Maggie Cheung is one of Hong Kong cinema’s most iconic stars. Celebrated internationally for her expressive naturalism, physical grace and inimitable screen presence, Cheung crafted a genre-hopping body of work that shifts between broad romantic comedies, goopy horror flicks, martial arts extravaganzas and poignant arthouse dramas.

Cheung, who spent much of her early life in the United Kingdom, found fame as the runner up of the Miss Hong Kong pageant in 1983. She quickly found success in comedies and genre films, with a breakthrough role in Jackie Chan’s action classic Police Story 1985. Her appearance in Wong Kar-wai’s debut feature As Tears Go By 1988 launched a renowned series of collaborations with the director that culminated with In the Mood for Love 2000, a masterpiece of longing that is frequently cited as one of the greatest films of the century.

Throughout her career, Cheung also worked with some of the most acclaimed filmmakers of her era. Her performances in films directed by Ann Hui, Stanley Kwan and Olivier Assayas reflect her own layered cultural identities, exploring fame and postcolonial themes of race and migration. She also took on more physical roles in wuxia and martial arts films, such as the fantastical Green Snake 1993 and the visually resplendent Hero 2002.

After decades in the film industry, her final feature remains Clean 2004, for which she received the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. Since then, she has largely retired from the screen, pursuing music and other personal interests, while remaining an icon of an indelible era of Hong Kong cinema.

This program brings together more than 20 films starring Cheung, with many titles screening from new digital restorations and imported 35mm prints. It showcases the legendary breadth and depth of Cheung’s career, in one of the largest retrospectives of the actor to be staged anywhere in the world.

In the Mood for Maggie Cheung
24 October – 30 November 2025
Gallery of Modern Art, Cinema A, Brisbane
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

Reconnect with the cinema experience and with each other at Dendy this October as we celebrate Queensland Seniors Month.

Don’t miss our lineup of modern classics back on the big screen, with tickets just $8, and only $6 for Club Dendy members!

From the tantalising murder mystery GOSFORD PARK and the whimsical delights of French modern classic AMELIE to the riotously funny British comedy DEATH AT A FUNERAL and Robert Redford’s sweeping period drama A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, there’s something for everyone to enjoy!

Screenings will run from October 3 – 27 at Dendy Cinemas Coorparoo and Portside.

QLD Seniors Month at Dendy Cinemas
3-27 October 2023
Dendy Cinemas Coorparoo and Portside
www.dendy.com.au

Juliette Binoche is one of the most sought-after and celebrated actors of her generation building her career on the foundation of fearless, authentic, and sensitive performances. Crafting a screen persona that embodies meaning throughout her projects, Binoche is a unique actor bringing strong authorship not only to the role she plays but the whole film.

Boasting an extraordinary career of seventy feature films over five decades, Binoche has won a multitude of ‘Best Actress’ awards including two Academy Awards, Britain’s BAFTA, France’s César Award and is the first actress to hold the ‘triple crown’ winning Best Actress at the Berlin, Venice and Cannes Film Festivals.

Binoche has the unparalleled accomplishment of regularly working in her native France as well as across several other filmmaking regions from Hollywood to Japan to Iran. Her filmmaking collaborations are with some of the world’s most notable directors including Leos Carax (Bad Blood 1986), Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours: Blue 1993, Anthony Minghella (The English Patient 1996), Lasse Hallström’s romantic comedy Chocolat 2000, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami (Certified Copy 2010), Michael Haneke’s Hidden 2005 and Code Unknown 2000, French director Claire Denis (Let the Sunshine In 2017, High Life 2018 with Robert Pattinson) as well as Japanese filmmaker and Cannes Film Festival winner Hirokazu Kore-eda (The Truth 2019).

Juliette Binoche Retrospective
28 April – 18 June 2023
Australian Cinémathèque, GOMA, Brisbane
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

Winner of multiple Academy Awards and the first female filmmaker to be awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, her films have been celebrated for their unique vision and subversive portrayals of women rejecting the strictures of their societies. This program presents all of Campion’s features to date, along with a curated selection of her short films.

