Film screenings and festivals in Sydney

Tuesday 6 Oct · 12:30pm – 1:10pm

We are happy to share the next event in the Eatalian Talks series at our institute, highlighting the Italian contribution to science fiction. Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival’s director Simon Foster will present an in-depth look at the two Italian films screening at the 2026 edition supported by Istituto Italiano di Cultura – Mario Bava’s 1965 masterwork Planet of the Vampires and Luciana Sympa’s digital rendering of the classic 1936 comic Saturn Against the Earth.

Wednesday 7 Oct · 5:00pm – 8:00pm

Who’s in for a Wind-Down Wednesday movie night? 🍿 To celebrate the start of sem, with the help of our friends at USU, we’ve organised an outdoor movie night at Cadigal Green.

Wednesday 7 Oct · 6:30pm – 9:45pm

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – In Concert Celebrating an epic quarter century since the release of the iconic Academy Award-winning film, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, fans can now immerse themselves in the spectacular 25th anniversary concert, with Howard Shore’s original scores performed LIVE to the epic motion picture.

Thursday 8 Oct · 6:00pm – 9:55pm

Screening at Palace Moore Park Cinema in Sydney and online throughout Australia, the Irish Film Festival 2026 brings you star-studded, award-winning features, shorts and documentaries showcasing the richness and diversity of contemporary Ireland, its culture, language, music and history. IFF is proud to present its biggest event in 12 years. With a focus on the Irish/Australian connection, it includes laugh-out-loud comedies, gripping psychological thrillers, intimate portraits of political icons, musicians, artists, change-makers and everyday people.

Thursday 8 Oct · 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Early next year we will be running the second "Weird Bike Ride" a celbration of cycling in all its weird and wonderful forms. To build some enthusiasm early and give folks plently of time to start planning some creative and artful builds we are teaming up with the original weird bike masters, the ZENGA Bros and Heaps Normal Health Club to screen the Zenga Bros film 'Tall Bikes Will Save The World'.

Thursday 8 Oct · 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Once a closely guarded secret on Tasmania’s rugged southern coast, Shipstern Bluff became an iconic big wave surfing location, capturing worldwide attention in the early 2000’s. As surfers pushed the limits of what was possible, cameras arrived and the secret was exposed. STERN FEVER traces the evolution, obsession and consequences of chasing one of the world’s most dangerous waves.

Thursday 8 Oct · 6:30pm – 9:45pm

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – In Concert Celebrating an epic quarter century since the release of the iconic Academy Award-winning film, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, fans can now immerse themselves in the spectacular 25th anniversary concert, with Howard Shore’s original scores performed LIVE to the epic motion picture.

Friday 9 Oct · 10:00am – 12:15pm

OCTOBER FILM SCREENING CC Due to copyright we cannot publish the name of the movie but check out the blurb below to see the details of the film we have selected.

Friday 9 Oct · 2:30pm – 10:30pm

Screening at Palace Moore Park Cinema in Sydney and online throughout Australia, the Irish Film Festival 2026 brings you star-studded, award-winning features, shorts and documentaries showcasing the richness and diversity of contemporary Ireland, its culture, language, music and history. IFF is proud to present its biggest event in 12 years. With a focus on the Irish/Australian connection, it includes laugh-out-loud comedies, gripping psychological thrillers, intimate portraits of political icons, musicians, artists, change-makers and everyday people.

Friday 9 Oct · 6:00pm – 9:00pm

The 2026 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival delivers once again on its mission to provide the largest launching pad possible for ground-breaking speculative cinema from Australia and across the globe. This year, our celebration of visionary science fiction/fantasy works will be presenting the World Premieres of three Australian feature films - Enzo Tedeschi's generations-spanning drama RESONANCE; Steven Kastrissios' expansive, brooding, Albanian-set fantasy, SKYBREAKERS; and, Sean Bell's ode to our inner-city denizens of the future, ELECTRIC FEEL.

