Dome Under Fulldome Festival 2023

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.