If you’ve ever sunk into one of Thornbury Picture House’s squishy armchairs, a Negroni in hand and a cult classic flickering to life on the big screen, you’ll know exactly why locals have fallen hard for the independent cinema’s homespun charm. Now, the team behind the beloved northside haunt – filmmaking duo Gus and Lou Berger – are ready to spread that love a little further, announcing the upcoming opening of Brunswick Picture House, a brand-new venue set to light up Sydney Road this November.
Housed in a beautifully restored heritage building at 510 Sydney Road, the Brunswick Picture House will feature a slick single-screen cinema – complete with a 6.5-metre screen, 7.1 Krix sound system and plush, movie marathon-worthy seats – plus a stylish, intimate bar designed for pre-show cocktails and post-film debriefs.
Like its Thornbury sibling, the new space will be much more than an in-and-out movie den – it's set to be the kind of place where people pop in for a drink, stay for a film and leave with a few new friends.
“We want Brunswick Picture House to feel like a local – a spot where people can hang out, meet up, and connect,” says co-owner and general manager Lou Berger. “It’s been a long and tough journey reviving this beautiful old building, but we can’t wait to get back to what we love – being an important arts venue in the heart of a vibrant, diverse community.”
The programming will be underpinned by the same kind of careful curation as the Thornbury institution. Expect an eclectic mix of new releases, arthouse favourites, cult classics, documentaries and festival highlights – the kind of line-up that keeps both film buffs and casual moviegoers coming back for more.
And true to their roots, the Bergers are intent on making the Brunswick Picture House a platform for local filmmakers. “We plan to not only bring great films to a new area but to be a place where filmmakers can have their work shown,” says Gus Berger, the cinema’s programmer (and filmmaker behind the acclaimed documentary The Lost City of Melbourne).
“We’ll also host mini film festivals, including the ones we started in Thornbury like Northern Lights, which showcases short films and music videos by local creators, and Beats Working, our annual celebration of the world’s best music documentaries.”
The team is also set to continue its partnerships with the Fantastic Film Festival Australia, Melbourne Short Film Festival and BUFF (Brunswick Underground Film Festival) – strengthening ties to Melbourne’s thriving indie cinema circuit while adding a fresh dose of energy to Brunswick’s arts scene.
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This expansion feels like a natural next logical step for Gus and Lou, who have spent the past decade quietly shaping Melbourne’s independent film culture. After cutting their teeth at St Kilda’s George Cinema in 2014, they transformed a disused 1919 petrol station into the now-iconic Thornbury Picture House in 2018 – a project that captured the spirit of cinema’s golden age while championing a new generation of filmmakers.
In a poetic full-circle twist, the Vic8 35mm projector they once operated in St Kilda has resurfaced and will be installed in Brunswick Picture House, carrying its cinematic legacy forward to a new audience. Crucially, the Bergers insist they’re not abandoning their firstborn. “We’re not going anywhere in Thornbury,” says Lou.
With its foundation membership program (members can even have their name engraved on a seat for life) and inaugural festival announcements set for early November, Brunswick Picture House is shaping up to be a very welcome addition to the city this summer.
You can find out more via the Brunswick Picture House website or on Instagram.
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