We’ve already shown that we appreciate the fabulous Star Cinema in Eaglehawk, Victoria. Just scroll down our list of Australia’s 25 most beautiful cinemas and see for yourself: it’s got “timelessly elegant wooden floors, decorative plasterwork, and soaringly high ceilings”, according to our journo Cat Woods.
For the cinema’s inaugural Eaglehawk Film Festival, programmers have decided to stick pretty closely to one, all-consuming, deeply Australian theme: gold, and the human hunger to claim it. But we don’t just mean that this striking ten-film lineup is all movies with just a few scenes about gold (sorry, Pulp Fiction and Austin Powers in Goldmember).
Every. Damn. Film in the festival’s lineup uses the exact title ‘Gold’, and you’d be surprised just how many diverse movies there are with that name. The most buzzy one that comes to mind is the upcoming Stan Original film starring Zac Efron, which will kick off the 1st Annual Eaglehawk Film Festival on January 14.
The survival drama will screen on afternoons and evenings every day until the following Friday. Be a bit more adventurous, though, and check out the nine other solid-gold movie selections ranging from a 1934 German black-and-white tale to a 2013 documentary about Paralympics excellence.
Movies from the UK, Iran, Spain, India, Ireland, and Canada are all there for some cinematic mining, all with the title ‘gold’ and a varying cast of stars including Matthew McConaughey, Roger Moore, Maisie Williams, and more.
Star Cinema manager Martin Myles explains that the thematic choice was obvious, given Greater Bendigo’s 1800s gold rush history. “With each new year and theme, we will put together a programme of hand-picked titles and include as much diversity as possible in terms of culture, era and genre…we have had a lot of fun putting together a collection of films that represent gold, either literally, or metaphorically. It is a theme which has been called on time and again through the decades of film-making.”
If you’re in Victoria this January 14 to 21, take a road trip in the name of big-screen gold to Eaglehawk this summer. The small but powerful film festival lineup will certainly be worth it, and you’ll enjoy the opportunity to check out the charming surrounds of Greater Bendigo. Just don’t get all Humphrey Bogart in Treasure of the Sierra Madre on us…
Read more about the festival and buy tickets here via Eaglehawk Film Festival’s official website
