Move over croquembouche, there's a new dessert tower in Adriano Zumbo's life. The popular dessert wizard has come together with boutique hotel chain QT to launch a next-level QTea experience at the boutique chain's Sydney CBD outpost. The weekly dose of indulgence will be centred around a tower of Zumbo-specialty sweet treats paired with high tea classics like scones and champagne. So, what's on the menu? Macarons (or Zumborons as Zumbo has named them)? Of course. Croquembouche? Maybe not, but there are plenty of classic Zumbo desserts to snack your way through. There's the chef's famous passionfruit tart alongside new creations like a heart-shaped chocolate mouse, raspberry and pistachio cake, a reinvented scone and a white chocolate and yuzu vanilla cake. Plus, lobster rolls topped with coconut, chilli and lime mayo alongside caesar sliders and goats cheese tarts. Zumbo also has plans to change things up as the team working on the high tea finds its feet. He told Concrete Playground he wants to incorporate more plant-based options, more classics from his back catalogue and large share plates. "The first change will probably be to put that little miniature V8 cake onto the stand," he said. "I would like to bring a couple of my favourite Zumbo's Just Desserts dishes." Accompanying the food in the lobby of the hotel and QT Sydney's Studio Q is a memorable array of beverages and a side of fun and theatrics. DJs will be on hand, as will be a collection of roaming champagne trollies. Perrier Jouet Champagne will be paired with the desserts and lobster rolls, or diners can choose from QT's collection of 60 different champagnes. Plus, a limited-edition burnt blueberry tea. QTea is available on Saturdays and Sundays starting from Saturday, May 29 and will set you back $95pp. QT Sydney is located at 49 Market Street, Sydney.
Think of the Gold Coast and your mind probably jumps straight to its picturesque beaches, beloved theme parks and the lively strip of Surfer's Paradise. While these can all make for a brilliant getaway, the Gold Coast has a number of year-round events that give the holiday destination a cultural edge. From world-class sporting spectacles to exciting festivals, Get Up and Gold Coast in 2026, and plan a trip around these exciting events. AFC Women's Asian Cup 2026 This March, the Gold Coast is hosting one of the premier sporting events of the year: the AFC Women's Asia Cup 2026. Alongside Sydney and Perth, the Gold Coast will become a bucket list destination for football fans. The Gold Coast Stadium will host four group matches from Monday, March 2, until Sunday, March 8. This includes the Matildas' second group match, followed by two rounds of play-offs on Thursday, March 19. Whether you're a sports fan or not, there's no denying the buzz and atmosphere that comes from a major sporting event like this. There are still tickets available, so be sure to nab yours and book in a Gold Coast escape. Australian WPGA Championship The Australian Women's Professional Golfers' Association Championship brings the world's best female golfers to the Gold Coast. Players will compete for the Karrie Webb Cup (and $600,000 in prize money) at the Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club and the Palms Golf Course from Thursday, March 19, until Sunday, March 22. Outside of the championship, the Sanctuary Cove Marine Village is your destination for sport and entertainment with food and beverage options, music, pop-up bars, dedicated fan zones, interactive golf challenges, chill-out areas and shopping. At WPGA, witness the best in golf while enjoying the Gold Coast's picturesque weather and scenery. WSL Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro In May, the Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro (part of the World Surf League Championship Tour event) will be held on the Gold Coast's golden beaches from Friday, May 1, until Monday, May 11. This year, the event is taking place in Snapper Rocks and is set to deliver world-class surfing. Past winners include Kelly Slater, Stephanie Gilmore, Mick Fanning, Carissa Moore and Gabriel Medina, so you know that it'll be worth the journey to see this year's talent on show. The Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro is free to enter, so you and the family can witness the best surfers in the world compete up close and personal. Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show One of the Southern Hemisphere's largest boat shows, the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show is an annual showcase of superyachts, sailboats, marine tech and waterfront appreciation. The event takes place over four action-packed days from Thursday, May 21, to Sunday, May 24. See superyachts up close and personal and revel in the luxurious waterfront lifestyle that the Gold Coast delivers in droves. Blues on Broadbeach Every May, the Gold Coast suburb of Broadbeach transforms into one of Australia's largest music festivals, Blues on Broadbeach. Across multiple indoor and outdoor stages, the four-day (and night) event is a celebration of soul, rhythm and blues music. It kicks off on Thursday, May 14, with a non-ticketed lineup that includes Charlie Musselwhite, Ruthie Foster, Robert Finley, The Lachy Doley Trio, and many more. While most of the festival is free, the Sunday Ticket offers exclusive access to a stellar lineup. On Sunday, May 17, ARIA Award-winning The Teskey Brothers and special guests Judith Hill and Ash Grunwald will perform to the crowd as the sun sets over Broadbeach. Alongside live performances, you can wander between beachfront parks, bars and pop-ups, making it the ultimate chilled Gold Coast experience for music lovers. Cooly Rocks On Coolangatta puts on its retro filter the first weekend in June with Cooly Rocks On. The nostalgia-fuelled street party is a celebration of the motors, music and lifestyle of the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s with classic car displays, a pin-up pageant, live gigs and vintage beachfront markets, all free to explore. From Wednesday, June 3, until Sunday, June 7, you can browse through a selection of retro treasures and memorabilia and listen to some of the finest rock 'n' roll, swing, rockabilly and tribute artists from around the world. There's also a preliminary round of the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artists Contest taking place. Cooly Rocks On is one of three festivals in the country to host this round, and the winner will secure a spot at Elvis Week in Memphis. Rock on. Pacific Airshow The Pacific Airshow Gold Coast transforms the city's famous beachfront into an open-air runway. From Friday, August 14, until Sunday, August 16, fighter jets, aerobatic teams and precision solo flyers will take to the skies for a weekend of high-octane airshows. Enjoy general admission, or take it up a notch with hospitality experiences at the Garden Bar or Beach Club. Ticket holders can enjoy a curated menu of food and drinks, a patio area with seating and shade, private restrooms, and live airshow commentary. It's a Gold Coast-style winter escape. Bleach* It's not just Melbourne and Sydney hosting the country's premier cultural events. Bleach* Festival is a contemporary arts festival running from Thursday, October 1, until Sunday, October 11. The spring festival brings dance, art, music, exhibitions, and panels across three vibrant festival hubs: Kurrawa Park, Emerald Lakes, and the Gold Coast's Home Of The Arts (HOTA). There's a range of free and ticketed events to choose from, with the full lineup released later in the year. Keep your eyes peeled and book in some cultural experiences. Groundwater Country Music Festival Is country music more your scene? Groundwater Country Music Festival is the Gold Coast's destination for all things boots, banjos and beachside twang. Taking over the streets of Broadbeach from Friday, October 16, until Sunday, October 18, the free three-day festival brings a stacked lineup of Australian and international acts. While the 2026 lineup is yet to be announced, the October festival is a must-do for music lovers on the Gold Coast. Expect line-dancing sessions, street food, pop-up bars and a laidback coastal atmosphere complete with cowboy hats. Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 The Gold Coast 500 turns Surfers Paradise into a high-speed street circuit, bringing Supercars racing right into the heart of the city. For one adrenaline-fuelled weekend from Friday, October 23 until Sunday, October 25, the sound of engines echoes between skyscrapers as drivers battle it out just metres from the beach. Whether you're a die-hard motorsport fan or simply keen for a high-energy weekend by the beach, the event blends sun, speed and spectacle. Explore more events and accommodation options, and be ready to Get Up and Gold Coast. Image credit: Supplied
Easter is right around the corner, which means it's time to get ready for everyone's favourite rabbit to hop into town — and we're not talking about Peter, Roger or Bugs. If you're looking for a way to celebrate Easter right up to the weekend itself — all without leaving the city — hit up the Ingenia Holiday Parks Sydney Family Show this March. The annual event runs from Saturday, March 23, to Monday, April 1, at the Entertainment Quarter Showring. Here you can check out the action-packed motorcycle and bike stunt show, work out some energy on the Monster Jump obstacle course, turn yourself upside down on carnival rides, cuddle furry friends in the animal nursery and, of course, take home a showbag or two on your way out. This year, the show also features high-octane oinks in the form of pig racing, a special day for dogs on Sunday, March 24, a rabbit hopping competition on Good Friday, and a dedicated easter zone open daily. Tickets are $30 per person for adults and $15 for kids aged 3–15, or you can grab a family pass for $70 for four people. Score access to your fill of rides with 24 coupons for rides and games or a three-hour unlimited rides wristband for $50. Prebook your tickets online to avoid any disappointment at the door. The Ingenia Holiday Parks Sydney Family Show is happening at the Entertainment Quarter from Saturday, March 23, to Monday, April 1. For more information and to grab tickets, visit the website.
For years, Foxtel has been Australia's main source for HBO series, airing everything from Game of Thrones, Westworld and Succession to Chernobyl, Veep and Big Little Lies. And, if you weren't signed up to the pay TV service, that meant streaming your favourite shows via its online platforms — such as the now-defunct Presto and the currently available Foxtel Now. From Monday, May 25, Aussie TV fans will have another option: new streaming service Binge. While Foxtel Now isn't going anywhere, the Foxtel-run Binge works more like Netflix, Stan, Amazon Prime Video and their long list of competitors. So, rather than replicating Foxtel's channel packages via an online platform, requiring you to pick and choose different options depending on whether you're eager for sport, movies or drama, as Foxtel Now does, with Binge you'll pay a flat fee to gain access to everything. On the TV lineup: all of the aforementioned HBO programs, plus older faves such as The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City and Girls. After HBO's new US streaming service HBO Max launches in the US on May 27, Binge will also feature scripted shows from the platform, such as the new Gossip Girl reboot. And, working with companies such as WarnerMedia, NBCU, FX, BBC and Sony, it'll boast plenty of other highlights — including classic comedies like Seinfeld, The Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation; crime thrills thanks to Law & Order and NCIS; new releases like Breeders and Mrs America; documentaries such as Planet Earth; and competitive series including the Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman-hosted Making It. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhWFiFfrbY0 Kicking off with more than 10,000 hours of content, Binge's catalogue will also feature a heap of movies — think flicks from the Fast and Furious, Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible and DC Universe franchises; films from directors such as Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino; and newcomers like the Hugh Jackman-starring Bad Education. And, if you're eager for recommendations — and not just from an algorithm — it'll include curated collections that'll steer you in different viewing directions. You can also select 'binge' or 'surprise me' options, which'll do the choosing for you. Price-wise, Binge will cost $10 per month for one SD screen, $14 per month for two HD screens and $18 per month for four HD screens, with a two-week free trial also available when it kicks off. Users will be able to access the service online, and via Android TV, Apple TV, Telstra TV, Chromecast, tablets and mobile devices. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuB2VNA8MLQ&feature=youtu.be Binge launches on Monday, May 25. For further information — or to sign-up — visit the platform's website. Top image: Game of Thrones, Helen Sloan.
If you missed out on the last Sydney Contemporary — or last year's The Other Art Fair — fret not. While the latter most recently happened in October, it's back again in March. Art lovers, you know what this means: you'll have another opportunity to snatch up an artwork from emerging and unrepresented artists from March 22 to 25. Presented by Saatchi Art, the fair showcases more than 100 artists (selected by a formidable committee of contemporary art experts), typically drawing in about 10,000 people over four days. Celebrating the vibrancy and innovation of Sydney's emerging art scene, it's a rare chance to buy work directly from artists rather than through a gallery. Thinking of buying? Fair organisers advise you to obey your taste, buy what you like, take a risk and most of all, make the most of having the artist on hand to chat to. Alongside the art will be workshops, large-scale installations, talks and events, plus drinks to refresh your palette between perusals. Make a party out of it by attending on opening night ($25), or stop by for a general browse between Friday to Sunday, with general entry tickets costing between $12 and $15. Head along to catch a rising star at the beginning of their career — or just to soak up all that creativity and get inspired.
To the north of Cronulla's main drag you'll find Greenhills Beach, the only dog-friendly beach in Sydney that faces directly onto the ocean (as opposed to a bay). A favourite among locals, another drawcard to Greenhills is the fact it tends to be less busy than the main beaches at North and South Cronulla. To access it, take a scenic coastal walk north along Cronulla Esplanade past Wanda Beach, another popular local swimming hole. As Greenhills is unpatrolled, swimming is not recommended, but the long peaceful shoreline provides a relaxing setting for both humans and their canines to stroll, nap or picnic. And good news for pet owners, dogs can go off-leash on the beach before 10am and after 4pm daily. Images: Mel Koutchavlis
While it may not entirely feel like it yet, spring has sprung in Sydney. And as the days get longer and the weather warmer, you'll start to feel that heady, buzzy feeling these sun-soaked days bring with them. Whether you're in a long-seasoned couple, recently matched up or single and looking for a way to impress a potential someone, one thing is certain among the lovebirds: there's a fresh, romantic feeling in the air. Luckily, Sydney is full of brilliant date ideas that aren't simply dinner and a movie — and that won't completely blow out your savings. To help you out, we've pulled together five date ideas under $50 that'll help spark your inner romantic, while our friends at CommBank have rounded up some top tips for living 'money smart' while you're dating or coupled up. Now you can treat that special someone and stay well and truly in the green. Split the bill easily on your next date in under a minute using a PayID (which uses the Osko payment service). Find out more here. TRIVIA AT GOLDEN AGE CINEMA AND BAR Housed in a subterranean art deco cinema in the backstreets of Surry Hills, Golden Age is a brilliant date destination in itself, recreating the whimsy and glamour of the long-lost golden age of Hollywood. Our pick for a chilled out early weeknight date is the Tuesday trivia night. Join the charming Alex Toliopoulos, of Mike Check podcast fame, for a night of film-themed trivia in its adjoining cocktail lounge. Walk-ins and bookings are welcome to the free event in the slick 1920s style bar, saving you enough to grab some cinema snacks and settle in for a night of challenging each other's film knowledge before cosying in for whatever film's (oft a little art house, independent number) on show that night. [caption id="attachment_692567" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Destination NSW.[/caption] KAYAK AROUND THE HARBOUR You know it, your date knows it, we all know it — we're blessed in Sydney with an immense array of water views, all beautiful, most very accessible. While taking in a waterside sunset is always romantic, might we recommend a kayak expedition for the adventure inclined? Head over to Manly Kayak Centre where you can rent a double kayak for $45 and spend an hour exploring the glittering water and beaches of the northern harbour. And if you're after even more water time and coming from the city, grab the ferry to and from Manly on a Sunday to eat up the rest of that $50 (plus $0.40) when Opal fares are $2.70 all day. [caption id="attachment_649376" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Letícia Almeida.[/caption] RETRO THRILLS AT ARCHIE BROTHERS CIRQUE ELECTRIQ Dating these days can feel worlds away from what it was made to look like in films like, say, The Notebook. And while we're not suggesting you set yourself up for failure — because really, who can beat Ryan Gosling's move of climbing that ferris wheel — we have tracked down a spot where you and your date can get some nostalgic cheap thrills. Enter Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq in Alexandria. Here you can challenge each other to retro arcade games, dodgem cars, bowling and laser tag, plus you can go on XD theatre and VR rides. It's truly a grown up's wonderland, and what's more, it's cheap as chips. Arcade games cost between $2–$5 each, dodgem cars are $4 a ride, bowling ranges from $14-$32, laser tag clocks in at $12 a game and the XD and VR rides are $8 and $7 respectively. And on top of all that, there's also a bar and eatery slinging $15 pizzas for when you need to refuel. [caption id="attachment_692566" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Destination NSW.[/caption] EXPLORE COCKATOO ISLAND The views around Circular Quay and The Rocks are hard to beat, but the crowds can quickly strip away any feeling of romance. A visit to Cockatoo Island might be just the trick for a sweet date spot that'll feel like a mini trip away. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is located just a short ferry ride from Circular Quay and often hosts art exhibitions and cultural events. Formerly a penal site for Australian convicts, the site also functioned as a major shipbuilding centre as well as housing a reformatory school for wayward children. Tours of these sites can be booked, but an audio guide is only $5 and leaves you free to explore the island on your own. If you really want to make a holiday of it, plan to BYO tent and stay the night at one of the camping sites. Sites are $45 a night Monday to Thursday and $50 a night Friday to Sunday. They also can fit four people, so you could even make it a double date and use the rest of your budget on nosh for the onsite barbecues. FRESH BREWS AND LIVE TUNES AT STAVES BREWERY Generally speaking, music, laughter and excellent drinks are key indicators of a good time, so why not combine the three? Staves Brewery in Glebe is a charming microbrewery churning out high-quality beers and live entertainment every night from Thursday to Sunday. Unlike most breweries, Staves is licensed until midnight and, as well as featuring a cute little beer garden out the back, has a sixty-seater performance space upstairs. Thursday night is open mic night, Friday brings $10 comedy, there's live music throughout the weekend and food trucks often set up at the brewery. Add this one to the list under easy, unpretentious good vibes. What's even better than paying $50 or less on a date? Getting us to pick up the bill. Enter our comp for a chance to win $250 so you can try every idea on the list.
