Screen presented by Sydney Opera House

Bringing world-class arts to the screen

For more than a decade, the Opera House’s Screen program has engaged tens of millions of people around the world with a year-round program that celebrates screen, digital and film culture, presented onsite and online. 

In 2024, Screen re-introduced cinema to the Opera House after almost 40 years with regular screenings of popular contemporary features, music films, family favourites, independent documentaries and Q&A events. The Screen program also includes the long-running series of live concert recordings and performance films – presented on Stream, the Opera House’s streaming platform – as well as screenings from local and international artists and filmmakers.

Central to the program is the delivery of Digital Creative Learning to schools and educators around the country, offering free programs of livestreams, interactive workshops, author talks and original content.

Cinema

The year-round Cinema program screens a selection of contemporary films, performing arts on screen, documentaries, classics and Q&As with special guests. 

Following Utzon’s resignation as lead architect of the Opera House in 1966, his design concepts for the Concert Hall were overhauled, resulting in large unused spaces below the stage. This space, now known as The Playhouse, was transformed into a cinema in the 70s and 80 and showed a broad array of Australian and international films. 

Since its return in 2024, the Playhouse has hosted a selection of notable films including the Australian Premiere of Palme d'Or 2024 winner Anora, the revival of golden age surf films with the program First Wave, cherished Studio Ghibli films including Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron; and much-loved contemporary classics such as Paris Texas, Chungking Express and Gallipoli. The Playhouse also presented the Academy Award-nominated, groundbreaking generative film about visionary artist Brian Eno and Ryuichi Sakamoto’s final performance ever captured in Opus, among many other remarkable screenings. In June 2025, the Playhouse become an official venue for Sydney Film Festival for the first time in its history, with many sold out screenings and audience favourites.

Stream

Stream is the Sydney Opera House’s online streaming platform, designed to showcase the exceptional art performed on its iconic stages and making it accessible to everyone. With new content announced year-round, viewers can access a program of new releases including highlights from the Opera House’s incredible multi-genre archive, as well as livestreams of new performances, presentations by resident and international performing arts companies, and original screen programming created exclusively for the platform.

Sydney Opera House has been presenting livestreams and recordings since 2013, including iconic performances from musicians such as The Cure, Solange, Bon Iver, Janelle Monáe, Nile Rogers, Neil Finn & Paul Kelly, Iggy Pop, Flume and Max Richter; and talks from Stephen Hawking, Pussy Riot, Chelsea Manning, Ai Weiwei, Fran Lebowitz, Alain de Botton, Nigella Lawson and many more.

Screen Commissions

Complementing our recordings and livestreams, is a commissioning program that develops new screen-based work with artists and partner organisations.

Core to the program is Shortwave, an ongoing short-film commissioning series, designed to platform a cross-section of interdisciplinary Australian artists and filmmakers. The most recent series included work by Trà Mi Dinh; Maissa Alameddine and Narjis Mirza; Blak Social; Tahlia Palmer; Em Yali; and Mat Spisbah, Harrison Hall, Li Yi Fan; presenting films that highlighted interconnectedness across communities and generations, through themes of resistance, reclamation and renewal.

Recent commissions also include the short film Oleum – A Sydney Opera by Subversus; and live performances such as motion capture dance works from artists Lu Yang and Serwah Attafuah; the First Nations voice-to-art installation Traces; the 50th birthday retrospective artwork Light Years projected onto the Opera House sails; and the Outlines festival which presented works, artists and ideas that explored innovative approaches to performance through digital technologies.

Digital Creative Learning

The long-running Digital Creative Learning program connects students to professional artists and arts experiences without them leaving their classroom. Our streamed events are available every term throughout the school year and include both live, interactive and on-demand experiences, all free to Australian schools. 

Students can come on an exclusive look behind the scenes with one of our digital tours; propel into the future with our STEM workshops; hear from their favourite personalities in our talk series; and be inspired by our storytelling, dance and first nations workshops. 

Find out more about Digital Creative Learning.

A woman and a robot doing hand gestures.

Programming highlights

1 of 14

  • Producer's view through a screen showing a digital background, of a performer in front of a green screen
  • A person standing in a dark room with two screens in the background
  • A screen displaying an image of a person with multicoloured areas
  • A performer standing in front of a screen image of bushland and a figure mimicking the movement of the performer
  • A performer on stage in front of a screen image of two cars in a field and a figure mimicking the movement of the performer
  • An audience watching a performer in front of a screen image under a dark red light
  • Producer's view through screens of a person standing over a deck in a recording room under a green light

Stuart BuchananHead of Screen

Stuart is responsible for leading and curating the Opera House’s year-round screen program.

As a senior arts professional in digital strategy and content, Stuart’s passion lies at the intersection of art, technology and media. He has worked with companies such as ABC, Art Gallery of NSW, AFTRS, Biennale of Sydney, Disney, Edinburgh Fringe, The Guardian, MONA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Mute Records, Royal Court Theatre and SBS, and co-founded the award-winning digital cultural agency The Nest.

Stuart has also worked as a broadcaster and producer, presenting radio programs and podcasts on ABC’s Double J, FBi Radio and UK station Resonance FM. His curatorial projects include the renowned New Weird Australia initiative and guest programming roles at a number of events and festivals. Stuart was Executive Producer of the inaugural Creative Sydney Festival in 2009 (now known as Vivid Ideas), Chair of Underbelly Arts Festival from 2013-2016, and a Board Member of FBi Radio.