Cozy Cinema Club
Complete with bean bags and blankets, this Abbotsford Convent pop-up is your new spot to see a classic movie this winter.
Overview
UPDATE, Tuesday, June 10, 2025: Cozy Cinema Club has paused its 2025 plans — we'll update you when more details are announced.
Outdoor cinemas don't fit well with Melbourne's winter weather. Looking for a cold climes-appropriate alternative for seeing classic flicks on a big screen, other than the city's wealth of picture palaces? Meet Cozy Cinema Club, which has a feast of flicks headed to Abbotsford Convent.
Settling into the site's Magdalen Laundry on Wednesdays–Sundays between Wednesday, June 11–Saturday, August 2, 2025, Cozy Cinema Club is all about getting comfortable and keeping toasty while you watch a film — with everyone sinking into bean bags, and free blankets on offer to borrow and snuggle up in while you're there. Also available to warm you up: cocktails and wine. Movie snacks will be on the menu in the lounge as well, while heartier meals are an option at select sessions.
To set the mood, there'll also be fairy lights. The lineup of flicks will equally help. Beloved movies aplenty are on the bill, curated into themed streams such as comforting classics, cult films, horror favourites, rom-coms and romance fare, and all-ages delights. Cozy Cinema Club is showing two pictures per night, one at 6.30pm and the other at 8.30pm.
If you notice a nostalgic skew to the program, that's also by design from Arclight Event Co, who are also behind Sunset Cinema, Laneway Cinema and Botanica Festival. You don't call your movie pop-up Cozy Cinema Club if you don't want that vibe to seep through all aspects, including the roster gracing the silver screen.
For its opening night, a Wes Anderson double of The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Darjeeling Limited will get the cinema started — and if that's not enough pastels and symmetry for you, The Royal Tenenbaums is on the lineup later in the season. Other highlights span Clueless before it gets a small-screen sequel series; Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro and Ponyo; Ari Aster's Midsommar; and the 80s likes of Labyrinth, The Breakfast Club, Dirty Dancing, The Princess Bride and The Goonies. For its Christmas in July programming, Die Hard, Elf, Home Alone and Love Actually will all score a spin.
Prefer a taste of the surreal and bittersweet with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? A Heath Ledger serenade in 10 Things I Hate About You? The walk-and-talk charms of Before Sunrise? Or everything from Donnie Darko, Moonlight, The Fifth Element, the OG Mean Girls and Almost Famous to Lost in Translation, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Brooklyn, The Shining and The Big Lebowski? They're also among your viewing options.
Information
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