Like a stack of Melbourne's large cultural institutions, the National Gallery of Victoria has temporarily shut its doors to the public in an effort to help slow the spread of COVID-19. But, you can now feast on some of the NGV's art offerings from afar, thanks to its newly-launched virtual programming. A series of online galleries, virtual exhibition tours and eBooks are now free to access via the NGV's website and social media channels. And if you're having a crack at the whole social distancing thing, or stuck in self-isolation, that's a serious boredom-busting win. Over on the new NGV Channel, punters will find a growing haul of virtual content to explore. Right now, you can join a free, curator-led tour of Collecting Comme and the NGV's Indigenous art collection Marking Time. From Saturday, March 21, you'll be able to digitally explore around KAWS: Companionship In The Age Of Loneliness and then, from Saturday, March 28, Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines. [caption id="attachment_742493" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kaws, What Party (2019) photo by Tom Ross[/caption] On the NGV app, there are also guided tours of NGV International and NGV Australia artworks, narrated by curators, artists and special guests. Thanks to a lengthy digitisation project, much of the 75,000-strong NGV Collection is also online for your viewing pleasure, so you can take a peek at the likes of the Spirit of Herbarium couture dress by Maria Grazia Chiuri for Christian Dior, or Katsushika Hokusai's 1830 piece The great wave off Kanagawa. It's easy to search by artist or artwork name, and even boasts a few pieces that aren't usually accessible. Those craving some new reading material can dig even deeper with a bunch of new eBooks and curatorial essays available free online, exploring exhibitions like Collecting Comme and Japanese Modernism. In a first, the almost 60-year-long back catalogue of Art Journal of the National Gallery of Victoria is also yours to browse at your own pace online. And don't forget, there's a whole lot more going on over on the NGV's socials and under the hashtag #NGVEveryDay, with regular insight videos and mini talks from the curators. Get your remote art fix over at the NGV website or via Facebook and Instagram. Top image: Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines, NGV. Photo by Tom Ross.
The musical everyone has been talking about, the most diverse acting lineup ever, and a huge haul for Australian movies: yes, the 89th Oscar nominations have been revealed. It's the time of year when film almost becomes a sport. Who will win? Who'll miss out? What do historical stats indicate? Does Meryl Streep get nominated just for waking up in the morning? What does Amy Adams have to do to get some attention? The questions go on. Surprising absolutely no one — particularly after its hefty Golden Globes showing — La La Land is the big favourite with a record-equalling 14 nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Director (Damien Chazelle), Best Actress (Emma Stone) and Best Actor (Ryan Gosling). The last time a movie managed that, it was that little romantic boat tragedy known as Titanic, with 1950 drama All About Eve the only other effort to achieve the feat. Like terrible Celine Dion songs, the film industry's love of watching two very attractive and talented actors sing and dance will (deservedly, in our opinion) go on. The hit musical will compete for the Academy Awards' top prize against a host of other multiple nominees. Also showered in recognition: Arrival and Moonlight (eight nods each), Manchester by the Sea (six nods, including Best Actor frontrunner Casey Affleck), Fences and Hell or High Water (four nods each), and Hidden Figures (three nods). Thinking local, only a year after Mad Max: Fury Road won big, Aussies have come out in force once again. For the first time ever, two Australian films are in the running for Best Picture, with Mel Gibson's war flick Hacksaw Ridge and heartwrenching true tale Lion also scoring six nominations apiece. The former also picked up recognition for Best Director (Gibson) and Best Actor (Andrew Garfield), while the latter gave Nicole Kidman her fourth nomination (for Best Supporting Actress), and anointed Dev Patel for best Aussie accent (okay, Best Supporting Actor, but seriously, his Australian twang is spot-on). And then there's Tanna which, released here in 2015, was shot entirely in Vanuatu, and earned Australia its first-ever Best Foreign-Language Film nomination. The other big story is an departure of #OscarsSoWhite, with the acting field making history. After previous year's awards have been called out for a lack of diversity amongst nominees, for the first time, every single acting category features a person of colour, including Fences' Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, Loving's Ruth Negga, Moonlight's Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris, Hidden Figures' Octavia Spencer, and Lion's aforementioned Patel. Elsewhere, Barry Jenkins is up for Best Director for Moonlight, while the film's editor, Joi McMillon, became the first black woman nominated in that category. About time. The 89th Academy Awards will take place on February 27 Australian time, and will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. Here's the full list of nominations. OSCAR NOMINEES 2017 BEST MOTION PICTURE Arrival Fences Hacksaw Ridge Hell Or High Water Hidden Figures Lion La La Land Manchester By The Sea Moonlight BEST DIRECTOR Damien Chazelle, La La Land Barry Jenkins, Moonlight Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester By The Sea Denis Villeneuve, Arrival Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE Isabelle Huppert, Elle Ruth Negga, Loving Natalie Portman, Jackie Emma Stone, La La Land Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea Denzel Washington, Fences Ryan Gosling, La La Land Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Viola Davis, Fences Michelle Williams, Manchester By the Sea Naomie Harris, Moonlight Nicole Kidman, Lion Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Mahershala Ali, Moonlight Jeff Bridges, Hell Or High Water Dev Patel, Lion Lucas Hedges, Manchester By The Sea Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR Kubo and the Two Strings, Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner Moana, John Musker, Ron Clements and Osnat Shurer My Life as a Zucchini, Claude Barras and Max Karli The Red Turtle, Michael Dudok de Wit and Toshio Suzuki Zootopia, Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY Arrival, Bradford Young La La Land, Linus Sandgren Lion, Greig Fraser Moonlight, James Laxton Silence, Rodrigo Prieto ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN Allied, Joanna Johnston Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Colleen Atwood Florence Foster Jenkins, Consolata Boyle Jackie, Madeline Fontaine La La Land, Mary Zophres BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Fire at Sea, Gianfranco Rosi and Donatella Palermo I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck, Rémi Grellety and Hébert Peck Life, Animated, Roger Ross Williams and Julie Goldman J.: Made in America, Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow 13th Ava, DuVernay, Spencer Averick and Howard Barish BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT Extremis, Dan Krauss 1 Miles, Daphne Matziaraki Joe's Violin, Kahane Cooperman and Raphaela Neihausen Watani: My Homeland, Marcel Mettelsiefen and Stephen Ellis The White Helmets, Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING Arrival, Joe Walker Hacksaw Ridge, John Gilbert Hell or High Water, Jake Roberts La La Land, Tom Cross Moonlight, Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR Land of Mine, Denmark A Man Called Ove, Sweden The Salesman, Iran Tanna, Australia Toni Erdmann, Germany ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING A Man Called Ove, Eva von Bahr and Love Larson Star Trek Beyond, Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo Suicide Squad, Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE) Jackie, Mica Levi La La Land, Justin Hurwitz Lion, Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka Moonlight, Nicholas Britell Passengers, Thomas Newman ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG) 'Audition (The Fools Who Dream)' from La La Land ; Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul 'Can't Stop The Feeling' from Trolls; Music and Lyric by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster 'City Of Stars' from La La Land; Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul 'The Empty Chair' from Jim: The James Foley Story; Music and Lyric by J. Ralph and Sting 'How Far I'll Go' from Moana; Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION DESIGN Arrival; Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Paul Hotte Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them; Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock Hail, Caesar!; Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh La La Land; Production Design: David Wasco; Set Decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco Passengers; Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM Blind Vaysha, Theodore Ushev Borrowed Time, Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj Pear Cider and Cigarettes, Robert Valley and Cara Speller Pearl, Patrick Osborne Piper, Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM Ennemis Intérieurs, Sélim Azzazi La Femme et le TGV, Timo von Gunten and Giacun Caduff Silent Nights, Aske Bang and Kim Magnusson Sing, Kristof Deák and Anna Udvardy Timecode, Juanjo Giménez ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING Arrival, Sylvain Bellemare Deepwater Horizon, Wylie Stateman and Renée Tondelli Hacksaw Ridge, Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright La La Land, Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan Sully, Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING Arrival, Bernard Gariépy Strobl and Claude La Haye Hacksaw Ridge, Kevin O'Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace La La Land, Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Morrow Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Mac Ruth ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS Deepwater Horizon, Craig Hammack, Jason Snell, Jason Billington and Burt Dalton Doctor Strange, Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould The Jungle Book, Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon Kubo and the Two Strings, Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean and Brad Schiff Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Arrival, Screenplay by Eric Heisserer Fences, Screenplay by August Wilson Hidden Figures, Screenplay by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi Lion, Screenplay by Luke Davies Moonlight, Screenplay by Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Hell or High Water, Written by Taylor Sheridan La La Land, Written by Damien Chazelle The Lobster, Written by Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou Manchester by the Sea, Written by Kenneth Lonergan 20th Century Women, Written by Mike Mills
If you're a fan of greasy, cheesy, American-style burgers, we have good news: the Down N' Out team has found a new (temporary) home in Marrickville. Launching on Thursday, May 7, the new Down N' Out pop-up is a parked up food truck at the end of Barclay Street and it's serving up its usual suspects: hamburgers, a southern-fried chicken burger, bunless burgs, hot wings, jalapeño poppers and tiger fries. So if you're an inner west local and have been craving a taste of Cali, look no further. Each week a new special will be available, too — expect a burger that sounds as heart attack-inducing as it does heavenly. Coming up is one loaded with southern fried chicken, mac 'n' cheese and garlic bread aioli. The team will be flippin' and fryin' burgers in Marrickville every Wednesday to Sunday, from 12–3pm and 5–9pm for takeaway, with delivery available via Menulog. https://www.instagram.com/p/B_6zy_cp6zP/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Down N' Out started out as a pop-up back in 2016, before setting up permanent digs in the CBD. Then, its In-N-Out-inspired burgers became available in Ryde, Bankstown and Crows Nest, followed by The Hills despite the team's ongoing lawsuit with the OG Californian chain. Down N' Out even asked its punters for help on a cheeky name change. Now, only the CBD joint and the food truck are operating under Hashtag Burgers. The Down N' Out food truck is located at 1/17 Barclay Street, Marrickville until Sunday, July 19 and is open every Wednesday to Sunday, between 12–3pm and 5–9pm for pick up. Delivery available via Menulog.
Parramatta Lanes returns for its latest festival from Wednesday, October 11–Saturday, October 14, bringing its free program of eats, art and live music to the streets, laneways and rooftops of the west. This Parra palooza will include four nights of festivities featuring 45 food and drink stalls, 120 musicians and stunning art installations. Heading up the food lineup are returning faves like returning favourites like Koi Dessert Bar and Hoy Pinoy, alongside Western Sydney faves making their debut at the festival such as BlackBear BBQ and Fratelli Pulcinella. Joining them will be a lineup of stallholders spanning all types of cuisine. Prawn Star, Mix Mix Co, Japanese Pizza Okonomiyaki, Kampung Laksa, May's Malaysian Hawker and Sri Daskin Food are just some of the teams activating every corner of Parramatta — and filling the streets with sensational aromas. Each night, you can also visit Levins Lane, curated by DJ and foodie Andrew Levins. Here, you can snack on food from Firepop, Onigiri Lab and 15 Cenchi; sip on drinks from the Karu Cocktail Bar; and see a lineup of DJs and musicians pulled together by Parra's biggest fan. Night one is hip hop and R&B night featuring Dylan Atlantis and Jade Kenji; night two is serving up all-out K-pop; night three is 90s throwback night; and night four is about rap and reggaeton with sets from Sollyy, Lamira and Isa. Levins himself will also be on the decks each night. Leading the music lineup elsewhere is New Zealand's Fazerdaze, who will be popping up for a free set while they're in the country for SXSW Sydney and Yours and Owls. Joining them: Carla Wehbe, The 046, Zion Garcia, Shade Nasty, Cherry Chola, Mali Jose and Sidney Phillips. If you're a hip hop fan, make sure to head to Take Flight and Bodega Collective's takeover of the Eat Street Car Park rooftop on Friday, October 13. Some of this city's best rappers including DSP, Planet Vegeta, Tokyo Vendetta, AR the Eternal and Elijah Yo are all making appearances. On the final night, Saturday, October 14, a huge Eating Here Out West event will hit Riverside Theatre led by Western Sydney rapper and community leader L-FRESH the Lion. There will also be Turkish eats from Kocagoz, Mate Pinoy by Mate Burgers and Indian dishes from Num Nums — plus sets from Zeadala, MRVZ and DJ Slays. There are three public artworks appearing as part of the program. Lawrence Liang's Bloom will light up St John's Lawn, a drumming and rapping AI robot will set up in PHIVE's foyer and Atelier Sisu's The Sky of Bubbles will fill Red Cow Lane with 50 glowing spheres. And, this year's Parramatta Lanes will also feature a dedicated Pup Culture dog zone on Lennox Bridge, where your furry four-legged pals can get involved in the festival. A dog agility course, photo opportunities, a silent cinema and pet treats will all be on offer at the pooch-friendly zone. Images: George Gittany.
Sometimes, life delivers the perfect script. At its 2025 edition, Sydney Film Festival has notched up that feat. Each year since 2008, the Harbour City's major annual cinema celebration has featured its own Official Competition, awarding the picture judged the most "audacious, cutting edge and courageous" the Sydney Film Prize. Fresh from winning the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Jafar Panahi's It Was Just an Accident now has SFF's top accolade to its name as well. At Sydney Film Festival's Together-led opening night, it was announced that acclaimed Iranian writer/director Panahi was one the event's special guests — and that he was already in the New South Wales capital. Given that he has been subjected to filmmaking bans, travel restrictions, arrests and imprisonment in his homeland across his career, this was no minor development. During the fest, not only did It Was Just an Accident screen, but featured retrospective Jafar Panahi: Cinema in Rebellion highlighted every single one of the filmmaker's movies. Now, at SFF's closing-night gala — with Splitsville 2025's final flick — Panahi has collected the event's major accolade, accepting it at the State Theatre in person. It Was Just an Accident was picked as 2025's Sydney Film Prize-winner by a jury led by Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel (Ellis Park) as president, plus his The Narrow Road to the Deep North talent Thomas Weatherall, the latter's Heartbreak High co-star Rachel House, Hong Kong-based producer and distributor Winnie Tsang and Marrakech International Film Festival Director Melita Toscan du Plantier. If you're in the Harbour City between Tuesday, June 17–Friday, June 20 when Sydney Film Festival's 2025 Back By Popular Demand bonus screenings hit Dendy Newtown, Palace Cinemas Norton Street and Ritz Cinemas Randwick, Panahi's awarded movie is among the titles receiving encore sessions. The filmmaker's latest picture follows a family on a road trip — and, at SFF, follows Parasite as the only two flicks to have taken home both the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Sydney Film Prize. Iranian features have now won SFF's top gong, which awards a $60,000 cash prize, a record-breaking three times. Asghar Farhadi's A Separation claimed the accolade in 2011, then Mohammad Rasoulof's There Is No Evil did the same in 2021. Other previous winners span There's Still Tomorrow (2024), The Mother of All Lies (2023), Close (2022), The Heiresses (2018), On Body and Soul (2017), Aquarius (2016), Arabian Nights (2015), Two Days, One Night (2014), Only God Forgives (2013), Alps (2012), Heartbeats (2010), Bronson (2009) and Hunger (2008). "It has been an honour and a privilege to watch cinema for the past ten days. To be amongst audiences who love and guard this powerful expression, are champions for experiences which are transforming and transcendent. To Nashen [Moodley, SFF's Festival Director] and the Sydney Film Festival team, thank you for inviting us to be part of what has been an enormously successful festival," said the jury in a statement. "We want to acknowledge the powerful and assured first-time films within competition. There were many and we were astonished by their confidence, authenticity and swagger. This new wave of international filmmakers are pushing the boundaries and connecting to cinema in original ways. It is their perspective which moved us and opened our hearts to stories which felt deeply personal and true. There was a push towards testing the form, taking real risk to find new ways to challenge cinema," the jury continued. "In these times of great conflict and uncertainty, it is more important than ever that filmmakers are given the freedom to express what they see around them. The films we watched led with empathy, compassion and kindness. The directors trusted that their stories would make us feel first, connect to a personal point of view, they were political but human first." "The winner of the Sydney Film Festival for 2025 embodied all these qualities, a courageous film with a deep soul and a powerful sense of forgiveness. It has outstanding performances and an understated authority which is brimming with truth." The 2025 recipients of SFF's full suite of annual prizes was also revealed at closing night, including for documentaries and shorts. Songs Inside nabbed the Documentary Australia Award, with Aussie filmmaker Shalom Almond (Prisoners and Pups) emerging victorious — and with a $20,000 cash prize — for exploring the impact of a music program on women prisoners. Fellow homegrown doco Floodland, which shines a spotlight on Lismore, scored Jordan Giusti the $40,000 Sustainable Future Award. Canadian filmmaker Lisa Jackson (Indictment: The Crimes of Shelly Chartier) received the $35,000 First Nations Award for Wilfred Buck, about its namesake Cree educator in Northern Manitoba, while Big Bang Sound Design's Wayne Pashley and Libby Villa collected the $10,000 Sydney-UNESCO City of Film Award. In the Dendy Short Film Awards, this year's applauded titles include Faceless for Best Live Action Short Award, and also Best Practitioner for its music and sound designer Josh Peters; Yoram Gross Animation Award-winner The Fling; and Mates, which saw Rory Pearson named as Best Director and share the Rising Talent Award for Screenwriting with co-scribe Marcus Aldred-Traynor. [caption id="attachment_1009303" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Belinda Rolland © 2024[/caption] Sydney Film Festival 2025 ran from Wednesday, June 4–Sunday, June 15 at various cinemas and venues around Sydney. The fest is screening four days of encores via Sydney Film Festival's 2025 Back By Popular Demand bonus screenings at Dendy Newtown, Palace Cinemas Norton Street and Ritz Cinemas Randwick between Tuesday, June 17–Friday, June 20. For more information and tickets, head to the festival's website. Jafar Panahi images: Tim Levy.
