Queensland Film Festival is proud to have the newly refurbished New Farm Six Cinemas as its venue partner in 2016. New Farm Cinemas is a site of enormous historical significance to Brisbane’s film culture. In 1921 it was developed as the Merthyr Picture Palace, in the 1930s it become The Astor which hosted the Brisbane Film Festival, and in the 1970s it was re-developed as The Village Twin, which would become one of Brisbane’s key repertory cinemas. New Farm Cinemas is located in the heart of the New Farm Village Centre, a vibrant inner-city urban renewal precinct known for it’s fine dining restaurants, coffee shops, art deco buildings, and residences.
How to Get Here
701 Brunswick Street
New Farm QLD 4005
Australia
Parking
Ample ‘No Limit’ Street Parking is available at New Farm Cinemas. Please see the parking map below.
Public Transport
Bus: Catch the bus right to our door
196 service from Fairfield, Highgate Hill, South Brisbane, City, Valley, Merthyr
199 service from West End Ferry, Cultural Centre, City
Ferry: Catch the City Cat (from any City Cat stop along the river), or the free city hopper ferry (from North Quay) to Sydeny Street Ferry Terminal, New Farm. 10 min walk to our door.
Use the Translink web site to plan your journey http://translink.com.au/
History
Queensland Film Festival is proud to have the newly refurbished New Farm Six Cinemas as its venue partner in 2016. New Farm Cinemas is a site of enormous historical significance to Brisbane’s film culture.
The history of New Farm Cinemas is the history of cinema exhibition. The site was first developed during the Golden Age of silent cinema in 1921 as the Merthyr Picture Palace. In the 1930s this open-air venue was enclosed and redeveloped for the sound era, and was renamed The Astor. It remained The Astor until the 1970s, when the theatre was again redeveloped, making history as Queensland’s first—and one of Australia’s first—multi-screen cinemas: The Village Twin.
But it is in the last years of the life of The Astor that this site made one of its most important contributions to local screen culture. In the mid 1960s the Brisbane Film Society decided to launch an international film festival. They chose as their venue The Astor, and the Brisbane Film Festival remained at this venue for its first four years, from 1966 to 1969. This year the Queensland Film Festival acknowledges the 50th anniversary of the first Brisbane Film Festival.
Today’s New Farm Cinemas highlights the venue’s history: its exposed beams are original to the Merthyr Picture Palace, its Art Deco façade is a legacy of The Astor, and the interiors have been restored to their retro-futuristic Village Twin glory.
Queensland Film Festival holds our screenings at New Farm Cinemas for the same reason the Brisbane Film Festival did: a central location, ease of access, the bustling Brunswick Street bars and restaurants, and a state-of-the-art cinema steeped in movie history and lore.