Acclaimed Classics & Club Culture: VIVID Live’s 2026 Cinema Program

Although most known for its world-class theatre productions and outstanding concert experiences, anyone in the know can tell you that cinema at the Sydney Opera House is nothing to sniff at, either. Sprinkled throughout the year, these highly focused programs are some of the best our city has to offer, and the collection of films showing as part of VIVD Live is certainly no exception to the rule.

As the cinema program that accompanies the festival of lights returns after its debut in 2024, the Opera House’s Head of Screen Stuart Buchanan tells City Hub he’s thrilled to be bringing some incredible films to the Playhouse Theatre in just a few weeks. “The response to this film program has been very strong. People seem to be responding really well to it, and some of these films are on their way to selling out their screenings, which is great to see!”

One reason it might be resonating with people so much is that, much like the rest of VIVID Live, there’s something genuinely special about viewing films at the Opera House. “When a performer brings their show to the Opera House, they can’t help but bring their A-game; the performances are always elevated here,” comments Stuart.

“And I feel like in some respects, screening a film here also has that quality to it, where the film is elevated because it’s something more than just a regular cinema experience,” Stuart continues. “We pay extremely close attention to the sound quality and how the film looks, which is true of many cinemas around Sydney. But the experience of seeing a film at the Opera House is very special.”

Night Vision is an ode to club culture

Equally special is this line-up of films, which features a mind-bendingly good collection of features and special presentations. There’s arthouse sensations like a now sold-out 4K session of Daft Punk’s Electroma, another evening of fresh shorts in Shortwave x Soft Centre and the first ever theatrical screening of La Haine with the soundtrack by Asian Dub Foundation.

On top of some truly inspired choices for musically-inclined films – this is a rare chance to see the acclaimed Japanese film Linda Linda Linda – within the VIVID films also lies a subprogram titled Night Vision, a love letter to clubbing and the late-night dancefloor. Night Vision feels equally diverse in its array of films that aim to capture the nightlife, featuring documentary premieres and narrative features like the 1999 cult hit Human Traffic or the dreamy, neon-drenched world of Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Millennium Mambo.

“Clubbing and clubs are, in general, notoriously hard to get right in films,” Stuart says. “So when putting the program together, I really wanted to include a series of films that don’t just celebrate club culture and dance music, but do so in a way that feels authentically right,” he continues. “With all these films, you really feel they were made by people who lived through it or were intrinsically a part of it, and therefore it can’t help but be authentically genuine.”

How VIVID Live’s cinema program fits into the wider program

With some truly exciting premieres and retrospectives, this program makes a worthy addition to the VIVID program, one Stuart says reflects a shift in how creative people represent themselves in art. “I’m finding new, emerging or early-stage artists are now saying ‘Hey, I’m a musician and a writer and a filmmaker’, and the idea that we can easily segregate art into these boundaries is disappearing,” he says.

“Film is bleeding into live performance, and live performance is bleeding into films – more artists.” He continues: “The relationship and symbiosis between music and film has always been really strong, but the two’s boundaries are increasingly blurred. So it feels like a very natural fit to be exploring this territory.

“But I also know we’re scratching the surface and there’s a whole bunch of films we didn’t manage to land for VIVID, and some we’ll program in the future at some point, and I’m looking forward to those just as much,” he concludes.

VIVID Live’s cinema program plays from Thursday May 28th until Sunday May 31st. Check out the full program here.