When the full Sydney Film Festival program for 2025 is unveiled in early May, approximately a couple of hundred movies will sit on the lineup. The 18 revealed so far give cinema obsessives a great taste of what's to come, however, if you're already keen to add flicks to your must-see list. A month before the complete roster of titles arrives, the fest always provides a sneak peek to whet appetites. In this year's batch: Barry Keoghan's new Irish thriller, the Australian premiere of a homegrown animation that had this year's Berlin International Film Festival talking, a documentary about John Lennon and Yoko Ono, another about Marlon Williams, a Tilda Swinton- and Michael Shannon-starring post-apocalyptic musical, intimacy coordinators getting the doco treatment and more. SFF has revealed 16 movies that'll be screening around the Harbour City between Wednesday, June 4–Sunday, June 15, joining two previously announced when Vivid Sydney dropped its 2025 program. Thanks to the latter, movie lovers should already know that the Justin Kurzel (Nitram)-directed documentary Ellis Park is on the bill, complete with an evening celebrating its subject — and Aussie music icon, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds collaborator, Dirty Three founder and frequent film-score composer — Warren Ellis. And, the fact that speculative fiction experience Planet City: Live will be part of the film-worshipping fun shouldn't be new news, either. Now comes a range of pictures that long-term Festival Director Nashen Moodley describes as "a cross-section of the bold storytelling and distinctive voices" that SFF will champion in 2025 for the event's 72nd year. "From inventive new Australian work to major prize-winners from the international circuit, these films reflect the ingenuity and diversity of cinema today," he continued. Boasting both Keoghan (Bird) and Christopher Abbott (Wolf Man) in its cast, and focusing on rivalries in rural Ireland, Bring Them Down is one of the starrier inclusions among SFF's features. With Swinton (The Room Next Door), Shannon (The Bikeriders), George MacKay (The Beast) and Moses Ingram (Lady in the Lake), The End from The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence's Joshua Oppenheimer is another. One to One: John & Yoko adds Lennon and Ono to the bill, with filmmaker Kevin Macdonald directing his attention towards the pair's 1972 benefit concert in Madison Square Garden, and the director also returning to music after 2018's Whitney and 2012's Marley. As for Williams, Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao e Rua — Two Worlds hones in on the recording of his first album in te reo Māori. The winner of 2025's Teddy Award in Berlin, Australian animation Lesbian Space Princess joins the local contingent, bringing its tale of a monarch-to-be's efforts to save her ex-girlfriend from incel aliens to Sydney. Buddy comedy Fwends is also on the list, and marks Sophie Somerville's first feature after picking up two accolades at SFF's Dendy Awards for short films in the past four years. Then there's documentary Make It Look Real, turning the lens on intimacy coordinator Claire Warden as she works on Aussie movie Tightrope. SFF's doco contingent is already huge, aided by the one-film movie marathon that is 14-hour picture Exergue — on documenta 14, which is set inside the 2017 edition of the documenta art exhibition in Germany and Greece. Audiences will watch it in four- to five-hour segments. Still on the factual side of the program, there's also Speak, about five American high schoolers getting ready for a public-speaking competition; Farming the Revolution's account of 12 million Indian farmers protesting over 13 months; and Sundance's World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize-winner Mr Nobody Against Putin, where a Russian teacher chronicles the propaganda in his school during his country's invasion of Ukraine. Also playing SFF after picking up a gong at Sundance: DJ Ahmet, which collected the World Cinema — Dramatic Audience Award for its story about a teenage North Macedonian villager. Obex didn't add anything to its trophy cabinet at the Park City festival, but it did premiere its jump back the 80s — and into a video game, where a man is trying to find his dog — there. Rounding out Sydney Film Festival's picks so far are Singaporean thriller Stranger Eyes, 2025 Berlinale Grand Jury Prize-winner The Blue Trail and the Cannes-selected On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, so movies about a mourning couple searching for their baby, a trek through the Amazon and a Zambian family, respectively. For the rest of the 2025 lineup, start counting down the days until Wednesday, May 7. Sydney Film Festival 2025 runs from Wednesday, June 4–Sunday, June 15 at cinemas across Sydney. Head to the festival website for further information and tickets — and check back here for the full lineup on Wednesday, May 7, 2025.
Guillermo del Toro will be the first to tell anyone, as he did at Neflix's annual Tudum event for 2025, that he's long had an obsession with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, that he's been weaving that affection for it into his work since he first hopped behind the camera and that making his own adaptation of the gothic-horror masterpiece is a dream come true. "This is, for me, the culmination of a journey that has occupied most of my life," the Oscar-winning The Shape of Water filmmaker told the crowd on Sunday, June 1, 2025 Down Under. "I first read Mary Shelley's book as a kid, and saw Boris Karloff in what became, for me, an almost-religious stage," he continued while onstage, accompanied by Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight) and Mia Goth (MaXXXine). "Monsters have become my personal belief system. There are strands of Frankenstein throughout my films — Cronos, Blade, Hellboy, big time on Pinocchio, and a long, long [list], et cetera." It's alive, then: del Toro's version of Frankenstein, that is. Audiences will be able to watch the Netflix film from sometime in November 2025, with an exact release date not yet confirmed. Zapped into existence already, however, is the first teaser trailer for the movie, which demonstrates how much its writer/director adores Shelley's now 207-year-old text, all of the love and care that he has taken with bringing it to life, and how well he has cast its characters. Isaac portrays the feature's namesake, aka Victor Frankenstein, the scientist driven by tragedy to attempt to conquer the line between life and what exists beyond it. As the trailer notes, "only monsters play god". As Victor advises himself, "in seeking life, I created death". Also uttered in the movie's first sneak peek, reinforcing its theme: "what manner of creature is that? What manner of devil made him?". Goth is Elizabeth, Victor's fiancée. From there, Christoph Waltz (Old Guy), Ralph Ineson (Nosferatu), Charles Dance (The Day of the Jackal), Lars Mikkelsen (Dalloway) and del Toro regular Burn Gorman (Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak, Pinocchio) are also part of the cast. One of the film's biggest names belongs to the actor portraying Victor's creation, however, with Jacob Elordi taking on the role after already adding The Narrow Road to the Deep North to his resume this year. Frankenstein will never stop entrancing filmmakers, as it has James Whale back in 1931 when Karloff played the monster, Mel Brooks (Dracula: Dead and Loving It) with 1974 comedy Young Frankenstein, Kenneth Branagh (A Haunting in Venice) on his 1994 take, Danny Boyle (Yesterday) with his stage adaptation, Tim Burton (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) via Frankenweenie and Yorgis Lanthimos (Kinds of Kindness) in Poor Things, plus Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter) with 2026's The Bride!, just to name a few examples. But, based on the first trailer, seeing del Toro take on Shelley's work looks set to dazzle. Check out the initial teaser trailer for Frankenstein below: Frankenstein will release via Netflix sometime in November 2025 — we'll update you when an exact date is announced. Images: Netflix.
Before the pandemic, when a new-release movie started playing in cinemas, audiences couldn't watch it on streaming, video on demand, DVD or blu-ray for a few months. But with the past few years forcing film industry to make quite a few changes — widespread movie theatre closures and plenty of people staying home in iso will do that — that's no longer always the case. Maybe you've been under the weather. Perhaps you haven't had time to make it to your local cinema lately. Given the hefty amount of films now releasing each week, maybe you simply missed something. Film distributors have been fast-tracking some of their new releases from cinemas to streaming recently — movies that might still be playing in theatres in some parts of the country, too. In preparation for your next couch session, here are 13 that you can watch right now at home. CRIMES OF THE FUTURE It takes a brave filmmaker to see cancer and climate change, and think of art, evolution and eroticism in a possible future. It takes a bold director to have a character proclaim that "surgery is the new sex", too. David Cronenberg has always been that kind of visionary, even before doing all of the above in his sublime latest release — and having the Scanners, Videodrome and The Fly helmer back on his body-horror bent for the first time in more than two decades is exactly the wild and weird dream that cinephiles want it to be. The Canadian auteur makes his first movie at all since 2014's Maps to the Stars, in fact, and this tale of pleasure and pain is as Cronenbergian as anything can be. He borrows Crimes of the Future's title from his second-ever feature dating back 50-plus years, brings all of his corporeal fascinations to the fore, and moulds a viscerally and cerebrally mesmerising film that it feels like he's always been working towards. Long live the new flesh, again. Long live the old Cronenberg as well. In this portrait of a potential time to come, the human body has undergone two significant changes. Three, perhaps, as glimpsed in a disquieting opening where an eight-year-old called Brecken (debutant Sotiris Siozos) snacks on a plastic bin, and is then murdered by his mother Djuna (Lihi Kornowski, Ballistic). That incident isn't unimportant, but Crimes of the Future has other departures from today's status quo to carve into — and they're equally absorbing. Physical agony has disappeared, creating a trade in "desktop surgery" as performance art. Also, a condition dubbed Accelerated Evolution Syndrome causes some folks, such as artist Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen, Thirteen Lives), to grow abnormal organs. These tumours are removed and tattooed in avant-garde shows by his doctor/lover Caprice (Léa Seydoux, No Time to Die), then catalogued by the National Organ Register's Wippit (Don McKellar, reteaming with Cronenberg after eXistenZ) and Timlin (Kristen Stewart, Spencer). Crimes of the Future is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. NOPE Kudos to Jordan Peele for giving his third feature as a writer/director a haters-gonna-hate-hate-hate name: for anyone unimpressed with Nope, the response is right there. Kudos, too, to the Get Out and Us filmmaker for making his third bold, intelligent and supremely entertaining horror movie in a row — a reach-for-the-skies masterpiece that's ambitious and eerie, imaginative and expertly crafted, as savvy about cinema as it is about spectacle, and inspires the exact opposite term to its moniker. Reteaming with Peele after nabbing an Oscar nomination for Get Out, Daniel Kaluuya utters the titular word more than once in Nope. Exclaiming "yep" in your head each time he does is an instant reaction. Everything about the film evokes that same thrilled endorsement, but it comes particularly easily whenever Kaluuya's character surveys the wild and weird events around him. We say yay to his nays because we know we'd respond the same way if confronted by even half the chaos that Peele whooshes through the movie. As played with near-silent weariness by the always-excellent Judas and the Black Messiah Oscar-winner, Haywood's Hollywood Horses trainer OJ doesn't just dismiss the strange thing in the heavens, though. He can't, even if he doesn't realise the full extent of what's happening when his father (Keith David, Love Life) suddenly slumps on his steed on an otherwise ordinary day. Six months later, OJ and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer, Lightyear) are trying to keep the family business, which dates back to the 1800s, running. The presence lurking above the Haywoods' Agua Dulce property soon requires just as much attention, though. Just as Get Out saw Peele reinterrogate the possession movie and Us did the same with doppelgängers, Nope goes all in on flying saucers. So, Emerald wants the kind of proof that only video footage can offer. She wants her "Oprah shot", as well as a hefty payday. Soon, the brother-sister duo are buying new surveillance equipment — which piques the interest of UFO-obsessed electronics salesman Angel Torres (Brandon Perea, The OA) — and also enlisting renowned cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott, Veni Vidi Vici) to capture the lucrative image. Nope is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. THE BLACK PHONE The Black Phone didn't need to star Ethan Hawke. In a way, it doesn't really. Fresh from Moon Knight and The Northman, Hawke is definitely in this unsettling 1978-set horror film. He's also exceptional in it. But, his top billing springs from his name recognition and acting-veteran status rather than his screen time. Instead, superb up-and-comer Mason Thames gets the bulk of the camera's attention in his first feature role. After him, equally outstanding young talent Madeleine McGraw (Ant-Man and The Wasp) comes next. They spend most of their time worrying about, hearing rumours of, hiding from, battling and/or trying to track down a mask-wearing, van-driving, child-snatching villain — the role that Hawke plays in a firmly supporting part, almost always beneath an eerie disguise. Visibly at least, anyone could've donned the same apparel and proven an on-screen source of menace. There's a difference between popping something creepy over your face and actually being creepy, though. Scary masks can do a lot of heavy lifting, but they're also just a made-to-frighten facade. Accordingly, when it comes to being truly petrifying, Hawke undoubtedly makes The Black Phone. He doesn't literally; his Sinister director Scott Derrickson helms, and also co-wrote the script with that fellow horror flick's C Robert Cargill, adapting a short story by Stephen King's son Joe Hill — and the five-decades-back look and feel, complete with amber and grey hues, plus a nerve-rattling score, are all suitably disquieting stylistic touches. But as the movie's nefarious attacker, who has been terrorising north Denver's suburban streets and soon has 13-year-old Finney Blake (Thames) in his sights, Hawke is unnervingly excellent, and also almost preternaturally unnerving in every moment. Whenever he opens his mouth, his voice couldn't echo from anyone else; however, it's the nervy, ominous and bone-weary physicality that he brings to the character that couldn't be more pitch-perfect. The Black Phone is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. OFFICIAL COMPETITION Every actor has one, albeit in various shades, lengths and textures, but sometimes one single hairstyle says everything about a film. Wildly careening in whichever direction it seems to feel like at any point, yet also strikingly sculptural, the towering reddish stack of curly locks atop Penélope Cruz's head in Official Competition is one such statement-making coiffure. It's a stunning sight, with full credit to the movie's hairstylists. These tremendous tresses are both unruly and immaculate; they draw the eye in immediately, demanding the utmost attention. And, yes, Cruz's crowning glory shares those traits with this delightful Spanish Argentine farce about filmmaking — a picture directed and co-written by Mariano Cohn and Gastуn Duprat (The Distinguished Citizen), and also starring Antonio Banderas (Uncharted) and Oscar Martínez (Wild Tales), that it's simply impossible to look away from. Phenomenal hair is just the beginning for Cruz here. Playing filmmaker Lola Cuevas — a Palme d'Or-winning arthouse darling helming an ego-stroking prestige picture for rich octogenarian businessman Humberto Suárez (José Luis Gómez, Truman) — she's downright exceptional as well. Humberto decides to throw some cash into making a movie in the hope of leaving a legacy that lasts, and enlisting Lola to work her magic with a Nobel Prize-winning novel called Rivalry is quite the coup. So is securing the talents of flashy global star Félix Rivero (Banderas) and serious theatre actor Iván Torres (Martínez), a chalk-and-cheese pair who'll work together for the first time, stepping into the shoes of feuding brothers. But before the feature can cement its backer's name in history, its three key creatives have to survive an exacting rehearsal process. Lola believes in rigorous preparation, and in testing and stretching her leading men, with each technique she springs on them more outlandish and stressful than the last. Official Competition is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING No one should need to cleanse their palates between Mad Max movies — well, maybe after Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, depending on your mileage with it — but if anyone does, George Miller shouldn't be one of them. The Australian auteur gifted the world the hit dystopian franchise, has helmed and penned each and every chapter, and made Mad Max: Fury Road an astonishing piece of cinema that's one of the very best in every filmic category that applies. Still, between that kinetic, frenetic, rightly Oscar-winning movie and upcoming prequel Furiosa, Miller has opted to swish around romantic fantasy Three Thousand Years of Longing. He does love heightened drama and also myths, including in the series he's synonymous with. He adores chronicling yearnings and hearts' desires, too, whether surveying vengeance and survival, the motivations behind farm animals gone a-wandering in Babe: Pig in the City, the dreams of dancing penguins in Happy Feet, or love, happiness and connection here. In other words, although adapted from AS Byatt's short story The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, Three Thousand Years of Longing is unshakeably and inescapably a Miller movie — and it's as alive with his flair for the fantastical as most of his resume. It's a wonder for a range of reasons, one of which is simple: the last time that the writer/director made a movie that didn't connect to the Mad Max, Babe or Happy Feet franchises was three decades back. With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that this tale about a narratologist (Tilda Swinton, Memoria) and the Djinn (Idris Elba, Beast) she uncorks from a bottle, and the chats they have about their histories as the latter tries to ensure the former makes her three wishes to truly set him free, is told with playfulness, inventiveness, flamboyance and a deep heart. Much of Miller's filmography is, but there's a sense with Three Thousand Years of Longing that he's been released, too — even if he loves his usual confines, as audiences do as well. Three Thousand Years of Longing is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. BULLET TRAIN Buy the ticket, take the ride, strap in for an onslaught of frenetic locomotive-bound fights: that's high-octane action-comedy Bullet Train on- and off-screen. Set on a shinkansen hurtling from Tokyo to Kyoto, in as stylised a vision of Japan that anyone not named Quentin Tarantino has ever thought of, this neon-lit adaptation of Kōtarō Isaka's 2010 page-turner Maria Beetle couldn't be more onboard with its central concept. That premise isn't snakes on a plane, but rather assassins on a train — plus one snake, one of nature's hitmen, actually. Cramming all those killers onto a single engine sparks mayhem, banter and bodies, not to mention chaotic frays in the quiet car and almost every other space. And when it works, with John Wick and Atomic Blonde's David Leitch steering the show, Tarantino and Guy Ritchie alum Brad Pitt as his main passenger, and a lifetime's worth of references to Thomas the Tank Engine slotted in, Bullet Train is as OTT and entertaining as it overtly wants to be. It doesn't always completely work, however; every journey, zipping along on a high-speed train or not, has its dips. Still, there are plenty of moving parts trying to keep the movie