Irish Film Festival Australia opens today with a Sydney premiere and nationwide streaming

The Irish Film Festival Australia opens in Sydney on Thursday, 8 October, with a premiere screening of Chasing Millions at Palace Moore Park. A separate online selection also opens across Australia today, giving filmgoers outside the five cinema cities a way to watch from home.

Three points to know

• Chasing Millions is the Sydney opening-night film. The festival lists a 7:45 pm start at Palace Moore Park, with doors opening at 6 pm.
• The cinema program travels to Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Canberra after its Sydney run, with the last city dates ending on 9 November.
• The online program is available across Australia through ACMI Cinema 3 from 8 October to 15 November; some films are cinema-only.

Sydney opens the cinema season

The festival’s opening-night listing names Chasing Millions as the feature at Palace Moore Park. The Irish-Australian heist dramedy follows a Belfast detective and a young Australian police officer investigating a major bank robbery, according to the festival synopsis. The organiser lists an opening-night event before the film and a post-screening question-and-answer session with filmmakers.

The NSW Government’s event page confirms the Sydney dates as 8–11 October at Palace Moore Park. It lists the opening day’s public hours as 6 pm to 9:55 pm and advises checking times with the organiser for updates.

Five-city schedule and online dates

After Sydney, the cinema program moves to Palace Barracks in Brisbane from 16–19 October, The Kino in Melbourne from 22–25 October, Palace Raine Square in Perth from 30 October to 2 November, and Palace Electric in Canberra from 6–9 November.

The online selection runs through ACMI Cinema 3 until 15 November. The festival says viewers need a free ACMI account to rent films; after pressing play, a rental can be watched for 48 hours. The online collection includes six post-film Q&As, while nine cinema titles have Q&As included with a ticket. Some titles are exclusive to cinema screenings.

For the Sydney opening, the festival directs readers to the Palace Cinemas booking page. Its FAQ says tickets may also be bought at the cinema on the night if a session has not sold out. Online film availability and rental details are listed through the festival’s program page.

Sources

• Irish Film Festival Australia — opening-night film, venue and times
• Irish Film Festival Australia — city schedule and online dates
• Irish Film Festival Australia — booking, rental and Q&A details
• NSW Government — Sydney dates, venue and event hours

Cover photo: Sardaka, “Cinema One, Ritz Cinema, Randwick, Sydney” (3 October 2020), via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. The archival cinema photo is part of an AI-generated paper collage with line art; the collage is distributed under the same licence. It is not a photograph of the festival’s Palace Moore Park venue.