Greetings dear Friends,

This weekend is the Academy Awards, with almost as much glitz and glamour at Avoca Theatre for our Oscars Party! With one of our COASTIES FILM FESTIVAL WINNER’S nominated for an OSCAR – we’re popping the bubbly, rolling out the red carpet and roping the paparazzi back for  YOU our glamorous & outrageous guests! Chris James performs his emotive & dynamically charged uplifting songs before a film audiences are LOVING - CRAZY HEART. CRAZY HEART has 3 Oscar nominations – for Jeff Bridges as Bad Blake, Maggie Gyllanhaal and also for the music…it looks and sounds just beautiful! "I used to be somebody," Bad sings, "now I am somebody else"—and Bridges fills his emptiness with quirky humour, dangerous anger, an urgent yearning for redemption and a gift for evoking a better time” (Wall Street Journal). Good seats still available – get you friends together this Friday 5th March at 7.30pm.  Tickets including bubbly are just $17.50.

“When you empower a woman you empower an entire family. When women get together, miracles happen.”  (Lindholm, Foundation for Women).  Each year we celebrate INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY with a very special event.  This year we have an amazing evening beginning with canapés, a photographic exhibition by Rick Carter capturing the dignity, empowerment & hope of families who have been transformed through microfinancing.  Before the film the Shakti Women’s Choir will bring two women’s songs then, a lovely surprise, an introduction to the film from Megan Lowder who features in the film. IN HER FOOTSTEPS chronicles a silent yet powerful revolution amongst India’s poor women. Insightful, thought provoking & cinematically beautiful, the film opens up the reality of poverty whilst illustrating the power of microfinance in restoring dignity & hope to the poor women of India.  This is an evening to celebrate the success of providing third world women with finance to start their own small businesses & an opportunity for us to contribute funds towards microfinancing a third world woman’s business who can then grow her family into self sufficiency & a better life. Celebrate International Women’s Day this Monday 8th March from 7pm.  Tickets just $16 – book early!

Next week, we have a great film EXCLUSIVE to Avoca Theatre. MY NAME IS KHAN is indubitably one of the most meaningful and moving films to be rolled out from the Bollywood mills in recent times. The film takes on an expansive canvas: 9/11, post 9/11, racial abuse, draconian homeland security laws, a hysterical US jurisprudence, hurricane Katrina....Yet, remains primarily the story of a good man who wants to live in a good world with good people around him” (IMDB).  India’s superstar & number one heart throb Shah Rukh, whom we have seen on our screen many times, takes a more serious look at the world whilst bringing a story based on a true story that even “outshines Forest Gump!”  “Brilliant”  “Endearing” “Role of a Lifetime” “future cult classic.”  Can only stay ONE WEEK…be sure to see it!

From the Italian Film Festival we have the intriguing GIULIA DOESN’T GO OUT AT NIGHT, with Valeria Golino, whom we loved in Respiro. Two worlds collide in Piccioni's heart-rending love story centred around two very fine performances; the film turns the ordinary upside down, and tears at our emotions. Piccioni employs a series of revelations to keep the narrative moving, while firmly building his film around the growing relationship between this seemingly unlikely pair. . The night begins with Italian wine & finger food followed by an Italian indulgence.- Nathan and Javier from ENCORE, bringing a tantalising taste of their Italian fare!  Frid 12th March – from 7.30pm.  Tickets $22.50.

CARMEN from the New York Met Opera was almost a full house with people sitting right up to the front row…and we have had many people asking us to screen it again, so book in Tues 16th March at noon. You will be blown away by Kate Aldrich - she is perfect in every way as Carmen! 