in motion — and plenty of plot, for better and for worse in both instances. In his second 2022 action-comedy after The Lost City, Pitt plays Ladybug, who is back riding the hired-gun rails after a zen break packed with new-age self-help platitudes. That's what he spouts to his handler (Sandra Bullock, The Unforgivable) by phone, in-between rueing his bad luck, as he tries to carry out what's supposed to be an easy job. All that Ladybug needs to do is take a briefcase, then disembark at the next station. But that piece of luggage is being transported by British assassin double-act Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, The King's Man) and Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry, Atlanta), as they escort a Russian mobster's son (Logan Lerman, Hunters) home. To up the hitman ante, the shinkansen is also carrying The Prince (Joey King, The Princess) and Kimura (Andrew Koji, Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins), who have their own beef, as well as the revenge-seeking Wolf (Benito A Martínez Ocasio aka Bad Bunny, Fast and Furious 9). Bullet Train is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. BEAST Idris Elba fights a lion. That's it, that's Beast, as far as film pitches go at least. This South Africa-set thriller's one-sentence summary is up there with 'Jason Statham battles a giant shark' and 'Liam Neeson stares down wolves' — straightforward and irresistible, obviously, in enticing audiences into cinemas. That said, the latest addition to the animals-attack genre isn't as ridiculous as The Meg, and isn't a resonant existential musing like The Grey. What this creature feature wants to be, and is, is a lean, edge-of-your-seat, humanity-versus-nature nerve-shredder. Director Baltasar Kormákur (Adrift) knows that a famous face, a relentless critter as a foe, and life-or-death terror aplenty can be the stuff that cinema dreams and hits are made of. His movie isn't completely the former, but it does do exactly what it promises. If it proves a box office success, it'll be because it dangles an easy drawcard and delivers it. There is slightly more to Beast than Idris Elba brawling with the king of the jungle, of course — or running from it, trying to hide from it in a jeep, attempting to outsmart it and praying it'll tire of seeing him as prey. But this tussle with an apex predator is firmly at its best when it really is that simple, that primal and, with no qualms about gore and jump scares, that visceral. Elba (The Harder They Fall) plays recently widowed American doctor Nate Samuels, who is meant to be relaxing, reconnecting with his teenage daughters Mare (Iyana Halley, Licorice Pizza) and Norah (Leah Jeffries, Rel), and finding solace in a pilgrimage to his wife's homeland. But Beast wouldn't be called Beast if the Samuels crew's time with old family friend Martin (Sharlto Copley, Russian Doll), a wildlife biologist who oversees the nature reserve, was all placid safaris and sunsets. Beast is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER What do you call a movie filled with giant screaming goats, magic weapons vying for attention like romantic rivals, a naked Chris Hemsworth and a phenomenally creepy Christian Bale? Oh, and with no fewer than four Guns N' Roses needle drops, 80s nostalgia in droves, and a case of tonal whiplash as big as the God of Thunder's biceps? You call it Thor: Love and Thunder, and also a mixed bag. The fourth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to focus on the now 29-title saga's favourite space Viking, and the second Thor flick directed by Taika Waititi after Thor: Ragnarok, it welcomely boasts the New Zealand filmmaker's playful and irreverent sense of humour — and the dead-serious days of the series-within-a-series' first two outings, 2011's Thor and 2013's Thor: The Dark World, have definitely been banished. But Love and Thunder is equally mischievous and jumbled. It's chaotic in both fun and messy ways. Out in the cosmos, no one can swim, but movies about galaxy-saving superheroes can tread water. Thor Odinson (Hemsworth, Spiderhead) has been doing a bit of that himself — not literally, but emotionally and professionally. Narrated in a storybook fashion by rock alien Korg (also Waititi, Lightyear), Love and Thunder first fills in the gaps since the last time the Asgardian deity graced screens in Avengers: Endgame. Ditching his dad bod for his ultra-buff god bod earns a mention. So does biding his time with the Guardians of the Galaxy crew (with Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper and company popping up briefly). Then, a distress call from an old friend gives Thor a new purpose. Fellow warrior Sif (Jaimie Alexander, Last Seen Alive) has been fighting galactic killer Gorr the God Butcher (Bale, Ford v Ferrari), who's on a mission to do exactly what his name promises due to a crisis of faith — which puts not only Thor himself but also New Asgard, the Norwegian village populated by survivors from his home planet, at grave risk. It also puts Thor on a collision course with his ex-flame Dr Jane Foster (Natalie Portman, Vox Lux), who's changed dramatically since last they crossed paths. Thor: Love and Thunder is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. ORPHAN: FIRST KILL What's more believable — and plot twists follow: a pre-teen playing a 33-year-old woman pretending to be a nine-year-old orphan, with a hormone disorder explaining the character's eerily youthful appearance; or an adult playing a 31-year-old woman pretending to be a lost child returned at age nine, again with that medical condition making everyone else oblivious? For viewers of 2009's Orphan and its 13-years-later follow-up Orphan: First Kill, which is a prequel, neither are particularly credible to witness. But the first film delivered its age trickery as an off-kilter final-act reveal, as paired with a phenomenal performance by then 12-year-old Isabelle Fuhrman in the pivotal role. Audiences bought the big shift — or remembered it, at least — because Fuhrman was so creepy and so committed to the bit, and because it suited the OTT horror-thriller. This time, that wild revelation is old news, but that doesn't stop Orphan: First Kill from leaning on the same two key pillars: an out-there turn of events and fervent portrayals. Yes, a big twist is again one of the movie's best elements. Fuhrman (The Novice) returns as Esther, the Estonian adult who posed as a parentless Russian girl in the initial feature. In Orphan: First Kill, she's introduced as Leena Klammer, the most dangerous resident at the Saarne Institute mental hospital. The prequel's first sighted kill comes early, as a means of escape. The second follows swiftly, because the film needs to get its central figure to the US. Fans of the previous picture will recall that Esther already had a troubled history when she was adopted and started wreaking the movie's main havoc, involving the family that brought her to America — and her time with that brood, aka wealthy Connecticut-based artist Allen Albright (Rossif Sutherland, Possessor), his gala-hosting wife Tricia (Julia Stiles, Hustlers) and their teen son Gunnar (Matthew Finlan, My Fake Boyfriend), is filmmaker William Brent Bell (The Boy and Brahms: The Boy II) and screenwriter David Coggeshall's (Scream: The TV Series) new focus. Orphan: First Kill is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. THE FORGIVEN Patience is somewhat of a virtue with The Forgiven. It would be in it, too, if any of its wealthy white characters hedonistically holidaying in Morocco were willing to display the trait for even a second. Another addition to the getaways-gone-wrong genre, this thorny satirical drama gleefully savages the well-to-do, proving as eager to eat the rich as can be, and also lays bare the despicable coveting of exoticism that the moneyed think is an acceptable way to splash plentiful wads of cash. There's patently plenty going on in this latest release from writer/director John Michael McDonagh, as there typically is in features by the filmmaker behind The Guard, Calvary and War on Everyone. Here, he adapts Lawrence Osborne's 2012 novel, but the movie that results takes time to build and cohere, and even then seems only partially interested in both. Still, that patience is rewarded by The Forgiven's stellar lead performance by Ralph Fiennes, playing one of his most entitled and repugnant characters yet. Sympathies aren't meant to flow David Henninger's (Fiennes, The King's Man) way, or towards his wife Jo (Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye). Together, the spiky Londoners abroad bicker like it's a sport — and the only thing fuelling their marriage. Cruelty taints their words: "why am I thinking harpy?", "why am I thinking shrill?" are among his, while she counters "why am I thinking high-functioning alcoholic?". He's a drunken surgeon, she's a bored children's author, and they're venturing past the Atlas Mountains to frolic in debauchery at the village their decadent pal Richard (Matt Smith, Morbius) and his own barbed American spouse Dally (Caleb Landry Jones, Nitram) have turned into a holiday home. Sympathy isn't designed to head that pair's way, either; "we couldn't have done it without our little Moroccan friends," Richard announces to kick off their weekend-long housewarming party. But when the Hennigers arrive late after tragically hitting a local boy, Driss (Omar Ghazaoui, American Odyssey), en route, the mood shifts — but also doesn't. The Forgiven is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING Timing is everything in Where the Crawdads Sing, the murder-mystery melodrama set in America's Deep South that raced up bestseller lists in 2018, and now reaches cinemas a mere four years later. Its entire narrative hinges upon a simple question: did North Carolina outcast and recluse Kya Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones, Fresh), cruelly nicknamed "the marsh girl" by locals, have time to speed home from an out-of-town stay to push star quarterback Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson, The King's Man) from a fire tower, then resume her trip without anyone noticing? On the page, that query helped propel Delia Owens' literary sensation to success, to Reese Witherspoon's book club — she's a producer here — and to a swift film adaptation. But no timing would likely have ever been right for the movie's release, given that Owens and her husband are wanted for questioning in a real-life murder case in Zambia. Unlike the film, those off-screen details aren't new, but they were always bound to attract attention again as soon as this feature arrived. One of the reasons they're inescapable: the purposeful parallels between Owens' debut novel and her existence. Like Kya, Owens is a naturalist. The also southern-born author spent years preferring the company of plants and animals, crusading for conservation causes in Africa. Where the Crawdads Sing is timed to coincide with Owens' own life as well; it's set in the 50s and 60s and, as a child (played by Jojo Regina, The Chosen) and a teenager, Kya is around the same age that Owens would've been then. Another reason that the ways that art might link with reality can't be shaken, lingering like a sultry, squelchy day: what ends up on-screen is as poised, pristine and polished as a swampy southern gothic tale can be, and anyone in one. There's still a scandal, but forget dirt, sweat and anything but lush, vivid wilderness courtesy of filmmaker Olivia Newman (First Match), plus a rustic hut that wouldn't look out of place on Airbnb. Where the Crawdads Sing is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. MURDER PARTY If Amelie and Knives Out combined, the end result would look like Murder Party. If Wes Anderson and Agatha Christie joined forces, the outcome would be the same. It's highly unlikely that first-time feature writer/director Nicolas Pleskof and his co-scribe Elsa Marpeau (Prof T) were ever going to call this feature Murder in the Game-Filled Mansion or Death While Rolling the Dice, but that's the overwhelming vibe. There's an escape room element, too — thankfully, though, nodding towards the Escape Room franchise isn't on the agenda. Murder Party's characters get stuck in intricately designed locked spaces and forced to piece together clues to secure their freedom, and are only permitted to remain breathing by keeping their wits about them, but no one's in a horror movie here. The feature starts with a killer setup: an eccentric crew of relatives, their brightly hued home on a sprawling country estate, an usual task given to a newcomer and, naturally, a sudden passing. Architect Jeanne Chardon-Spitzer (Alice Pol, Labor Day) is asked to pitch a big renovation project to the Daguerre family, transforming their impressive abode so that living there always feels like playing a game (or several). Patriarch César (Eddy Mitchell, The Middleman) already encourages his brood to enjoy their daily existence with that in mind anyway, including dedicating entire days to letting loose and walking, talking and breathing gameplay. But he's looking for a particularly bold next step. He's unimpressed by Jeanne's routine proposal, in fact. Then he drops dead, the property's doors slam shut and a voice over the intercom tells the architect, plus everyone else onsite, to undertake a series of challenges to ascertain the culprit among them — or be murdered themselves. Murder Party is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. Read our full review. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN If The Phantom of the Open was part of a game of golf, rather than a movie about the club-flinging, ball-hitting, bunker-avoiding sport, it wouldn't be a hole in one. It couldn't be; perfection doesn't suit the story that director Craig Roberts (Eternal Beauty) and screenwriter Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2) are telling, which is as real and as shaggy — as so-strange-it-can-only-be-true, too — as they can possibly come. That other key factor in spiriting dimpled orbs from the tee to the cup in a single stroke, aka luck, is definitely pertinent to this feel-good, crowd-pleasing, happily whimsical British comedy, however. Plenty of it helped Maurice Flitcroft, the man at its centre, as he managed to enter the 1976 British Open despite never having set foot on a course or played a full round of golf before. It isn't quite good fortune that makes this high-spirited movie about him work, of course, but it always feels like a feature that might've ended up in the cinematic long grass if it wasn't so warmly pieced together. When Maurice (Mark Rylance, Don't Look Up) debuts on the green at the high-profile Open Championship, it doesn't take long for gap between his skills and the professionals he's playing with to stand out. In the words of The Dude from The Big Lebowski, obviously he's not a golfer — although what makes a golfer, and whether any sport should be the domain of well-to-do gatekeepers who reserve large swathes of land for the use of the privileged few, falls into The Phantom of the Open's view. So does a breezily formulaic yet drawn-from-fact account of a man who was born in Manchester, later settled in the port town of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria and spent much of his life as a shipyard crane operator, providing for his wife Jean (Sally Hawkins, Spencer), her son Michael (Jake Davies, Artemis Fowl), and the pair's twins Gene (Christian Lees, Pistol) and James (Jonah Lees, The Letter for the King). Maurice had never chased his own dreams, until he decided to give golfing glory a swing. The Phantom of the Open is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Looking for more at-home viewing options? Take a look at our monthly streaming recommendations across new straight-to-digital films and TV shows — and our best new TV shows, returning TV shows and straight-to-streaming movies from the first half of 2022. Or, check out the movies that were fast-tracked to digital in January, February, March, April, May, June, July and August.
You can't spell Darlinghurst without 'darling', which is a good indication of why this eclectic suburb is so beloved by Sydneysiders. Darlo's strength lies in its diverse history. From the important LGBTQI+ history steeped in every sidewalk, street corner and park, to the plethora of impressive cafes, bars and eateries that show off the diversity of the area, Darlinghurst has a lot to offer. There's a wealth of shops to browse, small bars to explore, and restaurants to enjoy; so many, that it's easy to become overwhelmed with choice. Narrowing down how to spend a day walking around this gorgeous beloved 'burb is tough, but don't worry, we've got you covered with this list of ten must-visit spots. And, to add a few more to your list, check out our video above for Marc Kuzma's — owner of Claire's Kitchen at Le Salon — favourite spots in Darlinghurst.
How often do you get to dress up all fancy, choose a unique tea from an overwhelmingly extravagant selection and eat delightfully tiny cakes and sandwiches? It's a beautiful thing. Every weekend in September and the first weekend in October, Colonial High Tea will be served in three historic Sydney venues: Elizabeth Bay House, The Governor's Table at the Museum of Sydney and Vaucluse House. For $49 per person you get a selection of cakes and sandwiches, endless amounts of tea (or coffee if you are so inclined) and a glass of Australian sparkling wine. The menu is designed in the style of the colonial era. Food offerings include cauliflower and truffle tart with samphire and parmesan crisp and smoked salmon on brioche with lemon creme and caviar. And the cakes, oh the cakes: chocolate and earl grey macarons, brioche doughnuts with lemon and lavender sugar, scones. The Colonial High Tea series is on from September 6 to October 5. Bookings can be made through
Pastry fans of Sydney, it's time to get excited — because Lune Croissanterie is launching its first-ever Sydney shopfront in Darlinghurst in 2023. Australian developer TOGA Group who is overlooking the transformation of 60, 90 and 120 Oxford Street has confirmed the first two tenants for the expansive project will be Lune Sydney and local customer service research start-up Dovetail. The croissanterie's inaugural Sydney outpost will occupy a 300-square-metre section of 60 Oxford Street on the building's lower ground floor with a restored heritage facade. The expansive new venue is also set to boast al fresco seating, with TOGA confirming the space will spill out onto neighbouring backstreets Foley and Burton Street. "We could not be more thrilled to have secured this marquee space in the beautiful Oxford and Foley development," Director and Founder of Lune, Kate Reid said. "One of the most iconic hospitality precincts in Sydney, the prospect of Lune being in the neighbourhood of many heavyweight Sydney greats in Darlinghurst and Surry Hills is incredibly exciting for us, and we only hope to add to this with our specific brand of buttery deliciousness. We can't wait to show the world what we have in store for Lune Sydney!" Reid continued. Lune's first-ever New South Wales store will become the chain's Sydney flagship — obviously with a menu of Lune Croissanterie favourites. If it's like the brand's other locations, coffee will be on offer as well, and Sydneysiders can look forward to a range of specials that'll rotate monthly. If this all sounds familiar, that's because Reid confirmed that the Lune crew was looking for a space to expand their empire to in Sydney back in early 2020. Lune also hinted that this announcement may be around the corner earlier this year, posting a job listing for a front-of-house manager back in May. It's been a big decade for the brand, after starting a tiny store in the Melbourne suburb of Elwood in 2012. Since then, Lune has grown into a converted warehouse space in Fitzroy (with perpetual lines out the front), opened a second store in the CBD and then launched in Brisbane in 2021. And, amid all that, it was even dubbed "the finest you will find anywhere in the world" by The New York Times. TOGA's multimillion-dollar revamp of Oxford Street has been in the works since 2021, with the developer undertaking three key Oxford Street buildings with refurbishment, restoration and renovation. Dubbed Oxford & Foley, the three buildings will play home to commercial, retail and boutique hotel spaces — with TOGA hoping to inject more art, culture and hospitality into the iconic Sydney street following a slew of tough lockout law- and pandemic-impacted years. Lune Croissanterie's flagship Sydney store will open at 60 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst in the Oxford & Foley development in 2023. Images: Marcie Raw.
