Every year we partner with Sydney Film Festival to show a curated selection from the current festival along with gems from previous years.

In this, our sixth year, the selection is bigger, better and bolder than ever. It’s an opportunity to experience cinema in a state of the art theatre with the best projection and sound quality. We are the only satellite venue in Western Sydney and have easy public transport and parking access.

Saturday 8 June, 7pm | The Final Quarter 
Adult: $17.50; Concession: $15; Under 16: $13
Book your ticket here

The Indigenous leader and Sydney Swans player became a lightning rod for an intense public debate and widespread media commentary that divided the country. In the last three years of his career, Goodes was named Australian of the Year, accused of staging for free kicks, and performed an on-field war dance celebration. When the football crowds turned on him, the Brownlow medallist left his beloved game. Director Ian Darling’s (Suzy and the Simple Man, SFF 2016) film is crafted using only archival footage aired at the time, which has been expertly edited: a technique seen most recently in documentaries such as Amy and Senna. The result is a powerful film that holds a mirror to Australia and suggests we reconsider what happened on and off the football field.

Enhance your film experience with a meal at Bellbird Dining & Bar.
The meal for The Final Quarter is rosemary and lamb meat pie, winter vegetables, potato puree and jus. ($20). 
The vegetarian meal for The Final Quarter is winter vegetable pie, roasted vegetables and sweet potato puree. ($16).
Reserve your meal here | Click here for the vegetarian option

Sunday 9 June, 2pm | Cold Sweat
Adult: $17.50; Concession: $15; Under 16: $13
Book your ticket here

A gripping social drama with particularly strong currency in the era of #TimesUp, Cold Sweat is based on real cases of Iranian sportswomen prevented from competing overseas by a law that requires husbands to grant permission. Baran Kosari is dynamite as Afrooz, a brilliant futsal (indoor soccer) player who’s stopped from boarding the flight to the Asian Cup final in Malaysia. It’s the start of a social, legal and bureaucratic nightmare, with Afrooz thwarted at every turn by soon-to-be ex-husband Yaser, the smarmy and self-righteous host of a TV show called The Good Old Days. Soheil Beiraghi’s outstanding second feature is told with tremendous passion, intelligence and urgency.

Enhance your film experience with a meal at Bellbird Dining & Bar.
The meal for Cold Sweat is a mezze platter with falafel, babaganoush, kofta, chicken kebabs, tabouli, labne and crispy bread. ($18)
The vegetarian meal for Cold Sweat is a mezze platter with falafel, babaganoush, tabouli, labne and crispy bread. ($18) 
Reserve your meal here | Click here for the vegetarian option

Monday 10 June, 11am | The Elephant Queen
Adult: $17.50; Concession: $15; Under 16: $13
Book your ticket here

This stunningly shot documentary by Emmy award-winning filmmakers Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble has all the character development and narrative twists and turns of a fictional feature. The elephant matriarch must save her family, including a bunch of boisterous youngsters, from drought and famine, by leading them on a long and perilous quest through the dry savannah. Athena’s knowledge of the complex ecosystem is the only thing ensuring the family’s survival, but some challenges are beyond even the mighty matriarch. A timeless tale of a caring family united by loss and endurance, The Elephant Queen will enrapture audiences aged 7 and older.

Ziad Bakri gives an intense, brooding performance as Ziad, who has spent all his adult life in prison for a bungled act of revenge in the name of a friend who was killed by Israeli settlers. Upon release, he returns to his refugee camp home in Ramallah, where he is greeted as a hero. But Ziad is a mess: withdrawn, bitter, racked by guilt and suffering from PTSD. He’s bewildered by a new world of mobile phones, iced lattes and hipster bars; and baffled when a Palestinian-American filmmaker (Yasmine Qaddumi) approaches him to take part in her documentary. Jarbawi’s taut screenplay balances suspense, politics, romance and surprising comedy, as Ziad reckons with his trauma, his loneliness and his place in the struggle.

