Sydney Cinémathèque Launches At AGNSW With 35mm Runs, Shorts And Emerging Filmmakers

Sydney has always loved movies.

From the red-velvet grandeur of the State Theatre, to the Art Deco glow of the Hayden Orpheum, the suburban romance of the Ritz Randwick, the revivalist energy of the Golden Age Cinema, and the once-essential arthouse haunt of the Chauvel. This city’s film culture has long been shaped by rooms that understood cinema as quite the spectacle.

Beyond these iconic theatres, Sydney has also been a city that makes its own stories. Homegrown cult-hits like Strictly Ballroom and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert captured our harbour city on the silver screen and put us on the world’s cinematic map. Not to mention Fox Studios in Moore Park, which for decades anchored the city as a major production hub for both Australian and international films. 

Image credit: Art Gallery Of New South Wales, Felicity Jenkins

Alongside this, for more than 20 years, the Art Gallery Of New South Wales (AGNSW) has quietly hosted film buffs through its beloved movie program. But this March, Sydney Cinémathèque builds on this, giving it a permanent, publicly embedded home for cinema as art, the sort of institutional respect for film we’re more probably more geared to finding in galleries overseas than at home.

The revitalised program expands to weekly 35mm runs, shorts, silent film with live music, talks, workshops, and a slew of director retrospectives. As the only museum capable of running the full spectrum of cinematic history with 16mm and 35mm for the purists out there and digital screenings for well, everyone else—if you’re a local cinephile, you’re no-doubt doing a heart-eyed Daffy Duck right now, and rightfully so.

Curated by Ruby Arrowsmith-Todd, Sydney Cinémathèque screenings are set to take place every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday with free and ticketed offerings up for grabs.

Image credit: Still from 'BMX Bandits' 1983, dir. Brian Trenchard-Smith, photo courtesy Umbrella

On the program side of things, Harbour City Cinema is a love letter to our city with local classics like Strictly Ballroom (1992) and Looking For Alibrandi (2000), alongside some lesser known pieces of art like Phillip Noyce’s neo-noir Heatwave (1982), shining a light on Sydney’s next generation of filmmakers, including Celeste Diep and James Vaughan.

Naturally, there’s an entire session dedicated to all things Nicole Kidman, with a slew of films from the early stages of her career including BMX Bandits (1983) and the comedy of To Die For (1994). To top it off, Blak Film Club will round out guest appearances and talks, all highlighting Blak filmmaking in Australia, alongside a feature screening of The Colleano Heart, Yaegl filmmaker Pauline Clague’s loving ode to the Gamilaroi circus family. 

Sydney Cinémathèque launches in Saturday 7 March, 2026.

Image credit: Still from To Fly A Kite 2023, Berni Jiang