Academy Cinemas is pleased to fly you away to some of the most memorable Dystopias of the cinematic world with a curated selection of rare and treasured Dystopian classics by such acclaimed directors as Jean-Luc Godard, Orson Welles, Terry Gilliam, Kathryn Bigelow and François Truffaut.
Pick up the 'passport' programme at the cinema and get a stamp for each festival film you attend. Four stamps gets you a free double pass.
Film Schedule
Akira (1988)
3 February
Katsuhiro Ohtomo's cult Japanese anime cyberpunk action about a dystopian Tokyo in the year 2019. After Tokyo is destroyed in a mysterious blast, the elaborate city of Neo-Tokyo is built on its ruins. By 2019, Neo-Tokyo has been divided between a powerful and wealthy upper class and the violent punks and motorcycle gangs who haunt its slums. When the members of one gang attempt to strike back at the arrogant lords of the city, they unleash a wider and more destructive conflict than they anticipated.
Alphaville (1965)
10 and 25 February
Government agent Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) is dispatched on a secret mission to Alphaville, a dystopian metropolis in a distant corner of the galaxy in Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 sci-fi mystery. Caution is hot on the trail of rogue agent Henri Dickson (Akim Tamiroff) and a scientist named Von Braun, the creator of Alpha 60, a computer that uses mind control to rule over residents of Alphaville. Caution is aided in his quest to destroy the despotic computer ruler by Von Braun's own daughter, Natacha (Anna Karina).
Brazil
26 January and 18 February
Former Monty Python Terry Gilliam’s visionary, dystopian sci-fi/comedy. Follows a bureaucrat (Jonathan Pryce) living in a retro future whose attempt to correct an administrative error makes him an enemy of the totalitarian state. Co-stars Robert De Niro and Bob Hoskins.
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
2 February
François Truffaut's strange and fantastic adaptation of the 1951 Ray Badbury novel, envisioning a dystopian future where books are outlawed. However, Montag (Oskar Werner), a fireman tasked with burning found literature, begins to question the government's overbearing motives and becomes swept up with a rebellious group of readers.
Privilege (1967)
4 and 17 February
A British mega music star innocently sinks into the toxic pit of fame until he meets an artist who shows him what he's become. Although this film from Oscar-winning filmmaker Peter Watkins (The War Game) was released in 1967, the story takes place in the '70s.
Propaganda
2 March
"Controversial to its core, this hard-hitting anti-Western propaganda film looks at the influence of American culture on the rest of the world from a North Korean perspective. Using this a "fake North Korean propaganda" found-footage device, director Slavko Martinov first parodies its language and stylings, before targeting the mountain of hypocrisies and contradictions that make up the modern Western world. In doing so, Propaganda delivers a devastating blow to those who might be quick to laugh at "backward" ideologies before considering how 21st century political and cultural trends have hurt the moral high ground of the rest of the world." (Fandor)
Strange Days
27 January and 11 February
1995 sci-fi from Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), following a story written by James Cameron about a Y2K future that records visual memory from a first person perspective. Stars Ralph Fiennes (Schindler's List), Angela Bassett (Boyz n the Hood), and Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers) in an alternate 1999 LA where a heinous crime was recorded from the eyes of the criminal.
The Trial (1962)
28 January and 23 February
Orson Welles' adaptation of Franz Kafka's surrealist thriller. An unassuming office worker (Anthony Perkins) is arrested by a remote authority, but is never made aware of his charges.
Book Your Tickets Here
$2 per hour to a max of $12 on weekends and a $12 flat rate for weekday evenings at The Civic car park. Find out more.