Fairy Tales Cinema: Truth, Power and Enchantment

Overview

Prepare to be enchanted: from Saturday, December 2, 2023–Sunday, April 28, 2024, fairy tales are spreading their magic through the Gallery of Modern Art. For five months, the South Brisbane venue is filling its walls and halls with entrancing stories, myths, legends and folklore. But GOMA doesn't just boast exhibition spaces — it's also home to its own cinema.

Whatever is gracing the site in art and installation form usually makes it way to the Australian Cinémathèque's big screens, too. That's the case with Fairy Tales. Called Fairy Tales Cinema: Truth, Power and Enchantment, the program runs across the same dates, with sessions during the day on Saturdays and Sundays, plus at night on Wednesdays and Fridays. Also, heading along is free.

Thanks to more than 40 titles, there's a must-see for everyone — several, in fact — on a program that has a daily component as well. In Cinema B, Jim Henson's The StoryTeller television series is showing its episodes every single day.

The film lineup is the kind of treasure trove that you'd expect an adventuring princess to find, including David Lynch's Wild at Heart, Studio Ghibli's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. The David Bowie-starring Labyrinth is also on the bill, as are The Princess Bride, The Wizard of Oz, Where the Wild Things Are, and the most-recent live-action versions of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast.

Throw in the inimitable Border, Poland's horror-musical The Lure, Céline Sciamma's Petite Maman, stunning Spanish silent film Blancanieves, cult-favourite The Fall, and Australia's own Blaze, Walkabout and Picnic at Hanging Rock, and this packed selection keeps on giving. Also among the highlights: Björk in The Juniper Tree and Taiwan's trippy Thrilling Bloody Sword.