You won’t see Marvel films or Star Wars playing at Melbourne’s Cinema Nova, something co-founder Natalie Miller jokes is “either clever or stupid, I’m not sure which”.
For 30 years, the Carlton cinema has carved a niche by sticking to its brand of arthouse cinema programming. What began as a two-screen complex has grown to 16 screens and is now the largest independent cinema in the Southern Hemisphere.
“We try not to look like a multiplex,” Miller tells IF as the cinema celebrates its anniversary.
“We try to keep the cinema going with arthouse and more interesting ideas. We did play Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis; we will play the more ‘culty’ commercial films. We do a lot of events, Q&As and we’ve had a late show running for [Tommy Wiseau’s] The Room for about ten years. It’s all the specialty things that give us a bit of an edge.”
In the early ’90s, Miller – who has also headed distributor Sharmill Films since 1967 – was running The Longford Cinema on Toorak Road in South Yarra. Barry Peak, operator of the The Valhalla in Richmond then Westgarth, then asked her to join forces with him in a Carlton theatre on Lygon Street.
In Cinema Nova they had a shared vision for a creatively designed site, hiring young architect Leonard Hamersfeld – Miller only recently found out he was just 22 at the time.
“He suggested we should do it in purple and gold. And I said, ‘Gosh, that sounds like Wesley College’. But he stuck to his guns, and purple and gold it was,” Miller says, noting the whole team pitched in to put up the now signature gold leaf.
In terms of programming, quality was paramount from the outset. The first films on the bill when doors opened in August 1992 were Italian comedy drama The Mediterraneo and Ben Lewin’s The Favour, The Watch and The Very Big Fish.
“It’s hard to believe that back then, 30 years ago, being a twin, we said if we couldn’t get enough arthouse product to fill two cinemas, we’d do the other one with repertory. Well, of course, we never looked back,” Miller says.
Today, programming still “has to pass muster” and remains a shared decision between Miller, Peak and CEO Kristian Connelly.
“If two of the three say yes, then we do it,” Miller says.
Along the way, Cinema Nova has been a pioneering exhibitor in many respects; it was the first cinema in Australia to move to digital, with Peak and Miller converting “a Woolworths coolroom” in Lygon Court into its first digital theatre. It also forged a path in alternate content, screening events from New York’s Metropolitan Opera and London’s National Theatre.
Since the pandemic, Miller concedes that the “true blue” arthouse audience has been slower to return to cinemas. However, Nova has found success with films like Everything Everywhere All At Once, which ranks in its top 10 films of all time, and the National Theatre Live’s Prima Facie. Miller is confident about the future of cinemagoing, and pleased to see the studios now priortising the theatrical window out of the pandemic.
“The audience will come out when there’s something that’s really good,” Miller says.
“To see people in the cinema and talking about the film afterwards, you can’t beat that. You can’t do that in your lounge room.“
Cinema Nova has also long been a supporter of Australian cinema, typically booking a majority of local releases, including documentaries.
“I’m very happy we’ve got the 16 screens so we are able to play most of the films,” Miller says.
“I even go back to my Longford days, to Australian films like Muriel’s Wedding and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I remember the crowds that came to Muriel’s Wedding. Alan Finney, who was at Roadshow at the time, put on Priscilla straight afterwards. We said, ‘Well, what are you doing that for?’ He said, ‘If they go to one good Australian film, they want to go to another’. It was absolutely true. We got packed houses. I do believe if you make good Australian films people will come. Look at Elvis, look at The Dry; they all came flocking in.
“Good Australian films can have big box office, average Australian films can still have a box office and do well. We’re committed to playing as many as we can.“
Distribution and exhibition remain male-dominated sections of the screen landscape, and as recognised by the annual women’s fellowship in her honour, Miller is widely-regarded as a pioneer for women in these sectors. Sharmill Films was the first distributor in Australia established by a woman, and she has sat on numerous boards, including currently as a director the National Association of Cinema Operators (NACO).
Miller says she never thought of herself as forging a path, she “just went and did it”. However she is pleased to see the industry changing, including women at the top of screen companies, such as Event CEO Jane Hastings.
Established in 2011, the $20,000 Natalie Miller Fellowship has supported professional leadership aspirations of women across all industry sectors, with previous recipients including Rachel Okine, Harriet Pike, Rebecca Hammond, Courtney Botfield, Sasha Close, Kristy Matheson, Miriam Katsambis, Anna Kaplan, Pauline Clague and Bridgette Graham.
It was Miller’s late personal assistant Chrissy Thompson who suggested establishing the fellowship, though she was initially hesitant to agree.
“I said no in the beginning, because I thought that’s the sort of thing you do when someone’s dead. So it felt a bit scary, and I was a bit reluctant, but then I realised how important it was and that I should put my name there and help to encourage these women. Over the years, it’s given me so much pleasure.
“It’s so good to see these women move on and to have been given that opportunity to develop their skills.
“I used to say I’m coming back as a man, but I now say I’m coming back as a woman, because I think that the opportunities for the women are increasing a lot. They’ve got a way to go, but they are increasing.”
Nova’s ‘Pearl Anniversary’ retrospective program continues until August 31. Applications for the Natalie Miller Fellowship for 2022 are open until September 9.