After studying filmmaking at Sydney’s Australian Film, Television and Radio School in the early 1980s, the success of Campion’s early shorts – including a Short Film Palme d’or for Peel 1982 – led to the personal tales of friendship and sisterhood found in feature films Two Friends 1986 and Sweetie 1989. Campion would reach new heights of success with The Piano 1993, a critical and commercial triumph that remains her most iconic work.

Over the subsequent years, she continued to craft enthralling portraits of characters who push back against the constraints of social hierarchies and patriarchal pressures, whether that be in period settings (The Portrait of a Lady 1996, Bright Star 2009) or amidst contemporary concerns (Holy Smoke 1999, In the Cut 2003). Her most recent production – The Power of the Dog 2021 – was Campion’s first feature in over a decade and won her the Academy Award for Best Director, highlighting the continued vitality of her filmmaking.

The Power and Passion of Jane Campion
1 – 30 July 2022
GOMA, Brisbane
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

The film festival, titled PEDRO ALMODÓVAR RETROSPECTIVE, celebrates the expansive, bold and daring career of Spanish Auteur, Pedro Almodóvar. Catch his muse, Penélope Cruz in the visually stunning, Volver, Broken Embraces and Academy Award Winner, All About My Mother. See Antonio Banderas in the dark romantic comedy, Tie me up! Tie Me Down!, Pain and Glory and Thriller, The Skin I live in, plus more classic Almodóvar titles to satisfy your soul.

Head to www.dendy.com.au for more information and to book tickets.

Pedro Almodovar Retrospective
18 March – 7 April 2021
Dendy Coorparoo
www.dendy.com.au

Sciamma received widespread critical acclaim for her coming-of-age trilogy (Water Lilies 2007, Tomboy 2011 and Girlhood 2014), and has been highly sought after as a scriptwriter. She was awarded the Best Screenplay and Queer Palm awards at the most recent Cannes Film Festival for her directorial feature Portrait of a Lady on Fire 2019.

This program brings together Sciamma’s evocative cinematic style and distinct approach to filmmaking showcasing her works as both writer and director.

Céline Sciamma: Portrait of a Woman on Fire
13-22 March 2020
GOMA, Brisbane
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

Known for their sensuous atmosphere, Peter Strickland’s films compellingly combine genre, the uncanny and the experimental. Strickland first made his mark in 2009 with the low-budget rural revenge noir Katalin Varga. His international arthouse breakthrough came in 2012 with Berberian Sound Studio, which details the story of a reserved Englishman finding himself working on the sound design of a disturbed Italian giallo horror film.

This key work establishes Strickland’s ongoing interests and obsessions: intricate sound design that plays with how we hear, fetishistic references to the past that explore new ways to the future, a delight in the analog (whether on screen or in soundtrack) and a sharp sense of wit and the absurd. These ideas are expanded upon further in his two most recent feature films — The Duke of Burgundy 2014 and In Fabric 2018 — and his equally important work in radio, which all mine the other-worldly in fascinating ways.

Peter Strickland: Capturing the Uncanny
26-28 July 2019
GOMA, Brisbane
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

‘Cult Japan’ is presented across a series of thematic strands: Strange Creatures and Dark Cities brings together science fiction and monster movies alongside anime favourites and films imagining a future of machines and social disorder; Cursed People and Places features allegories of human existence and karma expressed through ghost stories and the representation of strange and malevolent forces; Tough Guys and Dangerous Women includes stories of honour and vengeance drawn from the tradition of Japanese yakuza and exploitation cinema; and The Body Electric explores the body and technology and the boundaries of desire, morality and physical transformation. These strands are accompanied by a retrospective of Hayao Miyazaki, Japan’s most celebrated animator and director whose hand-crafted fables explore the environment, social justice and the adventures of young women growing up.

Cult Japan at GoMA
3 July 2015 – 2 September 2015
Australian Cinémathèque | Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au