Moonlight Cinema hits Australia again
But for the mozzies and the fact that sleeping is often a sweaty experience, Summer in Australia is pretty-frickin-sweet. Festivals, beach hangs, long sunny days, barbecues and of course the opportunity to spend balmy evenings watching classic and contemporary movies in the great outdoors. Yup, Moonlight Cinema is back!
The bean beds have been fluffed, the lawns have been manicured and the silver screens are sparkling, ready to be lit up around Australia for Moonlight Cinema’s nineteenth season. Moonlight Cinema shows advance screenings, new releases and cult favourites all summer long in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
So get your picnic ready and get ready to chill out underneath the stars and catch a flick on the big screen for the quintessential summer cinema experience. There will be Saturday night live music sessions at the Sydney and Melbourne Moonlight Cinemas and if you don’t have time to pack a picnic basket then there’s a new LA-style food truck serving up tantalising street fare at Moonlight Cinema nationally. Returning this season will be the ever-popular Doggie Nights (!) for film-loving pooches and their humans to catch a movie together. Amazing!
We just got back from the launch of Moonlight Cinema’s December and January film program, at Martin Place in Sydney (pictured, left). Here’s what you can see if you head along this summer…
In a VIP red carpet event, Moonlight Cinema will be officially launched across the country with an exclusive advance screening of Dumb and Dumber To on December 18. It’s been 20 years (20 years!) since Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels brought those lovable imbeciles, Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, to the big screen. Fans of Bill Murray (ie, everyone in the world) can catch him in indie drama St Vincent before it hits cinemas (we’re seeing a preview next week, so we’ll let you know how good it is). Other titles to catch at Moonlight before the rest of Australia include Disney’s latest cute-fest, Big Hero 6, as well as Birdman starring Michael Keaton and Emma Stone, Angelina Jolie’s, Unbroken and Liam Neeson’s, Taken 3 (let’s hope it’s more like the first film than the sequel).
Also joining the stellar program will be Clint Eastwood’s latest directorial American Sniper, starring Bradley Cooper, The Imitation Game (it’s great) starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jake Gyllenhaal (who is phenomenal) in Nightcrawler. Also The Water Diviner will be showing at Moonlight Cinema on Australia Day Eve, January 25. Also on the bill are The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I; Christopher Nolan’s amazing new blockbuster Interstellar, David Fincher’s magnificent Gone Girl and the final instalment of the Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, The Battle of the Five Armies, if you’ve got, like, a spare 5 hours or something.
Cult favourites playing this season include Dirty Dancing, The Shawshank Redemption, Top Gun, Monty Python’s Life of Brian and Rocky Horror Picture Show. Musicals include Grease and Frozen.
The coming season dates are locked in and are as follows:
Adelaide, Dec 4 – Feb 22 on the lawns of Botanic Park
Brisbane, Dec 4 – Feb 22 on the lawns of New Farm Park at Brisbane Powerhouse
Melbourne, Dec 4 – Mar 29 on the Central Lawn at the Royal Botanic Gardens
Perth, Dec 7 – Mar 29 at Kings Park and Botanic Garden
Sydney, Dec 11 – Mar 29 on the lawns of Belvedere Amphitheatre in Centennial Park.
For more deets go to the Moonlight Cinema website and follow the Facebook page.
