You may not know this but the Sydney Opera House has a long and rich cinematic history. While it’s renowned for live productions today, in the 1970s and ’80s the iconic Playhouse theatre was known as “the Cinema” and was a destination for Sydney’s movie lovers.

Now the landmark venue’s new cinema program is attracting the next generation of movie buffs. The line-up features award-winning international and locally made films across multiple genres, languages and stories. Vivid Live – a month-long festival of music and art – also presents its own program of music-focused films.

With so many to choose from, we’ve selected five standout screenings.

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Evil Does Not Exist

Oscar-winning filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to Drive My Car is an enigmatic ecological thriller. The film follows Takumi (Hitoshi Omika) and his eight-year-old daughter Hana (Ryô Nishikawa), who live in a village on the rural outskirts of Tokyo. Their quiet existence is disturbed when a “glamping project”, set to be built near Takumi’s house, threatens to destroy their village’s local watering hole. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Venice International Film Festival, it’s a timely and unexpected parable with a shocking finale. Secure your tickets fast, there’s only one screening, on May 4.

The Boy and the Heron

Despite announcing his retirement in 2013, legendary animator and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle) has returned with a new masterpiece. This semi-autobiographical fantasy adventure follows a young boy who moves to the countryside after his mother dies. When a talking grey heron informs him his mother is still alive, he enters an abandoned tower to find himself in a new world shared by the living and the dead. The film explores life, friendship and creation, and won Best Animated Feature at this year’s Academy Awards. You can catch screenings at the Playhouse on May 5 and June 2, both with English dubbing.

The Zone of Interest

Winner of this year’s International Feature Film at the Academy Awards, Jonathan Glazer’s (Under the Skin) latest film is a haunting and original depiction of a period of history whose horrors have been well document in film. Based on a true story, it follows the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoss (Christian Friedel), and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Huller, Anatomy of a Fall), as they build their dream life and family home, which shares a garden wall with the death camp. It’s a confronting look at the banality of evil. Screening at the Playhouse on May 5.

Eno (Vivid Live)

This documentary about musician Brian Eno is ambitious, experimental and original. A computer program selects and live edits this film’s footage, creating a different version every time it’s screened. The groundbreaking generative film explores the life and legacy of Eno, a pioneer of ambient music who produced for David Bowie, U2 and Talking Heads, releasing more than 40 albums. The musician was also Vivid Live’s first curator, in 2009. This is an Australian premiere and there’ll be four screenings, from May 31 to June 2, followed by a Q&A with director Gary Hustwit.

Neptune Frost (Vivid Live)

This visually stunning Afro-futurist sci-fi punk musical is bursting with ideas. It’s by artist and filmmaker Saul Williams and is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Set in the hilltops of Burundi, the film follows a group of coltan miners who form an anti-colonialist computer-hacker collective to resist an authoritarian regime. When Matalusa (Bertrand Ninteretse), an escaped coltan miner, develops a cosmic bond with Neptune (played by Cheryl Isheja and Elvis Ngabo), an intersex runaway, their connection leads a revolution against the tech powers exploiting their communities. Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) is an executive producer on this bold and innovative film. Screening June 2 in the Playhouse.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Sydney Opera House.