The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, or ACMI, is dedicated to the moving image in all its forms. It is located in Federation Square, in Melbourne, Australia, across four levels of the Alfred Deakin Building. ACMI is a state-of-the-art facility purpose-built for the preservation, exhibition and promotion of Victorian, Australian and International screen content.
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ACMI has two main cinemas that are equipped to play every film, video and digital video format, with the most extensive projection facilities in the southern hemisphere. THX certified sound systems allow high quality attention to acoustics.
ACMI Cinemas present regular weekly and monthly programs:
ACMI also regularly profiles highly acclaimed actors, directors, writers, cinematographers, and film genres through its ‘Focus On’ seasons. Highlights have included seasons on Stanley Kubrick, Jim Jarmusch, Robert De Niro and David Cronenberg. Genres have included Focus on Gypsies and for the release of King Kong, Focus on Monsters.
ACMI undertakes partnerships with a variety of film festivals; Melbourne International Film Festival, Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Festival of German Films, Little Big Shots, Melbourne International Animation Festival, Resfest and more.
Open from 18 September 2009, Screen Worlds is a permanent exhibition exploring all aspects of the moving image using objects, footage and artistic installations. It contains the Kids Space and Games Lab.
The screen gallery, re-named Gallery 1 when Gallery 2 was introduced in 2009, was built along the entire length of what was previously Princes Bridge railway station. It is a subterranean gallery for experimentation with the moving image. Video art, installations, interactives, sound art, net art and screen related objects are all regularly exhibited in this space.
ACMI's next major exhibitions are "Shaun Gladwell: Stereo Sequences", opening 1 June 2011 [1] followed by "Star Voyager: Exploring Space on Screen"[2] in September 2011.
| Exhibition | Opened | Closed | Origin | Content Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deep Space: Sensation & Immersion | 26 October 2002 | 27 January 2003 | Art Gallery of New South Wales as Space Odysseys: Sensation & Immersion | |
| Ngarinyin Pathways Dulwan | 26 October 2002 | 31 August 2003 | ACMI | Pathway Project of the Ngarinyin elders |
| Remembrance + the Moving Image Persistence of Vision | 21 March 2003 | 25 May 2003 | ACMI | |
| Remembrance + the Moving Image Reverberation | 27 June 2003 | 31 August 2003 | ACMI | |
| Transfigure | 8 December 2003 | 9 May 2004 | ACMI | |
| 2004 Australian Culture Now | 8 June 2004 | 12 September 2004 | ACMI & National Gallery of Victoria | |
| SenseSurround | 7 October 2004 | 7 November 2004 | ACMI | |
| Proof | 9 December 2004 | 13 February 2005 | ACMI | |
| World Without End | 14 April 2005 | 17 July 2005 | ACMI | |
| White Noise | 18 August 2005 | 23 October 2005 | ACMI | |
| Stanley Kubrick: Inside the Mind of a Visionary Filmmaker | 25 November 2005 | 29 January 2006 | Deutsches Filmmuseum | Christiane Kubrick / Stanley Kubrick Estate |
| 2006 Contemporary Commonwealth | 24 February 2006 | 21 May 2006 | ACMI & National Gallery of Victoria | |
| TV50 | 22 June 2006 | 1 October 2006 | ACMI | |
| Eyes, Lies and Illusions | 2 November 2006 | 11 February 2007 | Hayward Gallery | Werner Nekes Collection |
| Centre Pompidou Video Art 1965-2005 | 22 March 2007 | 27 May 2007 | Centre Pompidou | |
| Pixar: 20 Years of Animation | 28 June 2007 | 14 October 2007 | Museum of Modern Art | Barbican Gallery |
| Replay Christian Marclay | 15 November 2007 | 3 February 2008 | Cité de la musique | |
| Game On | 6 March 2008 | 13 July 2008 | Barbican Gallery | |
| Correspondences: Victor Erice and Abbas Kiarostami | 21 August 2008 | 2 November 2008 | Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona | |
| Setting the Scene: Film Design from Metropolis to Australia | 4 December 2008 | 19 April 2009 | Deutsche Kinemathek as Moving Spaces | |
| Len Lye | 16 July 2009 | 11 October 2009 | ACMI | Govett-Brewster Art Gallery |
| Dennis Hopper & The New Hollywood | 12 November 2009 | 25 April 2010 | Cinematheque francaise | |
| Tim Burton: The Exhibition | 24 June 2010 | 10 October 2010 | Museum of Modern Art | |
| Dreams Come True: The Art of Disney's Classic Fairy Tales | 18 November 2010 | 26 April 2011 | New Orleans Museum of Art | Walt Disney Animation Research Library |
| Shaun Gladwell: Stereo Sequences | 1 June 2011 | 14 August 2011 | ACMI | |
| Star Voyager: Exploring Space on Screen | 22 September 2011 | 29 January 2012 | ACMI | |
| William Kentridge: Five Themes | 8 March 2012 | 27 May 2012 | ACMI | |
| Game Masters | 28 June 2012 | 28 October 2012 | ACMI |
Open from 18 September 2009, Gallery 2 is a smaller, more flexible gallery than Gallery 1.