Some of us like a low-fuss V-day, while others prefer getting the evening's love-in started early. Either way, squeezing in a trip down Enmore Road this weekend offers the best of both worlds at a single destination. That's because Marrickville florist and design-led home goods store Date Night Studio is popping up at Bar Planet to host a one-off flower bar. Running from 3–5pm (on until sold out) on Saturday, February 14, you're invited to sip back one of Bar Planet's famed martinis while browsing a tightly curated selection of stems and bouquets assembled by Date Night Studio's creative bunch. With no pre-orders required and sold on a first-come, first-served basis, you can choose from single rose stems, anthuriums and grab-and-go bouquets. Luckily, the offering of flowers usually hits the mark, whether you're talking about a long-term partner or knotty situationship that only adds to the complexities of gift-buying. Of course, there's every reason to perch for a while with a martini or cocktail in hand. Home to a carefully curated drinks menu, Bar Planet is serving a limited-time special for the occasion: a Valentine's spin on its scorpino, featuring tarragon gin, strawberry sorbet and prosecco.
The annual Surry Hills Festival is back on Saturday, September 27, in a celebration of everything there is to love about the inner-city suburb. From the 9am dog show to the after-dark art takeover of a laneway, and with plenty of gourmet picnics hampers and market-stall tastings in between, it's a choose-your-own adventure of artisanal, community-minded promenading. Headlining the music program is Donny Benet, his eccentric tunes harking back to a time of kitschy disco meets funk (his new track with Kirin J. Callinan is everything you'd expect from the duo; an '80s throwback to perfection). Also headlining are Sydney psychedelic rockers, The Laurels, who have recently toured alongside the likes of Tame Impala and The Black Angels. There's also Spookyland — helmed by Marcus Gordan — aptly named thanks to their haunting folk tunes. For dancing after dark, Sydney electronic outfit Canyons will be playing a DJ set, as will Goodgod's rock 'n' roll dancehall favourites, Yo Grito!. Indie-pop band The Lulu Raes, electro-rock two-piece Tales In Space, singer-songwriter Little Fox, and the fantastic genre defying Spirit Valley (think Brian Jonestown Massacre but with chaotic drone) will also be bringing good vibes to the 'hood. For a chance to support local up-and-comers, AIM will be showcasing some of the best musical talent from its tiers. If you still can't think of an excuse to come down, proceeds raised will go towards a fundraiser for the Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre for vital community projects to keep the suburb alive and going. The festival will be spread out over Shannon Reserve, Ward Park and (in the case of the psychedelic Velvet Cave) in a cluster of lanes behind Taylor Square. The Surry Hills Festival will run 10am-11pm. Check out the day's program on the festival website.
That super long weekend felt good. You want another, and suddenly you're aware of how much leave you've managed to accrue. Planning your next break? While we're all about the awesomeness that Sydney has to offer, we have plenty of time for our southern sister too. From iconic rock venues and hidden cocktail gems to a far stretching food culture and enviable variety of record stores, there's always somewhere to be and something to do. Here's just a few of our top picks. 'Feed Me, Seymour.' Sonido! 69 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy (Map) Run by Santiago and Carolina Villamizar, a young Colombian couple, Sonido! is an awesome place to hang out. Naturally, the coffee is amazing and the food is even better. Get an empanada or the ropa vieja arepas and follow it up with a Brazilian cocada, or just sip an Inca Kola while you flick through the retro South American records stacked by the turntable. Swing by Chiquitica too, the new art space at Sonido!, dedicated to artworks that focus on South America. Handsome Steve's House of Refreshment Abbotsford Convent (Map) Steve Miller – Moodist, W.Minc co-founder and Geelong Cats fanatic – is a such a quintessentially Melbourne character, so it seems fitting that he'd set out to revive the quintessentially Melbourne 'wog bar', “where men played cards, smoked, watched TV and drank tiny cups of coffee or VB at quarter to nine in the morning.” The food's simple and tasty, the coffee's good and cheap and there's no bullshit to be had, nor would any be allowed. He'll seem sullen at first, but Steve's a sweetheart – more so if you're a Cats fan too. Head to the Convent then look around for the yellow umbrella. You'll find the place eventually. White Rabbit Record Bar 176 Bellair St, Kensington (Map) Decorated throughout in blue and white, the walls adorned with mirrors and lovely little ceramic rabbits, White Rabbit Record Bar has a vibe of casual elegance. While most of the space is dedicated to records, the main appeal here is in the gorgeous leafy courtyard. Share the antipasto plate with friends while you contemplate the intimidating cocktail list - the Mad Hatter (coriander vodka, wasabi, tomato juice and cucumber) could scare off any hangover. Or contribute to a new one. Yellow Bird Cafe 22 Chapel St, Windsor (Map) Owned by drummer Clint Hyndman, Yellow Bird's a great spot for a simple brunch or an evening beer. Get a spot inside to appreciate the rock 'n' roll blockmounted posters on sale (like Powder Monkeys, The Saints and Radio Birdman, from memory) while enjoying the Death Benedict - poached eggs, bacon and hollandaise on hash browns. Calorie counts are for sooks anyhow. 'One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.' The Tote 67-71 Johnston Street, Collingwood (Map) So legendary is the Tote that when it closed its doors last year due to the pressures of restrictive licensing laws, thousands took to the street to protest. Though it looked unlikely at times, the Tote reopened under new management and continues to provide a home to both new and heritage acts. Step down into the pit before the stage or hang around in the front bar for a pot; just don't select Television's 'Marquee Moon' on the jukebox – the bar staff called a moratorium on it after too many plays. Yah Yahs 99 Smith Street, Fitzroy (Map) Entry to Yah Yahs is usually free, so it's handy if you're after a drink before dinner on one of Smith Street's bazillion restaurants, want to see the band, or just want to rage on after other places have closed. Score a booth seat as soon as one becomes available; they'll be hot property as the drinks continue to sink. Cherry Bar 103 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, Corner of AC/DC Lane (Map) What happens at Cherry Bar stays at Cherry Bar. Located in AC/DC Lane and owned by Bill Walsh of the Cosmic Psychos, Cherry Bar is a good, unpretentious rock bar with plenty of dark corners. See the bands then keep going until sunrise with a roster of local DJs. Don't request any Nickelback or you will be ejected. New Gold Mountain Levels 1 & 2, 21 Liverpool St, Melbourne (Map) If you can find New Gold Mountain it's a reward in itself – if you're beneath the bike on the wall, you're there. The drinks are identified only by number, which can make things tricky (read: fun surprises) after you've had a few of them, and they're talking points in themselves. We only wish we could remember the number of divine cocktail that came in two glasses, designed to be consumed in alternating sips, but by that point an entire algebra problem had been downed. 24 Moons End of AC/DC Lane, Melbourne (Map) Owner Simon Digby decided the two year lease on the club at the end of AC/DC Lane would be enough, hence the name. Nothing of the interior is permanently attached (though we had to be told this – there's nothing slapdash in its appearance), and everything can be easily removed when the time comes. Be sure to get in soon – we forgot to ask how much of the lease had already elasped, and you'll want to try the Charlie Chaplin cocktail at least once before it's gone. 'Right Round, Baby. Right Round.' Northside Records 236 Gertrude St, Fitzroy (Map) It's not all rock 'n' roll, nor should it be. Head to Northside for the best range of jazz, funk, soul, hip hop, dub, disco and boogaloo in the whole city. Make sure you chat to Chris Gill, the enthusiastic and afroed owner, who's also behind Diggin' Melbourne: a Tour Guide for Vinyl Record Lovers, too. His passion is utterly contagious. Pure Pop 221 Barkly Street, St Kilda (Map) An indie music haven in sunny St Kilda, Pure Pop is the best place to spend a summer afternoon. Previously, you could wander through the store and bag some rare vinyl before grabbing a cider out the back for a live gig at the small outdoor stage. These days, the gigs are inside (hopefully temporarily), so y'know, don't make things worse by being a dick while entering and leaving. Say hi to owner Dave Stevens if you see him, too; he's one of nature's gentlemen. Missing Link 405 Bourke Street, Melbourne (Map) One of Melbourne's longest running independent music stores, Missing Link is an institution. Not only can you pore over the rarities or stock up on old punk singles, you can also grab the latest from independent and small scale local labels not available in most bricks and mortar stores. Remember to wear a watch or you could lose days in there, and make sure you pick up the latest issue of Stained Sheets, too. Off the Hip 381 Flinders Lane, Melbourne (Map) Both a store and label, Off the Hip promises the best in Australian garage, power pop and rock 'n' roll. With the label roster ranging from the Pink Fits (RIP) to Johnny Casino and the Secrets, Wrong Turn and The Frowning Clouds, the variety of the store's wares is unquestionable, and so too is the quality. Cherry Bar pic by Carbie Warbie/Yellow Bird and Northside pics from their respective websites.
Regular balloons might be considered a choking hazard, but the ones you'll find floating around at The Galeries next week are anything but — these ones are 100 percent edible and don't taste like rubber at all. Instead, the balloons come in a range of much more appealing fruity flavours like coconut, raspberry, passionfruit and orange. The whimsical desserts have been created by Sydney's legendary pastry artists Black Star exclusively for the retail precinct's SpringVention celebrations, which run from September 7-10. The floating treats will be on offer for free from midday each day, from the ground floor's pop-up Edible Balloon Bar. SpringVention is an initiative that sees CBD shopping precinct ring in the new season with a range of events. Across the four days, there'll be food specials, live music and special installations by acclaimed Sydney artist Dina Broadhurst. While you're there, take it as an opportunity to check out The Grounds of the City. SpringVention runs from Thursday, September 7, until Sunday, September 10, taking over The Galeries, at 500 George Street, Sydney. Get your hands on those free edible balloons from midday each day, at the Edible Balloon Bar on the ground floor.
Remember when your parents threw dinner parties when you were a kid? Your parents had likely planned the menu well in advance, pulled out the good crockery, and cleaned the house in a frenzy. It was gorgeous, of course, but it was also a colossal effort. Thankfully, the popularity of formal dining at home took a nosedive, and now we want the kind of easy and elevated dining experience that Pinterest has championed: relaxed, but still worthy of sharing pictures across the internet. Which brings us a new kind of challenge, when you search 'dinner party ideas' you'll get 275 million results and too many options to choose from. So to help cut through the anxiety you may be feeling about hosting your next dinner party, we've partnered with super premium French vodka Grey Goose to bring you a guide on how to host an elevated evening meal at home that won't cost you your entire pay cheque (or your sanity). Read on for some sensory inspiration. TASTE Arguably the most important part of a dinner party (aside from your guests) is the food and drink, so don't let this part trip you up. Repeat after me: delegation is key. Nobody expects you to do this on your own (and foot the expenses, too), so when people offer to bring something, assign them a dish immediately. Keep it simple with cheese, charcuterie or a salad. For drinks, rest assured that everyone will bring their own beer or wine, so flex your hosting skills by having a pre-dinner cocktail ready for when everyone arrives. So fancy! So adult! The Grey Goose Peach Spritz is an elegant cocktail that's easy to make. Simply build 40ml of Grey Goose Original with 20ml of peach puree, 10ml of lemon juice, 10ml of sugar syrup and 45ml of sparkling rose in a wine glass. Stir and top with a sprig of rosemary. Look at you go! [caption id="attachment_751536" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Creative Commons: Flickr/Eva Coudyser[/caption] SIGHT Your parents were onto something with all those candles they lit at their weekend soirees; lighting really is important. Fairy lights, lamps, tea lights = good ambiance. That dodgy fluro light in the living room = bad vibes. You don't live in a dive bar. Once you've picked out the lights that suit your home, spruce up the rest of the house. Hide any clutter, put something floral on the table, and pull out some old photos. Not only will this serve as decoration, but it'll also work as an ice-breaker for any guests that might not know each other that well. Bonus points if the photos contain questionable haircuts circa 2010. [caption id="attachment_751529" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Creative Commons: Flickr/Marco Verch[/caption] SMELL They say the smell of baking bread is used by real estate agents to attract home buyers — and it's a very comforting aroma. Rather than baking your own loaf of sourdough for the occasion (#toohardbasket), stop by one of the best bakeries in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane and pick up something ready made. Heat it up in the oven, and cut up thick slices to throw on a cheese board. Your gluten-free/low-carb/Keto friends probably won't eat it, but everyone will appreciate the smell. And if your sense of smell is chef-level impressive, see if you can pick out the notes of French baguettes in the Grey Goose vodka, as the same winter wheat is used to make the vodka as bakers use to make the country's famed pastries. [caption id="attachment_751744" align="alignnone" width="1920"] InBed[/caption] TOUCH Two words: table linen. It makes a real difference — and you can create a tactile environment really easily with one throw-over table cloth from linen purveyors like InBed (from $110) to more affordable homewares stores like IKEA (from $19.99). In a pinch, you can always use a picnic rug, or a sarong, to dress the table. Next, create an inviting environment where people can congregate after a big meal. Grab all the blankets from your bedroom, and get some hygge happening. Imagine a pillow fort, but more chic. SOUND When it comes to music, people fall into one of two categories: the effortlessly cool people who have a record player (and a well-curated vinyl collection) and those who rely on the old faithful Spotify and wireless speakers, which wins points for being totally customisable. If you choose to use a music streaming service during dinner, please abide by the cardinal rules: pay for premium (so you don't have pesky ads interrupting the mood) and use 'private session' so you don't add the tracks to your algorithm. Alternatively, rely on pre-made playlists like Front Left; the latest tracks become conversation starters. [embed]https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX5WTH49Vcnqp[/embed] Upgrade your dinner party by choosing premium vodka Grey Goose. Each bottle is distilled in France, and the high quality vodka has a 100 percent traceable production process, from crop to cork.
If you're looking to spruce up your home with second-hand items, That Vintage Shop has you covered. The warehouse on Enmore Road — just next to Grifter' brewery — is chock-a-block with antiques. You'll find a wide range of styles, from art deco and French provincial to farmhouse and Hollywood regency. That Vintage Shop's speciality is antique chandeliers (every house needs at least one, right?) but it also has other unique homewares like vintage typewriters, crystal knobs and yesteryear bar carts. You could easily spend hours perusing all that the shop has to offer.
The Kills have all the components of an authentic East London indie/garage-punk/battery-acid blues duo pretty much covered, including a story of meeting in a hotel room and early record sleeves shot in photo booths rather than with a professional camera. As of two weeks ago they even have an ex-cocaine addict supermodel closely associated with the band. They're also rather good at performing. Now on their fourth album, frontwoman Alison Mosshart's raw vivacity is still as visceral as guitarist Jamie Hince's effortless cool is, well, effortless and cool. Her renewed stage energy could be attributed to the fact that Mosshart has just completed a two-album stint at the front of Jack White's The Dead Weather, and Jack has probably stipulated that Mosshart refrain from ferociously prowling across the stage and playing off highly-stylized drum machines and samples for fear that she might steal his thunder (yet she still sometimes does anyway). The Kills' sound isn't exactly groundbreaking but it's great to thrash around to, drink some whiskey and be generally captivated by the duo's extreme coolness. Just don't throw a pint on stage, because this has been known to get you booed and ejected after being singled out by a surly Hince challenging you to try entertaining a crowd. https://youtube.com/watch?v=w3fZP7QC4PE
Before you complete that huge spring clean, chucking out all the 'useless junk' that is taking up space, stop and think for a second if it could be transformed into something of use. Upcycling is all about using old materials to create new, useful and often beautiful products. These pieces of upcycled furniture have taken pieces of trash and turned them into treasure, with inventive designs that will be sure to get you rummaging through your storage or local warehouses. Milk Crate Staircase Danish architecture firm Lendager Arkitekter created this milk crate staircase as a key feature of their million dollar 'Upcycled House', and is made entirely from milk boxes and OBD boards. Washing Machine Drum Stools Knit Knacks is the new range from the designers Junk Munkez - creative designers with a green conscience - located in Beirut. These nifty little creations emerged from washing machine drums to create colourful and fun embroidered stools. Ski Chandelier Helsinki-based travel agency Elamysmatkat were searching for an interior design that reflected their philosophy that snow travel should be fun and daring. Enter Dutch designer Willem Heeffer, who created this chandelier, created from skis donated by Heeffer's Facebook friends and fans. Magazine Stool This innovative design, The Hockenheimer by German company NJU Studio, provides an original piece of seating from a stack of old magazines. Sea Chair British designers Studio Swine collect plastic from the UK's most polluted beach, Porthtowan, and compress this waste to create a series of beautiful and functional Sea Chairs. Nautical Mat Sophie Aschauer founded SerpentSea in 2011 after a sailing trip in which she started weaving mats by hand out of reclaimed marine ropes. The mats use four style of knots each named after the most infamous pirates from the 17th Century - Bonnie, Drake, Morgan and Killigrew. Suitcase Medicine Cabinet Give an old suitcase new purpose by hanging one up on your bathroom wall and transforming it into a medicine cabinet. Add some shelves inside and a mirror on the outside and you've got yourself a fancy wall feature to store your toiletries in. Watering Can Shower Jazz up your shower to make the daily ritual more exciting with an old watering can. The Interweb Chair The Interweb Chair comes from BRC Designs, a studio in South Carolina fronted by mastermind Benjamin Rollins Caldwell. The 1cm blue plastic sheets that frame the chair were originally bathroom dividers in an old mill. Binary Table The Binary Table is an assemblage of old computer and electronic parts that were discarded in a warehouse and rendered obsolete. The table is decked out with motherboards, CDs, computer chips, hard disc drives and LED screens held together by sheet metal screws.
