Outdoor Cinema

As part of Midsumma and Open Air at the Square, Melbourne Queer Film Festival presents a curated selection of short films from its 2026 program to the Big Screen, showcasing bold queer stories from Australian filmmakers and Victorian talent.

This Valentine’s Day, enjoy a romantic double bill, featuring Wong Kar-wai’s 2000 romantic drama set in Hong Kong in 1962, In the Mood for Love; and the 2011 American comedy romance Crazy, Stupid, Love, starring Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore and Emma Stone.

Based upon the 1908 play by Maurice Maeterlinch, and directed by Maurice Tourneur, The Blue Bird follows siblings Mytyl and Tyltyl, who are sent by the fairy Berylune on a magical quest to find the Blue Bird of Happiness. This classic silent film will be presented with a live DJ score.

Celebrated as one of the finest silent horror films, and featuring a transformative performance by “The Man of a Thousand Faces” Lon Chaney, The Phantom of the Opera was adapted from the French writer Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel about a mysterious figure who haunts the Paris Opera House. The film will be presented with a live DJ score.

Robert Wiene’s Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) is a landmark of cinema and considered one of the first horror films: a dark, dreamlike tale of murder and madness, and a defining work of Weimar-era German Expressionism. The film will be presented with live original score that responds in real time to the film’s shifting moods, mixing traditional Brazilian folk styles with Brazilian contemporary jazz, by Brazilian-born, Melbourne-based composer and multi-instrumentalist, Alcides Neto.

Directed by W.W. Young, this ambitious early screen adaptation draws on both Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, bringing Carroll’s surreal characters and encounters to life through elaborate costumes, theatrical sets and early cinematic effects. This screening will be accompanied by a live original score by multidisciplinary artist and composer Kasinda, performed by the Agaracha Orchestra.

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Fritz Lang’s dystopian sci-fi masterpiece Metropolis, The New Pollutants perform their acclaimed live score alongside a newly restored version of the film. Conceived, composed and recorded over twelve months, the score blends Germanic trip hop, lo-fi electronica and classical music.

As Oscar season approaches, we’re showcasing some classic Academy Award-winning films that made cinematic history, including the 1967 mystery-drama exploring racial tensions in the American South, In the Heat of the Night, starring Sidney Poitier; Moonstruck, the charming 1987 American romantic comedy starring Cher in a showstopping Oscar-winning performance opposite Nicholas Cage; Bonnie and Clyde, the 1967 true crime drama starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty credited with ushering in the New Hollywood era in cinema;  and the 1988 ensemble heist-comedy written by Monty Python co-founder John Cleese and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, John Cleese and Kevin Kline, A Fish Called Wanda.

Catch a selection of critically acclaimed and iconic music documentaries and live concert films, including the 2016 film capturing the recording of Nick Cave and the Bad Seed’s album Skeleton Tree, One More Time With Feeling; Sade Live in San Diego (1993); Martin Scorcese’s The Last Waltz (1978); James Brown: Live at the Boston Garden (1968); the 2018 film of Aretha Franklin’s live concert recorded at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in LA in 1972, Amazing Grace; and the live concert recording of the biggest benefit concert in history, Live Aid (1985)