| Exhibition | Opened | Closed | Origin | Content Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hollywood Remix | 18 September 2009 | 22 November 2009 | ACMI | |
| Best of the Independent Games Festival 2009 | 8 December 2009 | 14 February 2010 | ACMI | Independent Games Festival |
| Mary and Max: The Exhibition | 2 March 2010 | 6 June 2010 | ACMI | Adam Elliot |
| Bill Viola: The Raft | 7 October 2010 | 20 February 2011 | ACMI | Kaldor Public Arts Projects and Melbourne International Arts Fesitval |
| Arthur and Corinne Cantrill: Light Years | 8 march 2010 | 5 June 2011 | ACMI | |
| Margaret and David: 25 Years Talking Movies | 17 August 2011 | 4 December 2011 | ACMI | A collaboration with ABC. Supported by SBS. |
| Best of the Independent Games Festival 2011 | 20 December 2011 | 25 March 2012 | ACMI | Independent Games Festival |
| Best of the Independent Games Festival 2012 | 27 March 2012 | 8 July 2012 | ACMI | Independent Games Festival |
Australian Mediatheque is a space with multiple screening stations with access to works from ACMI and the National Film and Sound Archive.
Studio 1 is a production and educational amphitheatre which can accommodate everything from multimedia performances to television broadcasts, and is equipped with video projection, video conferencing, web casting and online facilities.
ACMI also houses a digital studio for hands-on workshops and production programs. Participants can access the technology, and develop the skills, to produce their own moving image work.
Open from 18 September 2009, the Video Garden is an outdoor gallery that leads people from the Flinders Street side of the building to the main entrance. Previous exhibitions have included Random Encounters, Gooey by the Lycette Bros, I Fell Off My Bike and Blast Off.
The ACMI Store, located on the entry level next to the Tickets & Information Desk, stocks exhibition catalogues, books, DVDs, toys, cards and gifts.
The Memory Grid was a display allowing access to over 100 hours of film that were been recorded by ordinary Australians, independent filmmakers, students, community-based practitioners and participants in ACMI hands-on production workshops. Much of the content in the Memory Grid had either never been displayed outside, or had been displayed only once on community television. Further, the Memory Grid contained a large collection of animated and interactive works, and actively accepted work from the public for display.
The Games Lab was ACMI's display area for interactive video games. It celebrated the past, present and future of games, looking deeper to promote this popular form of the moving image as a fascinating reflection of our culture.
In 2003, ACMI commissioned Selectparks to produce an interactive game-based, site specific installation called AcmiPark, which was exhibited in the Games Lab. AcmiPark replicates and abstracts the real world architecture of Federation Square. It also houses highly innovative mechanisms for interactive, multiplayer sound and musical composition.
The Games Lab exhibited the Best of the Independent Games Festival for 2005, 2006 & 2007. In early 2007 Hits of the 80s profiled Melbourne's Beam Software and the secret history of Australia's place in the rise and rise of the video game. In 2005 an exhibition was dedicated to Sonic the Hedgehog called Sonic the Hedgehog: Icon of our Times.
The Games Lab has now been incorporated into the Screen Worlds exhibition space.
"What's On Aug-Sep 2009", ACMI, 2009