Four action masterpieces from the legendary Hong Kong director John Woo are presented on ultra-rare 35mm prints, in a program exclusive to the Australian Cinémathèque.

Few filmmakers have been as influential on the genre of action cinema as Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo. Renowned for his ‘heroic bloodshed’ films – potent blends of high operatic drama and hyper-stylised gunplay – Woo integrated elements of wuxia cinema and religious iconography in his redefinition of the form. From his breakthrough A Better Tomorrow 1986 to the balletic violence of The Killer 1989, as well as the bloody melodrama of Bullet in the Head 1990 and the breathtaking transcendence of Hard Boiled 1992, Woo reached new levels of cinematic invention that inspired countless subsequent filmmakers, from Quentin Tarantino to the Wachowskis.

Tied up in legal limbo, many of the films from his key Hong Kong years have not been available to screen for many years. After the recent acquisition of the Golden Princess studio catalogue, these titles are finally re-emerging for audiences to appreciate once again. While they have recently received new digital restorations, this program screens each film from a unique 35mm print, showcasing Woo’s big screen visions in a way that can only be experienced in cinema.

John Woo Bullet Ballets
21 – 29 November 2025
Gallery of Modern Art, Cinema A, Brisbane
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

One of American cinema’s boldest voices, Charles Burnett (b. 1944) has crafted a body of work defined by its empathy, literary interiority and clarity of vision. Best known for his debut feature Killer of Sheep 1977, Burnett is renowned for blending immersive naturalism and poetic lyricism in his textured expressions of the Black experience in America.

Born in Mississippi, Burnett moved to the Watts neighbourhood of Los Angeles as a child. During his college years, he became a leading figure of the ‘L.A. Rebellion,’ a group of filmmakers that first emerged from UCLA in the late 1960s. This loose collective worked together to create an alternative to Hollywood fantasy, with filmmaking that drew on cinéma vérité and Italian neorealism to capture the rhythms and details of contemporary Black life.

Burnett’s career has repeatedly been marked by setbacks, with three of his five features only officially released decades after their completion due to rights disputes and bureaucratic wrangling. He has nevertheless remained an uncompromising and celebrated cinematic artist, receiving a MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ in 1988 and an honorary Academy Award in 2007. His Killer of Sheep is now recognised as a major and widely influential entry in the American film canon, and was voted one of the 50 greatest films ever made in the BFI’s 2022 Sight & Sound poll.

The program brings together Burnett’s feature films — his unofficial ‘Los Angeles cycle,’ as described by the New Yorker — along with a selection of rarely screened short films and his powerful docufiction The Final Insult 1997. It includes the new 4K restorations of Killer of Sheep and The Annihilation of Fish 1999, carefully remastered in consultation with Burnett and presented in Australia for the first time as part of this program.

Charles Burnett L.A. Rebel Retrospective
10 – 22 October 2025
Gallery of Modern Art, Cinema A, GOMA
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

Taking place at the Elizabeth Picture Theatre, New Farm Cinemas, the Gallery of Modern Art and the Institute of Modern Art, the festival is also proud to shine a spotlight on female talent in its fourth year — from the pioneering Věra Chytilová to the rising local talent of Alena Lodkina, more than 80-percent of the films programmed are directed or co-directed by women.

Once again offering a carefully curated, propulsive showcase of cinematic excellence, QFF 2018 opens with a night of new Australian cinema. Soda_Jerk’s controversial and acclaimed Terror Nullius will launch the festival with a film that’s equal parts political satire, eco-horror and road movie. A rogue remapping of national mythology, Terror Nullius was created through an intricate remix of Australia’s pop culture and film legacy.

Finally, the 2018 festival comes to an end with two sporting films, though of a quite varied bent. First comes the documentary John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, a study of the tennis player at the height of his career as the world champion — and facing the hardest loss of his career at the 1984 Roland-Garros French Open.

It is followed by Diamantino, QFF’s closing night film, a fictional piece that marvels as the world’s greatest soccer star loses his touch and sets off on a delirious odyssey where he confronts neo-fascism, the refugee crisis, genetic modification, and the hunt for the source of genius. The latest collaboration from QFF regulars Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, it’s in love with every form of storytelling and concocted from pure pleasure.

Queensland Film Festival
July 19 2018 ‐ July 29 2018
Elizabeth Picture Theatre, New Farm Cinemas, Gallery of Modern Art and the Institute of Modern Art
www.qldff.com

A dancer turned video artist and filmmaker, her work pushed beyond the boundaries of fiction and non-fiction and explored the space in-between. Her love of jazz found its way into many of her films, the improvisational rhythms matching the kinetic energy of her camerawork. With fellow filmmaker Jonas Mekas, Clarke was instrumental in the formation of the New American Cinema Group, now the largest archive and distributor of independent and avant-garde films in the world.