UPDATE, September 29, 2023: Cocaine Bear is available to stream via Netflix, Binge, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Killer trailer, filler flick: that's the Cocaine Bear story. This loosely based-on-a-true-tale horror-comedy sports a Snakes on a Plane-style moniker that sums up its contents perfectly, as the sneak peek that arrived at the end of 2022 made enticingly clear. Going heavy on the so-OTT-it-can-only-be-real vibe, that initial glimpse also tasked Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) with exclaiming a couple more sentences to express the utter bewilderment that this story sparks. "The bear, it fucking did cocaine. A bear did cocaine!" he shouts, and with exactly the right amount of infectious incredulity. That is indeed what happened in reality back in 1985, after all, and it's what Elizabeth Banks brings to the screen in her third stint as a director after Pitch Perfect 2 and Charlie's Angels — always playing it, for better when it's at its goriest and for worse when it stretches its idea thinner than a white line, like wild tale that it inescapably is. Yes, almost four decades ago, an American black bear did cocaine when drug smuggler Andrew C Thornton (Matthew Rhys, Perry Mason) dropped a hefty pile of the narcotic from the air. The stash landed in the wilderness, catching the attention of the world's most unlikely coke fiend in Georgia's Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. The creature ripped open the white powder-filled containers, then ingested — and Cocaine Bear endeavours to have fun hypothesising what could've come next. On-screen, a rampage by the critter now-nicknamed Pablo Escobear ensues, with blood, guts and limbs flung around; the body count mounting like Michael Myers is doing the offing (or maybe Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey's other recent ravenous bear); and two words getting screamed over and over. They're just the terms a picture called Cocaine Bear was always bound to focus on: cocaine and bear, obviously. To be fair to the characters in Banks' film, if you came face to face with a bear doing cocaine, you'd likely yell about it loudly and often as well. Here, the folks doing the bellowing are all 100-percent fictional, and mostly disposable. Nurse and single mother Sari (Keri Russell, Antlers) learns of the cocaine bear after her daughter Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince, The Florida Project) skips school with classmate Henry (Christian Convery, Sweet Tooth) and ends up in the hopped-up mammal's path. St Louis-based drug kingpin Syd (Ray Liotta, The Many Saints of Newark) has his son Eddie (Ehrenreich) and dealer underling Daveed (O'Shea Jackson Jr, Obi-Wan Kenobi) actively looking for the coke, while Tennessee detective Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr, Da 5 Bloods) is actively looking for them after Thornton's death. And, tourists Olaf (Kristofer Hivju, Game of Thrones) and Elsa (Hannah Hoekstra, Faithfully Yours) just happen to be hiking in the park that day, while Ranger Liz (Margo Martindale, The Watcher) and wildlife expert Peter (Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family) are onsite doing their regular jobs. In the leadup to Cocaine Bear's release, a free Pac-Man-style game hit the web — you play as the bear, snorting energy from lines, packets, piles and bags of cocaine, running around a maze and chomping down as many people as you can. Cocaine Bear, the picture, runs on the same simple thrill, just without anyone mashing buttons to make the animal get devouring. Accordingly, when the bear is coked-up and carnivorous, the flick revels in comedic creature-feature bloodlust and slapstick. A mid-movie ambulance chase and its aftermath is highly inspired and highly amusing, and just as gloriously ridiculous as it should be. The sequence's action choreography, pacing (thanks to editor Joel Negron, Jungle Cruise) and cinematography (via John Guleserian, Candyman) vibrates with a buzz, and nails the B-movie tone that Banks and screenwriter Jimmy Warden (The Babysitter: Killer Queen) are overtly pawing at. Do bears shit in the woods? Yes. Does Cocaine Bear struggle with almost everything around its woodland carnage? Yes again. Alas, if someone isn't being torn to pieces — and each death honestly could be anyone, with more and more supporting figures popping up but everyone lucky to be one-note — the film is about as convincing as its clunky CGI. The script strains so hard for low-hanging laughs around the mauling, which is where all those squawks about cocaine and bears come in, that it's a surprise that no one declares "I've had it with this muthafuckin' bear on this muthafuckin' cocaine". And trying to wring emotions out of parent-child bonds and loss just feels pointless; viewers are here for drug-addled ursine attacks in as many inventive ways as possible, not for cheap heartstring-tugging that does the bear minimum. Banks' cast put in as much effort as they're asked to, sniffing up the trashy 80s mood as they navigate all that bear-induced chaos. From Russell as a determined mum, Rhys' brief cameo as the man who starts it all and Martindale as a lovelorn ranger — all The Americans co-stars — through to the late, great Liotta in one of his last roles, the bickering-and-bantering Ehrenreich and Jackson, and Prince and Convery almost doing a Moonrise Kingdom parody, they're all visibly having a good time. Cocaine Bear isn't as much sustained fun for its audience, however, but it sure wants to be. Its trailer is a killer in two ways: supremely entertaining, and also everything it needed to be in less than three minutes, ensuring that a full film, even a concise 95-minute one, was destined to seem bloated in comparison. A silly slasher, but about a high-and-hungry bear getting grizzly: that's Cocaine Bear at its most engaging, and it's easy to see a gleefully absurd direct-to-streaming franchise springing with instalments like Methamphetamine Monkey and Ecstasy Alligator following — all with diminishing returns. Of course, every animal-attack movie will always pale in comparison to the wildest one there is, aka 1981's lion flick Roar, which'll also rumble to mind when anyone attempts to follow in its footsteps. That's the kind of predator pandemonium that Banks doesn't realise you can't set out to make, but becomes a cult film on its own tumultuous and messy merits. IRL, the cocaine bear that inspired Cocaine Bear didn't munch its way through the park's visitors, with the actual creature now stuffed and on display at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall — a far blander fate than Cocaine Bear posits, but one just as padded.
Next time you work up a sweat, you don't have to settle for your home gym setup or your local park. They're all perfectly fine places to get in some exercise, of course, but they're not the Sydney Opera House's eastern podium and northern broadwalk. At both sites, the iconic venue is hosting fitness sessions between Tuesday, March 9–Thursday, April 1. On offer as part of Get Active at the House: yoga, pilates and high intensity interval training, so you can either pick your favourite or mix and match to suit your mood. Classes will be held most days across the four-weeks, with weekday morning sessions at 7am, afternoon sessions at 6pm and weekends starting at 9am — with the full schedule available online. You'll definitely need to book, because bending, stretching and getting active here is bound to be popular. Just remember to bring some water and a towel, and to take into consideration that there are no showers available onsite. Images: Daniel Boud.
This article is part of our series on the diverse highlights of NZ's Canterbury region, from city to snow. To book your snow trip, visit the 100% Pure New Zealand website. As someone with little-to-no coordination and balance, the prospect of skiing for the first time in my life was pretty terrifying. I honestly couldn't think of a sport that’s scarier for beginners — and I tried, multiple times — or a situation where I wouldn't be hurtling down a vertical run into a tree and/or small child. That's why I’ve always thought it lucky that, for me and every other Adult Who Can't Ski, snow sports are generally pretty easy to avoid. But with the ski season ramping up — and snow weekends already being floated by my seasoned snow bunny friends — I thought it was time to see if I would sink or swim on snow. With myself as sacrifice, and some words of wisdom from Mt Hutt's media coordinator and resident snowboarder Georgie Boyd, we headed across to one of New Zealand's most renowned ski areas (and, as it turns out, biggest mountains) to find out how to slide down a slope without losing a limb — or your dignity. Don't forget your gloves Preparation is key when it comes to skiing, mostly because it involves a lot of stuff. This is no spontaneous sport. If you don't own any snow clothes and can't borrow any from a similarly sized friend (your boyfriend's oversized pants probably won’t make things any easier, just saying), you should look at hiring proper, waterproof clothing. Mt Hutt hire out snow pants and jackets as well as boots and helmets — all of which you'll probably need as a beginner. What they don't have, though, are gloves and goggles, so make sure you you've got that covered before you get up on the mountain. Freezing fingertips don’t make for fun times. Image thanks to arquera via photopin The things you think are the easiest are actually the hardest Here's the thing: no one tells you that walking in ski boots will feel like your shin is snapping in half (which it isn't, but I still have the bruises to say that it came pretty close). Those things are painful, but they say it gets better. Apparently getting on and off the lift gets less terrifying too, but maybe that comes later. And think you can sling your skis over your shoulder like they do in the movies? Think again, noob. There's a particular trick to carrying your skis out to the snow that involves sliding them together and holding onto one of the brakes, but I'll let the ski staff show you that one. Image thanks to Paxson Woelber via photopin Don't think you don't need a lesson Sure, head up to the top of the slope with your friends and be left side-stepping up the mountain while they pass you as they go up and down the run. It's enough to ruin friendships, so heed this: experienced skiers and beginners don't match. Don't underestimate the power of getting a lesson. "The action of skiing and snowboarding isn't always common sense," says Georgie. "Taking a lesson gets you on the right track straight away and will speed up the zero-to-hero process." Contrary to popular misconception, there are plenty of functioning adults who also don't know how to ski — you'll be in a class with them, not four-year-olds (who can probably ski better than you, anyway). Image thanks to Nick J Webb via photopin It's actually not that scary Only after you've strapped on your skis and are successfully standing on a flat lay of snow will you start to feel like maybe this skiing thing isn't so terrifying. Like Georgie says, the most intimidating part for learners is the fear of going too fast and the chairlifts. Once you've mastered slowing down in a lesson (it doesn't matter how long your lesson is, even an hour or two makes a difference), then you can tackle the chairlift. "There are always lifties at the top of the lift to ensure that everyone is getting off the lift safely,” Georgie says. And to make things even easier, Mt Hutt's beginner’s area even has a conveyor belt 'magic carpet', which is the pre-chairlift training to the real deal. Image thanks to Mt Hutt, NZSki Ltd. and Patrick Fallon. It's all about pizza Not the pizza pie kind (well, maybe it can be afterwards — hell, you will have deserved two pizzas by then), but the pizza slice made by the shape of your skis. That's how you stop. For snowboarders, Georgie recommends digging in your heel-side edge will slow you down and safely control an exit off a ski lift. Best you get that one down before you take off down the slopes. Image thanks to FredrikF via photopin What not to do Whatever you do, don't look down. Even though you'll want to look down and make sure your skis are doing what you want them to, it's important that you look at what’s in front of you. There are a lot of obstacles — they're called people. On the subject of people, don't use them as props. Seriously, you grab someone on the way down and no one will look at you the same again. Image thanks to radloff via photopin Any time's a good time The best thing about being a beginner is that you don’t need a lot of snow to have a good time. While all the pros are complaining about lack of snowfall, you'll have all the snow you need. So basically, any time's a good time to start skiing, so just do it already. Image thanks to laszlo-photo via photopin Remember, there is hot chocolate and/or a good story waiting at the end of it Like this one. Image thanks to PunkJr via photopin. Feature image courtesy of Mt Hutt, NZSki Ltd. and Miles Holden.
Whether or not you're aware of it, there's a lot that the stress of modern life can do to the body. The perpetual scroll of social media, pressures to achieve, and the pace associated with the hustle mentality all take a toll. Separating yourself from that environment to slow things down and reset your perspective is the aim of the mental wellbeing retreat run by Vital Means. The next edition of the monthly retreat will take place on Saturday, February 25, on a secluded Airbnb property in the rainforests of Ourimbah, exactly an hour's drive from the Sydney CBD. Once arriving at the location, you'll pull up at a Laurel Canyon-esque 70s home adorned with a mix of Mid-Century and contemporary interior details and artworks created by award-winning Aussie artists. From there, you and nine other guests will enjoy an intimate curated program of activities. Morning tea and snacks lead to an interactive game, workshop and a lunch that leaves room for conversation. Following lunch, you'll explore the local rainforest and take in the serenity the mid-north coast forests are known for. To wind down following your time outdoors, there's a mindfulness session, evening tea, and a relaxing live music performance before saying your goodbyes. You'll leave feeling nourished and refreshed after some much-needed time away. The mental wellbeing retreat runs on Saturday, February 25 from 10am to 6pm. Early bird tickets are available until Saturday, February 11. Specific venue information will be released to ticket-holders, but for more information and to book tickets visit the website.
