2017 Canberra International Film Festival

The 2017 program is an exciting blend of retrospective and contemporary programming, offering some of the world’s best cinema, past and present, emphasising new works from Australia and Asia, and providing a proud national platform for Canberra’s own filmmakers.

CIFF has always had a retrospective component, but this year, it is greatly expanded and fills over half of the Festival’s sessions.

Canberra Nara Candle Festival

Enjoy the spectacular visual of 2,000 shimmering candles at the 16th annual Canberra Nara Candle Festival on Saturday 28 October, as we celebrate the 24th year of the Sister City relationship shared between Canberra and Nara, Japan.

Visitors will be mesmerised by the sounds of Japanese music and enchanting lighting that highlights the features of the beautiful Peace Park. The festival brings a wide variety of Japanese and Australian culture with arts and crafts such as calligraphy, lantern making, origami, ikebana and kite flying.

Bell Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

This uncompromising and dark production explores the tense relationship and prejudices between those that have, and those that have not. Dark in its humour and bawdy in its romantic hijinks, The Merchant of Venice takes audiences on a journey of love, mercy and justice at the Canberra Theatre Centre.