frankie flicks: outdoor cinema run down
It's taken us two buckets of popcorn, but we've compiled a list of every outdoor and drive in cinema around so that you can have all of your viewing pleasure in one place.
Watching movies outside is about embracing the whim of the weather. The sky can be unpredictable. The night can be still or breezy. Sometimes the insects arrive. It happens.
But watching movies outside is mostly an exercise in wonder. The feeling of grass underfoot and the sight of stars overhead transforms whatever patch you've picnicked on into a tiny, twinkling amphitheatre where you can watch either the screen or the sky because both are as marvellous as each other.
And, as the weather warms and the days lengthen, the season for outdoor cinemas is upon us. But, like the mango, that other summer treat, the season for outdoor cinemas will soon be just a delicious memory. And try as we might to replicate the experience, nothing will come close. So, let's enjoy it while we can. Mangoes are available from the shop. Outdoor movies are available here:
SYDNEY
o Date: December 13th - March 31st
o Venue: Centennial Park
o Highlights: Searching for Sugar Man (Jan 16, 8.30pm), Dirty Dancing (Jan 17, 8.30pm), Zoolander (Jan 31, 8.30pm)
o Dates: January 16th – March 2nd
o Venue: TBC. Usually North Sydney and Mosman-ish
o Dates: January 10th – February 16th
o Venue: Mrs Macquaries Point
o Highlights: The venue is a highlight. Films are TBC
BEN AND JERRY'S OPEN AIR CINEMAS
o Date: TBC
o Venue: Bondi
BRISBANE
o Date: December 13th - February 24th
o Venue: New Farm Park
o Highlights: Looper (Dec 16, 7pm), The Breakfast Club (Jan 3, 7pm), Django Unchained (Jan 23, 7pm)
o Date: Open 7 nights, 365 days
o Venue: 100 Jacobs Well Rd, Stapylton
o Highlights: Its proximity to The Yatala Pie Shop. Session times change weekly.
BEN AND JERRY'S OPEN AIR CINEMAS
o Date: October 21st - November 25th
o Venue: South Bank Cultural Forecourt
o Highlights: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Nov 23, 8.30pm), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Nov 24, 8.30pm)
MELBOURNE
o Date: December 6th – March 31st
o Venue: Royal Botanic Gardens
o Highlights: The Master (Dec 30, 8.50pm), The Man With The Iron Fists (Jan 15, 8.55pm), Aladdin (Feb 2, 8.40pm)
o Date: Tuesday to Thursday, Saturday to Sunday (so no Mondays or Fridays)
o Venue: Curtin House, Swanston Street in the CBD
o Highlights: The Goonies (Dec 2, 9.30pm), Enter The Dragon (Dec 9, 9.30pm), Manhattan (Dec 12, 9.30pm)
COBURG DRIVE IN (pictured)
o Date: regular cinema times, all year around
o Venue: Newlands Road, Coburg
o Highlights: Feeling like you've just stepped out of a American Graffiti trailer, minus the roller girls
BEN AND JERRY'S OPEN AIR CINEMAS
o Dates: December 2nd – January 6th
o Venue: South Beach Reserve, St Kilda
o Highlights: Bertie Blackman live (Dec 2), Point Break (Dec 13, 8.45pm), Top Gun (Dec 16, 8.45pm), Labyrinth (Dec 30, 8.45pm)
o Dates: All summer
o Venue: Dromana, Nepean Highway
o Highlights: Old-school attitude, including a '50s dinner for your fries
o Dates: Now - mid summer
o Venue: Belgrave, Burwood Highway
o Highlights: The latest films you'd normally see at a cinema, except in the balmy summer breeze
WOOLLONGONG
o Dates: December 6th – January 19th
o Venue: Wollongong Botanic Garden
o Highlights: Moonrise Kingdom (Dec 22, 7pm), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Dec 29, 7pm), Seven Psychopaths (Jan 3, 7pm)
CANBERRA
o Date: February 2nd 2013
o Venue: Australian National Botanic Gardens. Plus Armidale, Ballarat, Bendigo, Bowral, Dubbo, Gladstone, Griffith, Orange, Rockhampton, Tamworth, Wagga Wagga: you lucky sausages will all get a visit from Flix in the Stix as well
o Highlights: It's an international short film festival with live music and poetry. So, highlights include international short films, live music and poetry!
THE NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE
o Dates: TBC
o Venue: NFSA's courtyard
o Highlights: A bar with ice cream sundaes. Films are TBC
o Dates: February 7th – March 21st
o Venue: Australian National Botanic Gardens
o Highlights: TBC
BEN AND JERRY'S OPEN AIR CINEMAS
o Dates, Films, and Venue: TBC
ADELAIDE
o Date: Wednesday – Sunday
o Venue: 588 Main North Road, Gepps Cross
o Highlights: Session times change weekly
o Date: November 29th – February 17th
o Venue: Botanic Park
o Highlights: Killing Them Softly (Nov 30, 8.40pm), Pulp Fiction (Dec 4, 8.50pm), Breakfast at Tiffany's (Feb 14, 8.40pm)
PERTH
o Dates: December 6th – February 13th
o Venue: Mosman Park
o Highlights: Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Dec 9, 8.15pm), 2 Days In New York (Jan 17, 8.15pm), A "Mystery Movie Documentary" (Jan 30, 8.15pm)
o Dates: November – April
o Venue: Allen Road, Mundaring Weir
o Highlights: Camping is available nearby. Sessions run Friday to Sunday and change weekly
o Dates: December 12th – March 31st
o Venue: Kings Park
o Highlights: Grease Sing-a-long (Dec 27, 8pm), The Breakfast Club (Jan 3, 8pm), Silver Linings Playbook (Jan 27, 8pm)
o Dates: November 25th - April 14th
o Venue: seated in two locations, Somerville and Joondalup Pines
o Highlights: films from festival all the way around the world, including some Aussie debuts and Oscar nods
DARWIN
o Dates: Dry Season only (April to November). During Wet Season (Jan 20th – March 24th) the Deckchair Cinema moves indoors
o Venue: Darwin Waterfront (Dry Season); BCC Darwin (Wet Season)
o Highlights: TBC
BROOME
o Dates: All year around, both indoor and outdoor
o Venue: In the heart of Chinatown on Carnarvon Street
o Highlights: The Sapphires (Dec 10, 6.30pm)
If you have any more you think we should add to the list, just give us an email here! And lovely drive-in American Graffiti pic from here.