Enhance your film experience with a meal at Bellbird Dining & Bar.
The meal for Screwdriver is a mezze platter with falafel, babaganoush, kofta, chicken kebabs, tabouli, labne and crispy bread. ($18)
The vegetarian meal for Screwdriver is a mezze platter with falafel, babaganoush, tabouli, labne and crispy bread. ($18)
Reserve your meal here | Click here for the vegetarian option

Saturday 15 June, 2pm | Apollo 11
Adult: $17.50; Concession: $15; Under 16: $13
Book your ticket here 

This awe-inspiring documentary delivers a very real sense of how truly momentous the Apollo 11 mission was. It’s all here – from the colossal rocket rolling to the launch pad at Florida’s Cape Canaveral, to the rows of white-shirted men with black ties watching monitors. And from Armstrong’s immortal words, to the tense return to land. The director, in partnership with NASA and America’s National Archives, sifted through roughly 11,000 hours of uncatalogued materials. By using long-forgotten, often large format, footage, and commentary from the era, the film puts us right into the action, and conveys a thrilling picture of how it was experienced at the time by astronauts, technicians, onlookers and the media.

Enhance your film experience with a meal at Bellbird Dining & Bar.
The meal for Apollo 11 is 10-hour slow-cooked beef brisket with horseradish, parsnip puree and crispy kale. ($20)
The vegetarian meal for Apollo 11 is ricotta gnocchi with wild mushrooms and sage nut butter. ($16) 
Reserve your meal here | Click here for the vegetarian option

Saturday 15 June, 7.30pm | Vai
Adult: $17.50; Concession: $15; Under 16: $13
Book your ticket here

This beautiful-looking anthology was shot in seven different Pacific countries – Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Kuki Airani (Cook Islands), Samoa, Niue and Aotearoa (New Zealand). In each location, a different Indigenous actress plays Vai at singular stages in her life, over a single day: beginning as a seven-year-old girl in Fiji (Mereani Tui Matanisiga) and ending in New Zealand as a great-grandmother (Hintu Dell) to the next generation. Producers Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton (the team that created Waru) have assembled an impressive team of directors and actors to deliver a delightful, passionate portrait of an environment, culture, community and its womenfolk.

Enhance your film experience with a meal at Bellbird Dining & Bar.
The meal for Vai is pan-fried New Zealand snapper, kumara, braised fennel and aniseed sauce. ($25)  
Reserve your meal here

Sunday 16 June, 4pm | Slam
Adult: $17.50; Concession: $15; Under 16: $13
Book your ticket here

Adam Bakri (Omar, SFF 2014) stars as Ricky, a Sydney café owner and Muslim refugee who is proudly assimilated into Australian culture. Ricky is estranged from his sister Ameena (Danielle Horvat), a hijab-wearing, politicised slam poet who is unafraid to air her views on Australian society. When Ameena disappears after a gig one night, Ricky is forced to revisit his internal conflicts over his own identity as he and his mother desperately search for her. When the right-wing media seizes on the story, speculating that Ameena has fled the country to join the Islamic State, the family suffers a barrage of scrutiny – even as they fear it could be true. Rachael Blake (Lantana, SFF 2001; Sleeping Beauty, SFF 2011) is superb as the troubled police officer in charge of investigating the case.

Sunday 16 June, 7pm | Photograph
Adult: $17.50; Concession: $15; Under 16: $13
Book your ticket here

Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Manto, SFF 2018; The Gangs of Wasseypur, SFF 2012) plays a street photographer who plies his trade at the Gateway of India. An impending visit from his demanding grandmother means that Rafi must make good on his promise to settle down. He somehow convinces Miloni (Sanya Malhotra), a stranger he photographed on the street, to pretend to be his fiancée so as to satisfy his grandmother. The extremely shy Miloni, a promising accounting student, is from a different social milieu to Rafi and is herself being pressured into marriage by her parents. The deception leads to many funny incidents, but also genuine tenderness between Rafi and Miloni. In this frenetic, sometimes harsh city, a quiet and unlikely romance slowly takes shape.

Enhance your film experience with a meal at Bellbird Dining & Bar.
The meal for Photograph is spiced chicken breast, fried cauliflower, chickpeas and cucumber raita. ($20)
The vegetarian meal for Photograph is handmade curry puff, chickpeas and cucumber raita. ($16) 
Reserve your meal here | Click here for the vegetarian option