Overview
Big screen, big highlight of Sydney's summer for cinephiles, big movie: when Westpac Openair Cinema kicks off its 2025 season, returning to Mrs Macquaries Point with its three-storey-high screen as it does every January and February, it'll do so with Timothée Chalamet (Dune: Part Two) as Bob Dylan. Biopic A Complete Unknown has been announced as the outdoor picture palace's opening-night pick, which will start 41 nights of movies under the stars in stunning surroundings.
A Complete Unknown steps through the early days of the music icon's career, focusing on how Dylan became a sensation. Directed by Walk the Line helmer James Mangold (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) — swapping Johnny Cash for another legend, clearly — the film covers folk singer's early gigs, filling concert halls, going electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and more.
That's what Westpac Openair Cinema attendees will be watching on Thursday, January 9. Across the rest of the season until Tuesday, February 18, highlights revealed so far include the previously unveiled Paul Mescal (All of Us Strangers)-starring Gladiator II; the first Wicked movie with Ariana Grande (Don't Look Up) as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo (Pinocchio) as Elphaba; and 2024 Cannes Palme d'Or-winner Anora from Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket filmmaker Sean Baker.
Newly added to the lineup ahead of the full program drop at the end of November 2024: We Live in Time, Nightbitch, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Conclave and Better Man. We Live in Time stars Florence Pugh (Dune: Part Two) and Andrew Garfield (Under the Banner of Heaven), leading a romance from Brooklyn filmmaker John Crowley, which follows a couple's relationship across a decade — and Nightbitch hails from The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Can You Ever Forgive Me? and A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood filmmaker Marielle Heller, with Amy Adams (Dear Evan Hansen) playing a stay-at-home mum who turns canine.
Rom-com Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is the fourth film in the franchise, again with Renée Zellweger (The Thing About Pam) in the eponymous role; Ralph Fiennes (The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar) is at the centre of witty papal election thriller Conclave, alongside Citadel's Stanley Tucci, Killers of the Flower Moon's John Lithgow and Spaceman's Isabella Rossellini; and Better Man adds to Westpac Openair Cinema music biopics, putting Robbie Williams in the spotlight.
Buffet Digital, @patstevenson
Also announced: the fact that this year's season will feature a Festival of Food, with Luke Nguyen (Botanic House's Culinary Director), Danielle Alvarez (Chef and Sydney Opera House's Culinary Director of its event venues) and Scott McComas-Williams (Love Tilly Group's Group Executive Chef) curating. Three dining experiences will greet moviegoers. At the casual Luke Nguyen at The Point, Vietnamese fusion menu will be on offer. Summer House Dining by Danielle Alvarez is all about Mediterranean-inspired meals and full-service dining. And at Fabbrica at Chandon Garden, there'll be a pasta bar-style menu.
As happens every year, tickets to Westpac Openair Cinema likely to go quickly when they go on sale on Monday, December 9. Across the summer of 2018–19, more than 40,000 tickets sold within the first two days of pre-sale, for instance — so put it in your diary ASAP.
Fiora Sacco
Chris Grundy
Westpac Openair 2025 runs from Thursday, January 9—Tuesday, February 18. The program will be announced on Thursday, November 28, 2024 with tickets on sale on Monday, December 9 — check back here then for further details, and head to the event's website in the interim.
Top image: Buffet Digital, @patstevenson.