Overview
For more than a century, watching a movie has involved staring at either a rectangle or a square. They're the shapes the silver screen is known for, and the small screen as well. But catch a film at the planetarium and everything becomes circular — which makes fulldome flicks, as they're called, something particularly special.
Melbourne Planetarium plays movies on its dome via regular programs — films specifically made to take advantage of the different screening format — and the Melbourne International Film Festival includes a fulldome showcase in its annual lineup. But Australia only boasts one film fest that's solely all about hemispherical views. That event: the Dome Under Film Festival, which debuted in 2020 before the pandemic, and will return to the Victorian capital in February 2023.
Running across Saturday, February 4–Sunday, February 5, Dome Under Festival's latest outing will once again see the best new fulldome releases from around the world head to Scienceworks. With sessions dedicated to family-friendly titles, children's movies, animation, experimental flicks, astronomy, science and world stories, the program features plenty of highlights — covering everything from dinosaurs, black holes and icy worlds through to visits to Akihabara in Tokyo, Indigenous songs and dances, and the Aurora Borealis.
In total, 25 films from 14 countries will grace the dome, as handpicked by the Dome Under team. Each one will fill every inch of the planetarium's 16-metre domed ceiling — and play with 5.1 surround sound.
Fulldome screenings might sound like a fad — cinema has seen more than its fair share of gimmicks come and go in its time — but once you've seen a movie made for the format, those notions quickly slip away. Indeed, there's a reason that Australia keeps embracing the medium, with the Brisbane International Film Festival also enjoying a foray into the same space more than a decade back, and Sydney playing host to Wonderdome across the summer of 2021–22.
Something else that makes the dome screening experience extra special: you definitely can't just wait to see these flicks at home a month or so down the track.
Dome Under Film Festival 2023 screens at the Melbourne Planetarium at Scienceworks, 2 Booker Street, Spotswood, from Saturday, February 4–Sunday, February 5. Head to the venue's website for tickets and further details.