Celine Song understands the power of a moment. Past Lives, her debut feature, is filled with scenes and meetings — minutes and mere seconds, too — that are so potent they're almost overwhelming. Making the leap to cinema from the stage, the playwright-turned-filmmaker has crafted a quiet, patient, contemplative and deeply felt romantic drama that knows intimately how emotions can swell to bursting point in something as simple and commonplace as a glance, walk, Skype call or drink at a bar. One of the movies that had 2023's Sundance Film Festival talking, plus everywhere from Berlin to Sydney to New Zealand since — and is destined to be showered in awards love, too — Past Lives is well-aware of what it's like to spend oh-so-many moments wondering what could've been or still might, and about what's meant to. Arriving after focusing on the stage, getting experimental with Chekhov live and online with The Seagull on The Sims 4 and writing for the initial season of streaming series The Wheel of Time, Song's first effort as a filmmaker springs from a specific moment, in fact — and one that she also recreates on-screen with her characters Nora (Greta Lee, Russian Doll), Hae Sung (Teo Yoo, Decision to Leave) and Arthur (John Magaro, The Many Saints of Newark). Past Lives takes inspiration from the writer/director's own experiences in a number of ways. "I would say it's an adaptation of my life, or inspired by," she tells Concrete Playground. It was the power of a moment sat in a New York bar with her American husband and Korean childhood sweetheart, however, that helped put the picture in motion. "I wasn't sure if there was a movie in it, but I think that what I really did feel is that it did feel like a significant and special moment, and a very revelatory moment in my own life," Song shares, chatting in August when she was in Australia for the Melbourne International Film Festival. "I feel like living your life as an ordinary person, I think that there are moments in your life where your life suddenly feels completely extraordinary — and it's totally epic, too. Then you just suddenly feel the total sheer scale of your life expand." "That kind of was this weird moment where I was like 'huh, nobody in this bar probably knows this or feels this, but I think that I just am feeling so massive sitting here in this little bar with these two people'," Song continues. "I think that it made me feel like 'maybe this is something that might connect with other people?'. And then, more and more, I learned that it does connect with a lot of people, and that honestly has made me feel less lonely more than anything." Past Lives begins with Nora, Hae Sung and Arthur sipping and chatting as fellow bar patrons observe, guessing about who the trio are to each other. From the outset, the film connects with that powerful moment in Song's own existence, with the three figures that'll wander through her feature's frames coping with love and life, and with viewers doing their own watching and pondering as well. From there, the movie heads backwards, first to Nora (Moon Seung-ah, Voice of Silence) and Hae Sung's (Leem Seung-min, Good Deal) time together as pre-teens, before the former and her family move to Canada. Then, it jumps forward twice in 12-year increments, checking in wth the pair — and Arthur once he enters Nora's life — as time passes on and distance stretches their youthful bond. As this tender and heartbreakingly honest picture unfurls, Past Lives' audience doesn't just experience an affinity with folks realising that they're having a moment, but with the "what if?" questions in life, being torn between the past and the present, and trying to work out who you truly are. With its title drawn from the Korean concept of in-yeon, aka the fate that connects anyone who crosses paths, Past Lives' viewers feel a date with destiny as well. Getting swept away by Past Lives is easy; making it play that way wasn't, of course. Song chatted us through the details, including subjectivity, authenticity, getting the personal to feel personal to everyone else, and the ins and outs of casting when you're taking cues from your own life. ON MAKING SONG'S FIRST FEATURE "I wish that I could give you some a lofty thing that I was trying to do. But honestly, I think because it was my first movie, it was just getting through the day and getting a movie made more than anything. I think that every day, the number-one goal that you're facing is just 'okay, how do I make this movie — how do I get through today, and get the footage and get the performances I need?'. That really was the primary drive. I wish I had big, lofty dreams for things, but it was so much more like I was like learning how to do it as I go because it was my first movie. That really was so fully occupying me that it was hard actually for me to feel like I could have any goals beyond making the movie." ON TAKING INSPIRATION FROM REALITY, AND FROM SONG'S OWN STORY "It really does start from that amazing subjective place — that is the part that is the autobiographical moment, which is that moment in the bar. But then, of course, in turning it into a script there is an objectification of the subjective moment, where it becomes a script that you're writing. And then from there, there's another layer of objectification, where you, with hundreds of people who are working on the movie, turn it into a film — which is then a whole other set of objectification. And, part of it is the subjectivity of the actors, for example: they come into the picture and you're working with the actors to create these characters. So, by the time that I was making the movie properly and then finishing the movie and all that, I really was looking at the thing as making this movie. I think that at that point I felt pretty distant from the aspects of the movie that were that started from an autobiographical place. But now that what I really love is it's kind of full circle now — the audience is coming to meet this movie, and they're actually then able to experience it subjectively. They feel like it connects with them autobiographically on their own, too. I think that's the process of making personal work, and I think that's really what the process was for this. I really do think of it as a very personal film because of that. And the words I would usually use, I would say it's an adaptation of my life, or inspired by, or something like that." ON MAKING A PERSONAL FILM THAT FEELS PERSONAL TO AUDIENCES, TOO "That's always the dream and goal for it, because I feel like I have to believe that if I'm being as honest and authentic with the experience of what it's like to be a person, I just know that there is an audience that's going to also connect to it like that. I've really treated it very much as a test of how real can I be with the audience, and how real can the filmmaking be. Of course, I'm talking about the truth of the thing, rather than the facts, because some of it is about the truth of what it's like to be a person. As long as it is communicated in the best way, as clearly as possible — I think I used the word 'clearly' often, as you want to be able to tell the story as clearly as possible — at the end of it you really do want the audience to come along for this journey. And even though it's really specific, I think that the dream is that you're able to see yourself in it and you're able to connect it to your own life. This movie doesn't have conventional ideas of spectacle. We don't have wild costumes. We don't have VFX. We don't do anything that is outside of what is likened to human experience. So I think some of it just had to be relying on the authenticity of performance, and that's where the story is going to be. That's how the story was going to connect with the audience — they're going to feel how real the movie is going to be, the way that the movie is going to reach everyone. I've been finding that no matter what walk of life you come from, you're going find something in the movie that you feel connected to." ON MAKING AN AUTHENTIC "WHAT IF?" STORY WHEN EVERYONE SHARES THAT TRAIN OF THOUGHT "That really is the the part that is difficult about making a movie where you can really feel connected to it. It's going to live and die on if the audience will come along for the journey and believe it, and believe the characters and believe the story. I think without question, that's where you're going to be able to see very, very high emotional standards. We do, of course, all experience 'what could have been?'. Sometimes it's the person, but sometimes it's a city — and sometimes it's a lifestyle or a job. If you ever have had an experience like that, I think you're going to connect to the movie." ON THE INTRICACIES OF CASTING WHEN YOU'RE TAKING CUES FROM YOUR OWN LIFE "I don't think that I was looking for actors who were going to play basically those people [IRL]. I was looking for people who were going to play the characters that I've written. So something that I wanted is to make sure that none the actors thought that what they were trying to do is to replicate people who exist. I wanted then to come with me in finding the characters that we're trying to to pick for the screen, because it's a completely different thing altogether — characters in movies are very different than people in real life. People in real life, it's not so clear what their arc is. In our lives, I don't think that we know what our arc is in our real life, because we don't live in narrative. We live in a life, compared to characters in a film who have to live in a narrative, because that's what we're going to be watching. Without question, the actors were not being asked to replicate real people. What they were being asked to do is the scenes, and part of the thing that I was looking for in the actors is, first of all, are they great actors? The way that I wanted to make the movie, sometimes I would ask the actors to just do the whole scene — which is, of course, something that comes from my background as a playwright — and I really wanted them to be able to do the whole scene if I asked them to. That's something that only actors that are really excellent actors are able to do. So, that was the first thing that I was looking for. The other thing I'm looking for is what I would call a soul match to the characters, where I really wanted the actors to have some deep kind of soul connection to the characters — it has to do with the way they're talking about the characters, but it's also, more importantly, the engine or the fire that a character has to have. It is something that the actors themselves could have — that the heart of Nora is going to be found in Greta's heart as well. I think you could really feel that in the film, where Nora is showing up but it's not just that Greta is playing Nora. I know that for the film, the only way that this movie can work is that Greta had become Nora. That's what's both amazing about casting and also what's very difficult." ON THE RESPONSE TO PAST LIVES SO FAR — AND THE SUNDANCE EXPERIENCE "You just hope for the best for the movie that you're making kind of in secret. I really did think about it as something that was a bit of a secret between me and everybody who was working on the movie. Then, as for how the world was going to receive it, that's been an amazing part — it's just nothing but joy and like excitement. I remember at Sundance, I'd been working on the movie again in secret with the people who worked on the movie with me for many years. Then I remember waiting at the backstage of Sundance, knowing that it's going to be in the in the public's hands from this moment on. I remember really feeling in that moment like everything's going to change, and this is going to be a moment where I'm going to have to let go of control or let go of everything. It really was like wandering into the unknown. I think that every time that there has been such a warm response, which is how it been, it's just such an exciting thing — because great word of mouth means that more people are going to come see the movie, and I think that's always the dream for it. You want to be able to share this thing that you made." Past Lives opened in cinemas Down Under on August 31. Read our review. Images: courtesy of A24.
Looking for a DIY punch-in-the-gut experience (who isn't)? Shut yourself into your room, close the curtains, turn up your computer real bright, and cue up the Children Collide film clip for 'Loveless'. Initially, your eyebrows may be knitted with confusion, as you're confronted with the square sight of the band's frontman, Johnny Mackay, done up in clown face and staring straight back at you. The song itself wafts with a bare yearning that knocks around your head long after it finishes. We won't ruin it for you, but suffice to say by the end you won't quite be sure what just happened for the past five or so minutes. Children Collide are now giving the song its first live airing, with a 12-date tour across the country. They'll be joined on the Loveless tour by bands DZ Deathrays & Damn Terran, making it a triple threat assault of the senses. Get amongst it – after all, we can't shut ourselves in our rooms all the time. https://youtube.com/watch?v=oCZhYf9hPCE
Back in 2019, the latest dessert craze landed in Sydney, when Demochi Donut opened on the streets of Banksia. Owner Dennis Chan (Dirty Bird food truck) somehow managed to fuse the airy, crispy elements of a doughnut with that chewy mochi texture — and, unsurprisingly, tastebuds were immediately tempted. Chan started working on these mochi masterpieces after finding a similar fusion doughnut served at a shop in Tokyo. He spent over five years perfecting his own recipe, and then finally released the blended sweet to the masses. Now, he's letting Sydneysiders make a version at home, too, thanks to Demochi's new DIY mini mochi doughnut ball kits. Reflecting the huge amount of time we're all now spending within our own four walls, DIY kits have been popping up frequently in 2020 — spanning everything from deep-fried ice cream to cannoli. We're betting that your stomach is always hungry for these tiny mochi-doughnut hybrids, though, with each of Demochi's kits letting you make 50 doughnut balls. For $25 plus shipping, you'll receive flour mix, original honey glaze, a piping bag and, crucially, instructions on exactly how to whip up your next sweet treat. Expect to spend about 20 minutes in the kitchen, and, if you need some guidance, Demochi has also put together a how-to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiSjjJ_i03Q&feature=youtu.be To order Demochi's DIY cannoli kits, visit the store's website.
Here's a scenario that, until now, you've probably never even imagined could happen. You go to press play on your favourite Spotify playlist, but accidentally click on a different batch of tunes — songs especially chosen by the service for the adorable animal that shares your life. Not content with limiting its lister base to people, Spotify is now creating curated playlists for dogs, cats, birds, hamsters and iguanas. The selection of tracks is personalised too, because the kinds of songs that your furry, feathered or scaly critter likes aren't necessarily the same as what some other barking, meowing or tweeting creature prefers. Here's how Spotify's Pet Playlists work: you visit the Swedish music streaming company's site, choose your type pet, pick from a list of traits that describes them best, then add a name and photo. Based on all of that information, plus your own Spotify listening habits, the service's algorithm will go to work, coming up with a lineup of tunes that'll apparently rock your animal's world. There are limitations to the new feature, though. Only the aforementioned five types of pets are catered for, so if your animal companion is a rabbit or other type of critter with ears, it'll miss out. And, as for the traits that you can pick from, you're presented a number of pairs on a sliding scale — so select between relaxed and energetic, shy and friendly, and apathetic and curious. Still, if you and your pooch, kitty, canary, rodent or lizard like listening to music together — or you've ever noticed them react to a particular song — you can now treat them to their own playlist. Spotify's online research, surveying 5000 music-streaming pet owners in the US, UK, Australia, Spain and Italy, indicates that 71 percent of people play tunes for their pets, with classical and soft rock the genre all those critters seem to like best. Fancy letting your woofer listen to a book instead? Audible also does audiobooks for dogs, too. To create a Spotify Pet Playlist for your dog, cat, bird, hamster or iguana, visit the Spotify pets website.
A new whiskey bar has just arrived on the lower level of Sydney's York Street. Jolene's Sydney is a Nashville-inspired bar boasting one of the biggest collections of whiskies Sydney has ever seen. Located across from Sammy Junior and the Prince of York, Jolene's comes from Simon Rose-Hopkins who has worked across other American-themed Sydney venues like Surly's American BBQ and Nola Smokehouse and Bar. The CBD venue boasts a collection of more than 150 different whiskies, including 100 sourced specifically from American whisky distillers. At Jolene's, you can opt for your whiskey neat, on the rocks or in one of the bar's many exciting cocktails. Try the Islands in the Stream, which gives Tennessee whiskey a boost of boozy tropical juice, or the Superbowl Sundae which is reminiscent of a whiskey espresso martini topped with whipped cream. Taking influence from whiskey-loving Nashville, the dimly lit bar has red-velvet booths named after country singers. You can opt to spend your night in the Chris Stapleton, Johnny Cash or pop-country queen Taylor Swift booth, or big groups can book out the 12-seat VIP Dolly Parton booth. The Nashville influence doesn't stop there. Keeping in the spirit of the southern musical hub, Jolene's hosts local country and rock musicians four days a week. Rose-Hopkins, a frequent visitor to Nashville, says, "The bar is my way of paying homage to some of the best nights of my life and bringing that genuine Southern hospitality to York Street." Food-wise, patrons can expect a reserved menu of diner-style American snacks. Think hot dogs and tater tots. And, while the drinks menu is obviously veered towards whiskey aficionados, there are gin and vodka cocktails on offer alongside a selection of craft beers on tap. Jolene's is located at 73 York Street, Sydney. It's open 4pm–late Wednesday–Sunday.
One of the most powerful players in the media game, Arianna Huffington, is coming to Carriageworks. Discussing her brand new book Thrive with the equally formidable political gun Annabel Crabb, Huffington is one of the planet's most kickass women, after launching the Huffington Post in 2005 and casually taking out one of Time's 100 Most Influential People just one year later. Being the first online-only outlet to take home a Pulitzer Prize for reporting, Huffington Post is undeniably one of the world's most widely referred-to sites (you've probably checked it today already). Huffington herself has spearheaded the whole escapade, currently the chair, president and editor-in-chief for the Huffington Post Media Group — a long way from her not-so-humble Cambridge graduate beginnings as a nationally-syndicated columnist. After all these years, the 64-year-old (!) can spin some pretty epic tales, like that casual meditation session she held with Deepak Chopra, being able to get a word in with Bill O'Reilly and running against Arnold Schwartzenegger in the 2003 recall election. Taking multitasking next level, the Greek-American powerhouse has penned her own lengthily-titled book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom and Wonder. Somehow, in the midst of managing coverage of ebola breakouts, the Gaza-Israel conflict and the fact that Americans are totally over fast food burgers, Huffington now schedules in rest, mindfulness and health to her day (much more rewarding outcomes than all that money and power in her pocket). As part of the Sydney Opera House's Ideas at the House program, Huffington and Crabb will delve into the media heavyweight's rise and how success has affected her both positively and negatively. "We are thrilled to be presenting Arianna Huffington, she’s a visionary leader and one of the most influential women in media who continues to inspire," said Ideas at the House senior producer, Danielle Harvey . If you're after a much-needed 'stop sitting on your hands' type of wake-up call, throw some dosh on a ticket to this one-off meeting of total bosses.