Finishes at the French Film Festival & straight to Avoca, OSS 117 LOST IN RIO is a spy spoof that will have you in stitches! Our last OSS117 had you SQUEALING with the incorrectness of it all!  Jean Dujardin is back & hedoesn’t know the word regret or the meaning of "political correctness" – a spoofy James Bond with the bumbling of Maxwell Smart. The evening will begin with finger food, wine & bubbly, followed by a multimedia performance from francophiles Michael Carney, Dave Rowson & the very talented award winning photographer Julie Boland, bringing us LOST IN PARIS. Get a party together for the 19th March.  Begins at 7.30pm, tickets for all this just $21.50

NUTCRACKER is coming from the very best – the Russian Kirov Ballet Company (formally Mariinsky).  We were very fortunate to see this in Moscow in the summer season of the Bolshoi – left us entranced! The Nutcracker is based on  E.T.A Hoffman’s (Tales of Hoffman) "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" commissioned in 1891 by the legendary choreographer Marius Petipa who had Tchaikovsky write the music. Sat 27th at 11.30 & Sun 28th March at 1.30pm. Tickets: Adults $20, Conc $18, Child $15.

THE LAST STATION is receiving rich accolades beside its two Oscar nominations for Helen Mirren & Christopher Plumber.  “It’s the most emotionally naked work of Mirren’s movie career; she gives poetic form to the madness & the violence of commonplace jealousy.  Her look of pleading & then of tenderness toward Plummer is heartbreaking.” (The New Yorker) Be the first to see THE LAST STATION at our EXLUSIVE PREVIEW  SCREENING which begins with bubbly & wine and a beautiful dessert before this fine film.  Friday 26th March from 7.30pm, an amazing $18.50.         

MY ONE & ONLY is an hilarious romp based on the early life of actor George Hamilton that is filled with wry humour, affection and insight.  “Loaded with laughs, heart and wonderful performances, this 50’s set comedy about a flamboyant mother and two sons on a wild cross country road trip is first class entertainment.” (Box Office Magazine) “Sharp, fun and affectionate,” ”One of the best films Renee Zellwegger has ever done”(NY Observer) ”Rolls a lover story, road movies & coming of age tale with a heavy dose of wry humour into one.”(NY Times)  Starts 18th March - Exclusive to Avoca Theatre

To face the future, they must face the past.  Exclusive to Avoca, 5 MINUTES OF HEAVEN is “A powerful cinematic experience…a tightly structured, nerve-crunchingly tense drama.”(Screen Daily), with Liam Neeson and James Nesbit both giving compelling performances.  Starts 18th March.           

We have the Millennium Book Series for sale, of which THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO film comes here from the 25th March. This series has been on SMH best seller list for month’s – read the series before you see the film, and find out why the Millenium Series is a best seller.

• Thurs 4th March – CRAZY HEART begins
• Fri 5th March – OSCAR PARTY with Chris James performing before CRAZY HEART
• Thurs 11th – MY NAME IS KHAN begins
• Mon 8th  March – INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY - IN HER FOOTSTEPS
• Fri 12th March – ITALIAN EVENING with GUILIA DOESN’T GO OUT AT NIGHT
• Tue 16th March – New York Met Opera’s CARMEN
• Thurs 18th March -  MY ONE AND ONLY begins
• Thur 18th March - FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN begins
• Fri 19th March – FRENCH SOIREE – OSS 117 LOST IN RIO
• Thus 25th March – THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO begins
• Fri 26th March – THE LAST STATION Preview Screening.
• Sat 27th and Sun 28th March – Kirov Ballet’s NUTCRACKER

Come in and treat yourself to our Blackboard Special which is Cappuccino & Caramel Topped Banana Bread for $7 or Tea & Banana Bread for just $6.

We have such great films coming – wonderful time to have a social gathering or a fundraiser – give me a call & we can work out what is best for your group.  We have made a change to our website. 

You will find there is now an icon called NOW SHOWING at the top of the page.  This button gives you a précis of the films which we are showing or about to show.  Hope this helps you!

PRECIOUS, BRIGHT STAR and THE ROAD continue for a limited time only…don’t miss them! 

See you very soon, at the Theatre

Beth