Friday 9 Oct · 6:00pm – 9:30pm

Please join us for a meaningful film screening, intimate house recital concert, and talks with the filmmaker Alfred Pek and the film subject Nur Azizah via Zoom in the heart of Sydney's inner west, to raise money for the other upcoming international documentary by Alfred Pek called "Emerald Archipelago Documentary". The concert will feature musicians Keyna Wilkins, Alleta Louise, Yolande Cailly, and Sonia De Freitas. An Australian-Indonesian production, Suling Productions presents "Freedom Street" Documentary!

Saturday 10 Oct · 11:00am – 9:00pm

Australia's darkest film festival returns for one unmissable day - Saturday October 10 - in one of Sydney's best micro-cinemas - The Reservoir Cinema. The third edition of Dark Nights Film Fest - an annual celebration of independent horror and dark genre films and filmmakers and the community that surrounds them - is showcasing 30 new films from Australia and around the world.

Saturday 10 Oct · 1:00pm – 3:00pm

Ninety years ago, a young Cesare Zavattini, the father of Neorealism, imagined the future by creating the first Italian science fiction comic series – Saturno contro la Terra. It is a work that has become iconic in global graphic novel history. To celebrate its 90th anniversary, Italian digital craftspeople have brought the characters to life using cutting-edge animation technologies. This special event screening, brought to Event Cinemas as part of the Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival in conjunction with The Italian Cultural Institute of Sydney, will also include an interview with Prof. Lorenzo Benadusi on the history and social impact of Italian science fiction over a century of cinema.

Saturday 10 Oct · 2:00pm – 10:55pm

Screening at Palace Moore Park Cinema in Sydney and online throughout Australia, the Irish Film Festival 2026 brings you star-studded, award-winning features, shorts and documentaries showcasing the richness and diversity of contemporary Ireland, its culture, language, music and history. IFF is proud to present its biggest event in 12 years. With a focus on the Irish/Australian connection, it includes laugh-out-loud comedies, gripping psychological thrillers, intimate portraits of political icons, musicians, artists, change-makers and everyday people.

Saturday 10 Oct · 6:00pm – 9:00pm

The 2026 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival delivers once again on its mission to provide the largest launching pad possible for ground-breaking speculative cinema from Australia and across the globe. This year, our celebration of visionary science fiction/fantasy works will be presenting the World Premieres of three Australian feature films - Enzo Tedeschi's generations-spanning drama RESONANCE; Steven Kastrissios' expansive, brooding, Albanian-set fantasy, SKYBREAKERS; and, Sean Bell's ode to our inner-city denizens of the future, ELECTRIC FEEL.

Sunday 11 Oct · 1:45pm – 10:50pm

Screening at Palace Moore Park Cinema in Sydney and online throughout Australia, the Irish Film Festival 2026 brings you star-studded, award-winning features, shorts and documentaries showcasing the richness and diversity of contemporary Ireland, its culture, language, music and history. IFF is proud to present its biggest event in 12 years. With a focus on the Irish/Australian connection, it includes laugh-out-loud comedies, gripping psychological thrillers, intimate portraits of political icons, musicians, artists, change-makers and everyday people.

Sunday 11 Oct · 6:00pm – 9:00pm

The 2026 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival delivers once again on its mission to provide the largest launching pad possible for ground-breaking speculative cinema from Australia and across the globe. This year, our celebration of visionary science fiction/fantasy works will be presenting the World Premieres of three Australian feature films - Enzo Tedeschi's generations-spanning drama RESONANCE; Steven Kastrissios' expansive, brooding, Albanian-set fantasy, SKYBREAKERS; and, Sean Bell's ode to our inner-city denizens of the future, ELECTRIC FEEL.

