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.

07/09/2026

Join us this Wednesday 9 September at ACMI for the second night in Haunted Worlds: Mario Bava, the Diabolical Magician of Cinecittà, as presented in partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute.

At 7pm we will screen DANGER: DIABOLIK (1968), a psychedelic and often delirious adaptation of the Italian comic series by Angela and Luciana Giussani. It stars John Phillip Law as a master criminal who stages an exhilarating series of heists with his lover (Marisa Mell), alongside a striking score by Ennio Morricone.

This will be followed at 9pm by RABID DOGS (1974/1998), a gritty and realist crime thriller that takes the form of a claustrophobia-inducing road trip. Meant to be Bava’s career-shifting comeback, due to financial problems, the film was shelved for over 20 years before finally being released on DVD. With Riccardo Cucciolla, Lea Lander and Luigi Montefiori.

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

30/08/2026

CTEQ is back. Join us this Wednesday 2 September at ACMI for the opening night of Haunted Worlds: Mario Bava, the Diabolical Magician of Cinecittà, a season presented in partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute Melbourne.

At 7pm we will screen BLACK SABBATH (1963), Bava’s first colour horror film that is a vivid anthology of three distinct supernatural stories: “THE TELEPHONE”, “THE WURDULAK” and “THE DROP OF WATER”. Boris Karloff appears intermittently as a kind of genial host introducing each, one of which features him in a grisly lead role, while the others star Michèle Mercier and Jacqueline Pierreux.

This will be followed at 8.50pm by KILL, BABY… KILL! (1966). In the early 1900s, an evil curse grips a medieval-era Carpathian village as the ghost of a young girl (Valerio Valeri) seeks revenge. Dubbed Bava’s best work by Martin Scorsese, this low-budget, inventive and hugely atmospheric Gothic shocker is often considered a last great entry in the “golden era” of Italian horror. With Erika Blanc, Giacomo Rossi Stuart and Giovanna Galletti.

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

13/08/2026

To celebrate his quarter-century of filmmaking, the Melbourne International Film Festival presents the feature-length works of audacious Argentinian director Lisandro Alonso.

Alonso’s meditative cinema reinvents documentary techniques, bending time and familiar rhythms of storytelling. Shimmering with complex themes beneath still surfaces, the rigour of his artistry has been imitated but never exceeded.

Alonso will be attending all screenings for post-film Q&As, including JAUJA (2014) 3.15pm this Friday 14 August at The Capitol, which will be hosted by Cinémathèque Co-Curator Andréas Giannopoulos.

MIFF runs until 23 August in cinemas. Book here: https://miff.com.au/program/strand/lisandro-alonso-frontiers

26/07/2026

Join us on Wednesday 29 July at ACMI for Wild Man: Geoff Murphy and the Birth of the Aotearoa New Zealand Film Industry – our last evening of films for a few weeks as we enjoy this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival.

At 7pm we will screen THE QUIET EARTH (1985). Murphy’s cult sci-fi feature is widely regarded as one of the standout films of New Zealand’s New Wave. A scientist (Bruno Lawrence) confronts the possibility that he may be the only man left alive in the world after a top secret experiment goes wrong.

This will be followed at 8.50pm by UTU REDUX (2013), the second ever feature from Aoteroa to be screened at Cannes in its original cut in 1983. Anzac Wallace stars as a Māori rebel hellbent on revenge in this Western with a distinctly Kiwi flavour. Film courtesy of Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga NZ Film Commission and Aotearoa New Zealand Film Heritage Trust.

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

23/07/2026

For CTEQ Annotations on the final films in our season on American auteur and provocateur Spike Lee, head to Senses of Cinema.

Darragh O’Donoghue annotates 4 LITTLE GIRLS (1997), the opening of which makes evident "It will privilige emotion and subjectivity over analysis and apparent objectivity": https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/cteq/4-little-girls/

Desirae Embree annotates SUMMER OF SAM (1999), "a return to the events that had formed [Lee] as an artist": https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/cteq/porno-disco-and-summer-of-sam-spike-lee-on-sexuality/

20/07/2026

Come along this Wednesday 22 July to ACMI for the final night of our season By Any Means Necessary: Spike Lee, American Provocateur.

