Cinema Nova turns 30: Australia’s most influential independent cinema celebrates milestone with retrospective showcase

It was February 1997, and the Nova, now the largest independent cinema in Australia, was then a humble fourplex with a glass-walled foyer and curved candy bar downstairs. Opening five years earlier and with half the number of screens, it was a collaboration between Natalie Miller, who started South Yarra’s dearly departed Longford Cinema, and Barry Peak, co-founder of the Valhalla, now the Palace Westgarth. Ben Lewin’s screwball comedy The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish was the first film to light up the projectors, alongside Italian gem Mediterraneo.

Source: Cinema Nova turns 30: Australia’s most influential independent cinema celebrates milestone with retrospective showcase