This program celebrates Clarke’s recently restored feature films The Connection 1961, Portrait of Jason 1967, and Ornette: Made in America 1985, as well as her Academy Award winning documentary Robert Frost: A Lover’s Quarrel with the World 1963. The program also features her film The Cool World 1964 and a selection of Clarke’s short films and video artworks, interviews with the artist, and her only onscreen feature film role in Agnès Varda Lion’s Love 1969.

Feature films include:
The Connection 1960 Ages 18+
The Cool World  1963 M
Robert Frost: A Lover’s Quarrel With the World 1963 Ages 18+
Portrait of Jason 1967 Ages 18+
Lion’s Love1969 Ages 18+
Ornette: Made in America 1985 Ages 18+

Shirley Clarke and the New York beat
12–28 June 2015
Australian Cinémathèque | Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

That’s the inaugural Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival (BAPFF) by the numbers, however the figures only tell part of the story.

At the festival’s heart is a celebration of diversity, both in a region that covers one third of the globe, and in the incredible selection of films awaiting your discovery.

BAPFF champions the best of Asia Pacific filmmaking, bringing films and filmmakers to Brisbane to create a unique celebration of the art of cinema.
Award winners? BAPFF will screen Cannes Palme d’Or winner Winter Sleep, Berlinale Golden Bear recipient Black Coal Thin Ice, Locarno Golden Leopard winner From What is Before, Sundance Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema: Documentary) winner Return to Homs, and Tribeca Best Narrative Feature recipient Zero Motivation. The list continues, with double FIPRESCI Award-winner 10 Minutes, Berlinale FIPRESCI Award-winner Forma and 2014 Karlov Vary Film Festival Crystal Globe recipient Corn Island, among others.

Award contenders? BAPFF will feature films selected as their nations’ foreign-language Oscar contenders such as New Zealand’s The Dead Lands, Palestine’s Eyes of a Thief and Taiwan’s Ice Poison; titles in contention for the AACTAs including best documentary nominee Ukraine is Not a Brothel; and 20 films nominated for the 8th annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA).

Highlighting noted Asia Pacific talent, BAPFF hosts new works from the region’s best auteurs, including Zhang Yimou’s Coming Home at the festival’s closing night celebration, as well as Lav Diaz’s From What Is Before, Hong Sang-Soo’s Hill of Freedom, Im Kwok-teak’s Revivre, Wang Xiaoshuai’s Red Amnesia, Ann Hui’s The Golden Era, and Ruin from Australia’s own Amiel Courtin-Wilson, Michael Cody.

BAPFF also brings films to Brisbane that might otherwise remain unseen, such as Australian time travel romantic comedy The Infinite Man, Farsi-language neo-noir vampire western A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, Russia’s three-decades-in-the-making Hard To Be A God, and Jean-Luc Godard’s pioneering Goodbye to Language 3D.

The festival not only looks to the future of filmmaking in the region, but also to the past courtesy of retrospective screenings. A focus on 2014 APSA jury president Asghar Farhadi showcases his career so far. Korea’s oldest surviving silent film, Crossroads of Youth, is celebrated in a unique live performance event. Satyajit Ray’s Charulata and Kim Ki-young’s The Housemaid rank among the festival’s restorations, as well as the late Nagisa Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth – fresh from screenings in Cannes Classics.

BAPFF 2014
29 November to 14 December
Palace Barracks Cinemas, The Australian Cinémathèque at Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Sunnybank Hoyts Cinemas, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, The Courier-Mail Piazza and the State Library of Queensland
www.brisbaneasiapacificfilmfestival.com

‘Forbidden Hollywood’ celebrates this unique period of creative freedom which ended with the reinstatement of traditional moral values through the Motion Picture Production Code in 1934.

Following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Depression, struggling Hollywood studios sought to attract audiences by creating films that pushed the boundaries of social acceptability. With a gleeful mix of realism and glamour, these films tackled issues of sexuality and crime, social criticisms and a growing mistrust of authority. Strong women dominated the screen, scorning the prevailing Victorian-era ideals of passivity and purity, while stories about the police and gangsters were ripped straight from newspaper headlines during the Prohibition era.

By 1934, conservative groups — who had railed for years against what they saw as Hollywood’s attack on traditional family values — succeeded in making the film studios adhere to the Production Code’s censorship guidelines, a move that would affect audiences until 1968, when the code was abandoned in favour of a rating system.

‘When I’m good, I’m very good. But when I’m bad, I’m better.’ Mae West as Tira in I’m No Angel 1933

26 September – 2 November 2014
Australian Cinémathèque | Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA)
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au