At 7pm we will screen a 35mm print of 4 LITTLE GIRLS (1997), Lee’s first feature-length documentary, about the girls murdered in the Ku Klux Klan’s 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. Initially intended as a drama, the chronicle of young lives cut short is a brilliant and understandably sombre document told through interviews and archival footage.

Finally, at 8.55pm we will screen a 35mm print of SUMMER OF SAM (1999). Lee’s take on the infamous “Son of Sam” murders – in which serial killer David Berkowitz went on a 13-month spree in New York City, killing six people and wounding eleven – the film focuses on the events’ erosion of trust between the residents of a largely Italian-American neighbourhood in the Bronx during the late 1970s. With John Leguizamo, Mira Sorvino, Adrien Brody and Lee himself.

Prints courtesy of The Academy Film Archive and National Film and Sound Archive respectively.

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

19/07/2026

For CTEQ Annotations on the films in our By Any Means Necessary: Spike Lee, American Provocateur season so far, head to Senses of Cinema.

Sebastian Carrasco annotates SCHOOL DAZE (1988), that "places us squarely at the nexus of theory and praxis, the mechanics for cyclical systemic domination": https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/cteq/school-daze-d-and-confused/

Michael Green annotates 25TH HOUR (2002), "a requiem for 9/11 America... suffused with grief and regret": https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/cteq/25th-hour/

Sandra E. Lim annotates MALCOLM X (1992), where "Lee gives us… a figure of quiet, self-possessed resistance for a Black community reeling from state violence": https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/cteq/a-pedagogy-of-resistance-from-double-consciousness-to-the-unified-self-in-spike-lees-malcolm-x/

13/07/2026

Join us this Wednesday 15 July at ACMI for the next night of our current season on a prolific auteur, By Any Means Necessary: Spike Lee, American Provocateur.

At 7pm we will screen MALCOLM X (1992), an uncompromising biopic adapted from THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X starring Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett in career-defining performances. With a runtime of 202 minutes, this epic feature will be played without an interval. A dream project of Lee’s, it presents an oft-demonised figure to a wide audience without compromising on his Black nationalist views, his journey with Islam, or the circumstances of his murder. The film is also a peak for Lee’s long-time costume designer Ruth E. Carter, whose wardrobes effortlessly capture decades of Black American experience.

35mm print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive.

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

07/07/2026

Listen to Melbourne Cinémathèque Co-Curator Eloise Ross speak on ABC Melbourne’s THE FRIDAY R***E with hosts Brian Nankervis and Denise Scott about our By Any Means Necessary: Spike Lee, American Provocateur season (at the 48:20 mark): https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/thefridayrevue/the-friday-revue/106858702

With thanks to Brian, Denise, THE FRIDAY R***E and ABC Melbourne. Our Spike Lee season begins at ACMI this Wednesday from 7pm with SCHOOL DAZE (1988), followed at 9.20pm by a 35mm print of 25TH HOUR (2002).

06/07/2026

Join us this Wednesday 8 July at ACMI for the opening night of our season By Any Means Necessary: Spike Lee, American Provocateur.

At 7pm we will screen a 4K DCP of SCHOOL DAZE (1988), Lee’s rarely revived film which examines heterogenous identities in a Southern all-Black college, styled as a 1940s Technicolor musical with sharp dialogue and lavish song and dance sequences. Starring Laurence Fishburne and a rich cast of Lee regulars, including Giancarlo Esposito, Samuel L. Jackson, Ossie Davis, Bill Nunn and Lee himself.

This will be followed at 9.20pm by a 35mm print of 25TH HOUR (2002). In post-9/11 New York, a drug dealer (Edward Norton) moves through his final day of freedom. Norton’s typical narcissism is perfectly utilised by Lee, who buttresses him with another stacked ensemble – Philip Seymour Hoffman, Brian Cox, Rosario Dawson, Anna Paquin – helping generate pathos for an unlikeable man through the reactions and empathy of those around him.

35mm print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive.

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

Address

ACMI, Federation Square, Flinders Street
Melbourne, VIC
3000

Opening Hours

7pm - 11:30pm

Website

http://www.melbournecinematheque.org/

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