Picture this: it's the end of a busy first quarter, and you're unwinding at a dreamy Californian-inspired ranch in Byron Bay's hinterland among rolling hills and wellness workshops you can dip in and out of. Known for its infrared sauna studios at seven locations across Victoria and New South Wales, Nimbus Co is launching a four-day wellness retreat at the fabulous Sun Ranch. With nods to 1970s nostalgia, the sprawling accomodation layers in amenities like a floating sauna and ice bath, a pool straight out of a Palm Springs resort, and a riding club offering horseback trail tours. For Nimbus co-founder Neil O'Sullivan, PAUSE Retreat is a space designed to help people "step out of autopilot and burnout" culture. Wellness experiences are spread across 55 acres of rewilded farmland, inviting weekenders to reflect on their routines, rest with intention, and hopefully, pick up practical tools that can support their wellbeing long after the retreat. "Australia, whilst being the lucky country, is also now one of the most burnout-prone countries in the world due to high workloads, financial stress, and pressure for wellbeing. It's time we did something about that." After settling into one of the poolside suites, private one-bedders or boutique barns that fit up to four, expect workshops designed to soothe frazzled nerves. Boutique wellness studios like Peaches Pilates bring sound healing, pilates and yoga into the mix — and of course, Nimbus Co will be running infrared sauna and ice bath sessions. Zen guided meditations, nature walks or runs through the breathtaking countryside, and yoga and pilates classes fill the mornings, while afternoons are dedicated to inspiring mind-body masterclasses led by accredited experts, such as fertility educator and clinical nutritionist Ema Taylor. Communal mealtimes are a great way to connect with other guests — alongside hands-on cooking workshops by local plant-based caterer and cookbook author Cade McConnel — and evening reflection sessions around a large firepit under the stars. Images supplied
The last year has seen the resurgence of wines in alternative packaging. Instead of the standard 750mL glass bottle, winemakers are packing their beloved grapes into cans, casks, boxes and Tetra Paks. Wines in cans, which used to be a novelty, have been redesigned, and the quality of the wines inside have increased exponentially. They're a responsible way to drink in a myriad of locations where glass might not be permitted, such as campgrounds, festivals and beaches. Packaging quality wines in vessels like bags and casks also protects the liquids from outside air and other influences for longer, which guarantees a fresher and more consistent glass of wine. The smaller packaging has a secondary benefit, too: portion control. You can drink the wine the way it's supposed to be drunk — a glass at a time — without feeling pressured to drink the entire bottle (for fear it will go off). It's also much easier to transport on road trips. One canned beverage that we fully endorse is Sparkke's #TimesUp sparkling white wine. It's predominantly chardonnay, with equal parts pinot grigio and riesling. The chardonnay gives the wine its structure and body, the pinot grigio some texture and tropical fruit flavours and the riesling creates a nice acidity and length. Sparkke is a for-purpose alcohol company, with 10-percent of sales from each of its drinks going to a different cause. The company has previously given to charities supporting refugees, same-sex marriage rights and climate change. And its latest drink — the aforementioned sparkling white wine — is raising money for the International Women's Development Agency, which works toward achieving gender equality across the globe. To help you separate the fads from the flavoursome, we've picked the best wines (and one sake) in alternative packaging — perfect to pack in the esky for your next camping adventure. SHOPPING LIST 1. Sparkke #TimesUp sparkling white wine, Adelaide Hills & McLaren Vale, 250ml can, $35 for four 2. 2017 Elephant in the Room chardonnay, Limestone Coast, 250 mL can, $4.75 or $18 for four Bursting with peach, guava and melon flavours, interwoven with toasty oak elements, this wine has a fresh acidity on the palate that makes way for a pleasant and dry finish. Pair with your favourite pit-stop chicken sandwiches. 3. 2017 Le Chat Noir Rosé, Gers & Aude Valley France, 250 mL can, $5.70 or $22 for four This wine has everything you want from a rosé — a pale colour and a dry palate. Notes of rose petals and strawberries almost jump out of the can, too. The dryness of the wine is well balanced with fresh berry notes, and it has an almost crunchy texture in the mouth. Take a can with you when you're foraging for fresh mulberries. 4. Kunizakari Tanrei Yuzushu, 1L Tetra Pak, $48 Need a break from wine (for a short moment)? We've got you covered. Yuzu is a native Japanese citrus, and when combined with young-style sake it creates yuzushu (think of it as the Japanese version of Italian Limoncello). The drink works well on its own or paired with the above sparkling for a DIY campfire spritz. 5. 2016 Casale Sangiovese Blend, Tuscany, 3L Bag in Box, $70, available from Giorgio de Mara Fun Wines or at P&V Wine and Liquor The gold standard of wine in a box, this red blend is biodynamic wine in large format. It smells like rich soil after a fresh rain and tastes like cranberries covered in dark chocolate. Perfect for any kind of barbecue/campfire/grilled meat combo you throw at it. Its convenient three litre bag will keep you going for a long weekend, too. The Oeno Files is our new bi-weekly wine column keeping you up-to-date with the latest wine trends happening around the country. Samantha Payne is a Sydney based wine consultant, writer and sommelier who has worked in the industry for over a decade. She travels, both locally and internationally, to chat with winemakers (and occasionally lend a hand in winemaking), write wine lists and hosts wine events. Images: Lucia Braham
Margaret River is a wine tourism hotspot for good reason. It produces 20 percent of Australia's vino, features more than 95 cellar doors and is home to some of the best grapes in the country. And it does all of that amid a scenic trifecta of beautiful white-sand beaches, rugged bushland and sprawling vineyards. Good wine demands good food, and Margs has never been a slouch in that department, boasting many small farms and boutique producers. There are markets and food trucks galore, but to truly experience what can be done with Margaret River's finest produce, you have to head to the region's restaurants. Given the ingredients they're working with, it's hard to find a place that isn't serving up delicious food, whether it's in a theatrical open kitchen, a rustic farm-to-table eatery or a cute cafe. With many wonderful spots to choose from, the tricky bit can be narrowing it down to one holiday itinerary's worth of eating. So we've put our heads together with Virgin Australia to do just that and picked five places that stand at the summit of any Margaret River food adventure. BREW SHACK Tucked away on a small street off Margaret River's main shopping and dining strip, the Brew Shack makes quite possibly the best coffee in town. The cafe's cosy space is well utilised, with rustic wooden decor and bright pops of yellow and blue creating a warm atmosphere that's only improved by the 'no wifi' rule that, via chalkboard, asks customers to "pretend like it's the 90s and talk to each other". When you're not engaging your mouth in conversation, direct it towards one of the cafe's acai bowls for a taste of the region's finest fresh seasonal fruit. 2/124 Bussell Highway, Margaret River BUNKERS BEACH HOUSE There's so much more to Bunkers Beach House than just the pretty beachfront view — although we have to admit that is a pretty big bonus. Scenery aside, the Bunker Bay restaurant offers the perfect opportunity to kick back and relax while you enjoy some sensational modern Australian cuisine. Seafood dishes are the standouts of the menu. Melt-in-your-mouth options like charred Busselton octopus with XO sauce and blood lime or grilled Shark Bay scallops with seaweed and miso butter lure in diners again and again. If you love a long lunch, then this is the place to indulge. Farm Break Lane, Naturaliste BURGER BABY Sometimes all you want is a big juicy burger. If you find yourself feeling that way in Margaret River, the place to go is Burger Baby. Opened at the end of 2017, it's quickly made a name for itself as the best burger joint in town. The menu covers all the bases, offering everything from a vegan spicy lentil burger on buttery brioche to a finger-licking-good Korean-inspired pork belly creation topped with kimchi and slaw. Locals love it as a chilled hang spot, with couches, fireplaces and a range of beers from some of the best breweries in the area. Give the hand-brewed Cheeky West Coast IPA a go. 117 Bussell Highway, Margaret River ARIMIA No visit to Margaret River could possibly be complete without a stopover at Arimia. Set on a sprawling countryside estate that doubles as a working farm, the award-winning restaurant takes sustainable food to a whole new level without compromising on taste. Pigs that are raised on-site are used to make succulent braised pork leg ragout, while olives grown on trees you can spot from your table provide sharp bursts of flavour on the shared plates — pretty incredible, right? We certainly think so. 242 Quininup Road, Wilyabrup MIKI'S OPEN KITCHEN What's in a name? At Miki's Open Kitchen, everything. It's unassumingly located at the back of a small shopping arcade, but inside, this degustation-oriented Japanese restaurant isn't scared of putting on a show. For the best seats in the house, make sure to book ahead so you can sit at the counter. It offers the best vantage point to watch in awe as owner-chef Mikihito Nagai and his team use ingredients like Margaret River Wagyu and Exmouth Rankin cod to take you on a tour across Western Australia without you ever having to leave your seat. 131 Bussell Highway, Margaret River If you're now eagerly planning a visit to Margaret River, check out Virgin Australia's holiday packages — which offer everything from chilled-out cottages to massive resorts.
If you prefer strapping your feet to one piece of wood rather than two, this one's for you. Snowboarders, get ready for your day of days – the annual Transfer Banked Slalom returns. It's an obstacle course like no other, with twists and turns, berms and jumps that will keep you on your toes. It's also open to snowboarders of all skill-levels, so join the elite (or watch them) speeding down the hill — and try not to end up with a face full of snow. There'll be plenty of old-hands around to give you tips, too — or to push you out if you get stuck in a tunnel (we're sure you won't). It's technical but fun, and sure to be a spectacular two days, running from 9am til 4pm on Thursday, August 16 and Friday, August 17. So wax that board and hold on, this is one joy ride you won't want to miss. To find out more about Thredbo's exciting winter program, head to thredbo.com.au.
Sydneysiders, it's time to get excited: the world-renowned Lune Croissanterie is opening two pastry-filled stores in the Harbour City. The bakery chain had already announced its upcoming Sydney duo, confirming a Darlinghurst locale in 2023 and also announcing a Martin Place spot. But now, that initial Darlinghurst plans have been scrapped, with Lune set to open its flagship in Rosebery instead. Lune Sydney's first location will swing open its doors at the Rosebery Engine Yards at 115/152 Dunning Avenue in the city's inner south. The space will take aesthetic cues from Lune's flagship Fitzroy outpost in Melbourne, drawing on its industrial-leaning interiors for design inspiration. "Due to unforeseen delays with Darlinghurst, we've shifted to a new location in order to keep our plans on track and honour our commitment to bring the Lune experience to Sydney in 2024," said Lune founder Kate Reid. "The Rosebery site aligns perfectly with our vision, and we're excited to have that opening in sight." The Rosebery location is currently undergoing its Lune-style transformation ahead of its opening. As for the Martin Place store, that still has the green light on operations and is also underway. An opening date for the Rosebery spot hasn't been announced as yet. As for Martin Place, both the metro tower and Lune are expected to open later in 2024. It's been a big decade-plus for the brand, after starting out as a tiny store in Melbourne's Elwood back in 2012. Since then, Lune has expanded into a converted warehouse space in Fitzroy (with perpetual lines out the front), opened more stores in Melbourne and also launched in Brisbane in 2021. And, amid all that, it was even dubbed "the finest you will find anywhere in the world" by The New York Times. Lune Croissanterie's flagship Sydney store will open at 115/151 Dunning Avenue, Rosebery in 2024. It'll join the brand's second Sydney store, which is expected to open at 1 Elizabeth Street, Martin Place at some point this year.
There's not a whole lot that will coax you off the couch on a frosty winter weeknight, though we have an inkling Efendy's new weekly dinner deal should do just that. Balmain's acclaimed Turkish restaurant is this week, July 4, kicking off a series of bottomless meze and wine nights, on offer from 5pm every Wednesday and Thursday. Yep — two nights a week, head in and cosy up to an authentic Turkish feast prepared by chef Somer Sivrioglu, with likes of warm lavash bread with zahter butter, smoked eggplant with pistachio and tahini, crisp pastry-wrapped prawns with walnut and capsicum dip and findik lahmacun (a Turkish-style pizza) topped with spiced lamb. To complete the meal, there'll also be plenty of Turkish sweets. As well as all that food, diners will also enjoy a bottomless two-hour drinks package, sipping their way through an endless range of Turkish whites, reds and rosés — with the whole thing (food included) coming in at just $60 per person. If that's not worth coming out of hibernation for, we don't know what is.
At Rough and Bare they subscribe to a wholefood lifestyle, which means everything that comes out of the kitchen is organic, pasture-fed and caught wild. Founded by a health conscious chef and a naturopath, this isn't the place you go in search of that B&E hangover cure — but you shouldn't expect a menu limited to raw veggies and superfoods either. They do serve a breakfast salad ($18.90), but at the other end of the spectrum is the slow-cooked pork belly, poached eggs, baby kale, spiced sweet potato puree, kimchi and crackle crumb ($22.90). The same goes for lunch. If you're a purist you can opt for the raw vegetable platter with beetroot tahini, spiced sweet potato hummus, mackerel pâté and seed crackers ($19.90) or the bone broth with greens, kraut and quinoa toast ($14.90). For those less inclined to go raw, there's a naked beef burger with wild greens, tomato, avocado, fried egg, caramelised onion and pickles on roasted sweet potato and fermented relish ($19.90), or the slow-cooked lamb shoulder with roast vegetables and a red wine jus and salsa verde ($25.90). It may not be a glass of wine, but at least it's something.
Many books are regarded as unfilmable because there's just too much going on. Man Booker Prize winner Life of Pi was regarded as unfilmable because the extent of the drama is a boy floating on the open ocean alone but for the company of a tiger. Tenacious director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) has put paid to that question with his mesmerising adaptation that's also one of the most spectacular applications of 3D in contemporary cinema. Pi (assured newcomer Suraj Sharma) is a boy of 16 for the main events of the story, his name short for Piscine Molitor Patel and inspired by a swimming pool. It's 1977 and his parents operate a zoo in French-influenced Pondicherry, India. But they decide to emigrate to Canada and sell the animals, some of which accompany them on the ocean journey to their new home. A storm sinks the ship, along with all on board besides Pi — and some of the animals. He finds himself sharing his lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra, and a tiger (called Richard Parker), and it's a long 227 days before he finds inhabited land. It's also 211 of 354 pages of the novel — 211 pages for which he doesn't speak to another human. And yet it's never hard to read, nor, importantly, hard to watch. The framing of the narrative is done through an interview the adult Pi (Irrfan Khan) gives to the writer (Rafe Spall), but it's very cool that Lee and screenwriter David Magee tell the guts of the story without narration. It allows all the tension, uncertainty, and enigma of living in close quarters with a tiger to rule and lets both the acting and CGI shine. The slipperiness of a magic realist world has also been beautifully translated. Pi's 227 days at sea include encounters with flying fish, luminous phenomena, and an island far from paradise as well as negotiating with his tiger friend, and each of these moments is stunning. Some see Life of Pi as a 'proof of God' argument, which may put a few people off. It's not that; it's a graceful proof of why people believe in God, which is a different and welcome thing in a world where cross-spiritual understanding is not always abundant. No wonder distributors have chosen to release it in the flurry of self-improvement that comes with New Year.
Your phone rings unexpectedly. A gravelly voice asks "do you like scary movies?". If you live in Sydney right now, it's a great time to answer in the affirmative. Horror film buffs know that the above is a scene straight out of the Scream franchise, which kicked off in 1996 and just keeps having another stab at cinemas — including 2023's Scream VI, which is showing now. Scary movie fans also need to know that eerie event fiends Haus of Horror are playing the OG Scream at Parramatta Gaol for one night only. This event collective just loves showing classic horror movies in spectacular locations, with its Scream session following a past The Exorcist night in the same spot — and also Beetlejuice in Camperdown Cemetery, too. Unsurprisingly, all these movie events are proving popular. And what better film to show next to Sydney's horror aficionados than one that screams "Sidney" (Prescott, Neve Campbell's character, that is) over and over? Once again, the idea is for the night — which has been dubbed 'Scream in a Haunted Gaol' — is to be as immersive as possible. Parramatta Gaol already hosts ghost tours, and is reportedly haunted by its former inmates if you believe in that kind of thing. It's certainly a site with history; constructed from sandstone and slate, it was built in the 19th century and operated until 2011. It followed Parramatta's first jail in 1796, which was damaged in a fire before the 1800s hit, rebuilt, and then had its prisoners transferred to the new facility in 1842. So, if you dare, that's where you'll be watching Scream — aka the story of a town and its teenagers terrorised by a mask-wearing psychopath who really does adore scary movies. Directed by late, great horror director Wes Craven, it became an instant classic by smartly blending slasher scares and self-aware laughs. And, from Campbell (Scream, the 2022 version), Drew Barrymore (Santa Clarita Diet) and Rose McGowan (The Sound) to Courteney Cox (Shining Vale), David Arquette (Quantum Cowboys), Matthew Lillard (Good Girls) and Skeet Ulrich (Riverdale), it boasts one helluva cast. Haus of Horror's Scream screening takes place at 6pm on Saturday, April 15, and includes two hours for attendees to explore Parramatta Gaol's morgue, cell blocks and showers. Whether or not you'll see Ghostface slinking around is yet to be revealed. Also on the agenda: a bar serving beer and wine, vegan and non-vegan bites to eat, a live DJ spinning tunes while the sun sets. The movie will play at 8pm on a grassy field inside the site, showing outdoors under the stars — and picnics are welcome. Tickets cost $39, or $59 if you'd like to book a large bean bag to sit on. Check out the trailer for Scream below: Scream in a Haunted Gaol takes place at Parramatta Gaol, corner O'Connell and Dunlop streets, North Parramatta from 6pm on Saturday, April 15 — head to the Haus of Horror website for tickets and further details.
If you’re struggling to make sense of our world after the Easter long weekend, or are simply recovering from overindulgence, check out Satanism by what at Gallery 9. With the statement “I do not work for God, directly. I work for God in mysterious ways. I work for God in the same way that I might work for Satan”, the intriguing artist known as what unwraps the point behind his current solo show. In his exploration of the boundaries of the light and dark sides, and the symbiotic relationship between them, what uses Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor as a framework. Originally written for the violin, the chaconne (the last part of a larger piece of music) was seen as one of the most difficult pieces to play — in its fifteen or so minutes it covers all facets of the violin, as known to Bach at the time. It’s these variations that become a study on Satanism. Small, white, inverted crosses on black backgrounds reveal that one tone is nothing if not undefined without the other.
Since launching in Queensland in late 2016, the wildly popular Holey Moley is showing no signs of slowing its Australian takeover. In New South Wales alone, the Newtown venue has been open less than a year and the Castle Hill outpost, only a few months — plus the same team just launched sibling venue Archie Brothers in December. Now, Potts Point is getting its own version of the mini golf bar. Holey Moley Darlinghurst is set to open along Darlinghurst Road on Thursday, May 10. Located just beneath the iconic Coke sign in Kings Cross, the two storey venue is a major upgrade from the previous two, boasting 27 holes and three bars, plus a kitchen serving up their signature burgers and bar snacks. They'll also have a brand new cocktail list and live DJ sets to boot. The new fit-out is themed around the roaring 20s — think art deco interiors, jazz-age inspirations and decadent party vibes, with one of the nine-hole courses located in a former piano room. "For this new location, the aim was to go above and beyond," says Funlab CEO Michael Schreiber. "The thought process behind the 1920s theme was to embrace the night owl, the free-spirited abandon of the era, and to give our customers an immersive, luxurious location." Holey Moley Darlinghurst marks the 11th branch for the franchise, which also has locations in Brisbane, Melbourne, Wollongong, Perth, Newcastle, the Sunshine Coast and Surfers Paradise. The specific courses have yet to be revealed, but, if Trump's face on a donkey's ass says anything, you can expect some good'uns. Holey Moley Darlinghurst will open on Thursday, May 10 at 82-94 Darlinghurst Road, Potts Point. Opening hours will be Monday through Thursday from noon to midnight, Friday through Saturday from 10am to 2am and Sunday from 10am to midnight. Image: Tom Wilkinson.
As if 2020 hasn't already felt like a neverending horror film, the spookiest night of the year, Halloween, is just around the corner. And if you're looking for even scarier thrills — or just a night off from watching the freak show that is the evening news — Luna Park has you sorted. Its festival of spine-tingling thrills, aptly dubbed Halloscream, is returning to the fun park after dark for six nights of frightening scares. This year's theme is Infinite Fear and, with the promise of zombies and prisoners roaming throughout the park to spook you at any moment, that's exactly what you'll be feeling. Festivities kick off at 6pm each evening with a 'scaremony' led by spooky puppet master Mr Bowler. You can then make your way through the three brand-new mazes in the Big Top. First, try to keep away from an evil landlord in the Outback Butcher, then hide from zombies as you explore DecayMart, an abandoned supermarket, before heading to Block 13, a prison filled with rioting inmates. Also be sure to pay a visit to the historic Coney Island, which will be transformed into a creepy doll 'hospital' dubbed Lonely Doll Island. Your ticket will also include unlimited rides throughout the park, so prepare your vocal chords for a cracking night. Luna Park will be taking extreme safety precautions including temperature checks and enhanced cleaning measures, and masks must be worn while in the mazes. Halloscream 8: Infinite Fear will run from selected dates between Friday, October 23 to Sunday, November 1. For exact dates and operating times, and to purchase tickets, head to the website.
