Now and Next
History
Previously, an Australian Film Institute (AFI) cinema from the 1980s, it was named after Charles Chauvel**, a pioneering Australian filmmaker from the mid 1920’s onwards, best remembered for Forty Thousand Horsemen (1941) and Jedda (1955). Plans to have a cinema installed were initiated in the early 1970s by the Paddington Town Hall Centre, a group that attracted funding to renovate the whole building from the then Film, Radio and Television Board of the Australia Council. It was named the Ozone. Then, in 1978 the Paddington Town Hall Cinema became for a short period the home of the National Film Theatre (NFT) and a hub for Cinémathèque goers. A term that originated in France and is essentially a cinema attached to a film library, or a film archive. In 1995 the cinema complex and foyer was renovated and a second screen was added.At the time of late September 2006, when The Chauvel closed its doors, Lord Mayor Clover Moore received around 100 letters about the cinema, the most she had received on any arts related subject since her succession. These letters came from residents and non-residents; people involved in the film industry and people who were keen cinema-goers. They pointed to the Chauvel's important role in screening new Australian films - that would otherwise not be seen at the large multiplexes or would be diminished on TV. Palace Cinemas was selected as the new lesee thereby safeguarding The Chauvel as a unique film centre. On July 27th 2006 The Chauvel re-opened its doors.
Wall Plan
