifs, forking narratives and cinematic riddles, its wilfulness and "determination to laugh in the face of [male] power" (So Mayer) unsettled many contemporary critics.

This will be followed at 8.45pm by a 35mm print of AWAY FROM HER (2006). Directed by Sarah Polley, Christie was nominated for an Academy Award for her "career-defining performance" (Jonathan Rosenbaum) as a woman whose diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease reveals a wedge in her marriage to Grant (Gordon Pinsent). Tender scenes are set against an idyllic snowbound landscape, made picturesque so as to underline the cruelties of ageing. Adapted from a short story by Alice Munro, Polley’s feature directorial debut is a small-scale drama and an actor’s showcase, with Christie’s career-capping performance standing out.

Print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive.

Memberships: https://www.acmi.net.au/cteq

11/05/2026

Join us this Wednesday 13 May at ACMI for the second night of our season celebrating A Woman of Her Time: Julie Christie.

At 7pm we will screen a 4K DCP of MCCABE & MRS. MILLER (1971), a sleety folk Western from renowned filmmaker Robert Altman. Christie stars as Mrs. Miller, an opium-addicted madam who joins forces with a brothel entrepreneur played by Warren Beatty. Hauntingly scored with songs by Leonard Cohen, it also features Shelley Duvall, Michael Murphy and Keith Carradine.

This will be followed at 9.15pm by a 4K DCP of THE GO-BETWEEN (1971). Christie plays a romantic young aristocrat in this exquisitely judged English pastoral drama set at the end of the Victorian era (where the past is indeed a "foreign country"). Directed by Joseph Losey and winner of the 1971 Cannes Palme d’Or, its wonderful cast also includes Alan Bates, Edward Fox, Michael Redgrave and Margaret Leighton.

Memberships: https://www.acmi.net.au/cteq

10/05/2026

If you’re yet to check them out, head to Senses of Cinema for CTEQ Annotations on the first films in our Julie Christie season.

David Melville annotates how "Few things date as badly as modernity and [DARLING (1965)] is a classic case in point... The problem... not that Diana is never satisfyingly punished. It is the all-pervasive idea that she deserves to be": https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/cteq/the-girl-in-the-empty-dress-julie-christie-and-darling/

Peter A. Yacavone annotates BILLY LIAR (1963), which, "With its skillful orchestration of staging, montage, and performance, and with its representation of Liz on the part of Julie Christie and John Schlesinger... may be seen as the perfection of the New Wave in the act of transcending it": https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/cteq/billy-liar/

Our Christie season continues this Wednesday 13 May at ACMI with MCCABE & MRS. MILLER (1971) from 7pm and THE GO-BETWEEN (1971) from 9.15pm.

03/05/2026

Come along this Wednesday 6 May to ACMI for the first night in our new season, A Woman of Her Time: Julie Christie.

At 7pm we will screen DARLING (1965), one of the defining films of the Swinging London era and a cynical take on the emerging consumer society. Julie Christie is cast as Diana, a modish party girl and model, a role that won her a BAFTA and the Oscar for Best Actress. With Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Harvey.

This will be followed at 9.25pm by BILLY LIAR (1963), a key work of the British New Wave that spoke of freedom, romance and escape. Shot on the streets of Bradford with Tom Courtenay playing Billy, a young man yearning for change, and Christie as the spontaneous and incandescent Liz, her embodiment of a fully-lived life beyond his half-hearted daydreams cutting through the film’s greyscale malaise.

Memberships: https://www.acmi.net.au/cteq

02/05/2026

Head to Senses of Cinema for CTEQ Annotations on the final films from our Ryusuke Hamaguchi season.

Andréas Giannopoulos annotates how "nowhere is [Hamaguchi] more concerned with the ghostliness at the heart of the act of acting than in" HEAVEN IS STILL FAR AWAY (2016): https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/cteq/heaven-is-still-far-away/

Iris Chen annotates THE SOUND OF WAVES (2012), where "Hamaguchi and [Ko] Sakai spare the audience a first-hand sight of the tsunami and chase instead its slower “sound”: the way survivors remembered that day": https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/cteq/the-sound-of-waves/

Address

ACMI, Federation Square, Flinders Street
Melbourne, VIC
3000

Opening Hours

7pm - 11:30pm

Website

http://www.melbournecinematheque.org/

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