Thursday 15 Oct · 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Join the Mawson’s Huts Foundation at the Australian National Maritime Museum on Thursday 15 October 2026, Frank Hurley’s birthday, for a special fundraising evening celebrating the extraordinary life, work and Antarctic legacy of one of Australia’s most remarkable photographers and filmmakers. Frank Hurley’s images helped shape the way generations have seen Antarctica. From Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911–14 to Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance expedition and his later return south with the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE), Hurley documented an extraordinary era of Antarctic exploration.

Friday 16 Oct · 6:15pm – 8:00pm

Queer Cinema is a movie night dedicated to celebrating queer stories of love, loss, joy and history. On the 3rd Friday of the month we’ll be screening a film with drinks and snacks provided. Bring your chosen family and enjoy this special night!

Sunday 18 Oct · 1:00pm – 5:00pm

Free Event. A celebration of inclusive filmmaking, sharing stories that challenge perceptions and celebrate the abilities of people with disability.

Thursday 22 Oct · 5:30pm – 10:30pm

Forget skipping the ads, Sydney is about to do nothing but watch them as the Alliance Française de Sydney brings the iconic French cult event to the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace. Created in France 45 years ago, La Nuit de l'Advertising (internationally known as The Night of the Ad-Eaters) has become the unmissable rendez-vous for lovers of advertising cinema all over the world.

Thursday 22 Oct · 5:30pm – 8:15pm

You can change the world. Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time, and today’s youth aren’t waiting for someone else to solve it.

Wednesday 28 Oct · 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Waverley Library is excited to present a screening of the critically acclaimed documentary Ghost in the Machine (2026) as part of our Technocritical lecture and film series delving deeper into issues of technology and political economy prevalent in today's world. An official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, Ghost in the Machine is a gripping and urgently relevant investigative documentary that exposes the buried history of artificial intelligence, not as a neutral system of algorithms, but as a technology shaped by racism, misogyny, eugenics, and entrenched structures of power long before it entered everyday life.

Wednesday 4 Nov · 7:00pm – 10:30pm

Right around the Halloween period, Cone of Confusion and Psymatic 2000 team up for a psychedelic cinema experience: An original soundtrack performed live to the screening of 1922 silent movie Nosferatu for 2 nights only!

Thursday 5 Nov · 7:00pm – 10:30pm

Right around the Halloween period, Cone of Confusion and Psymatic 2000 team up for a psychedelic cinema experience: An original soundtrack performed live to the screening of 1922 silent movie Nosferatu for 2 nights only!

Friday 6 Nov · 9:00pm – 10:30pm

After 13 years of monthly screenings The Room is now the #3 highest grossing film in the history of The Orpheum! Every month has over a hundred passionate fans ready to throw spoons, quote and yell at one of the worst movies ever made. Be a part of the madness at Sydney’s exclusive home of The Room. Screening on the first Friday of every month.

Tuesday 17 Nov · 12:00am – 12:00pm

From 17 to 29 November 2026, the Japanese Film Festival (JFF) returns to Sydney to showcase the best of contemporary Japanese filmmaking, featuring Australian premieres, international festival favourites, award-winning features and box-office hits from some of Japan's leading directors. The festival opens with the Australian premiere of Look Back, the highly anticipated new title from acclaimed filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. Other highlights include Tokyo Taxi from the legendary Yōji Yamada, Cannes-selected animated feature We Are Aliens, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's samurai drama The Samurai and the Prisoner, Berlinale prize winner AnyMart, Takashi Miike's SHAM, and the hit romantic drama 1st Kiss. In addition to its festival lineup, JFF 2026 presents a dedicated Animation Showcase, a free retrospective celebrating legendary composer Tōru Takemitsu, and a selection of the latest releases direct from the Japanese box office.

Friday 4 Dec · 9:00pm – 10:30pm

After 13 years of monthly screenings The Room is now the #3 highest grossing film in the history of The Orpheum! Every month has over a hundred passionate fans ready to throw spoons, quote and yell at one of the worst movies ever made. Be a part of the madness at Sydney’s exclusive home of The Room. Screening on the first Friday of every month.