Sydney’s Academy Twin to close on Sunday

Palace Cinemas has announced that its Academy Twin cinemas in Paddington will close on June 27.
“Discussions over our future tenancy with the building’s owner, the Greek Orthodox Community of Sydney, has been ongoing over several years. Palace put several highly considered and dynamic proposals to the landlord to keep the Academy open, including plans for renovation and expansion, however the parties were unable to reach agreement,” the company announced on its website.
“With much regret, and considerable sadness and disappointment, Palace Cinemas regrettably announces that the Academy Twin, one of Sydney’s original and most beloved two-screen arthouse cinemas, will close for the final time on Sunday June 27.”
The president of the Greek Orthodox Community, Harry Danalis, said it would continue its discussions with two other cinema operators.
He declined to name them but said they were not big chains so were likely to continue to program arthouse films.
”The big chains are not interested, so it would be the same kind of films as shown there now,” he said.
Mr Danalis said a new cinema could be up and running within a week of a deal being made.
”These are commercial decisions for us, there’s no emotion or drama in this. For God’s sake, it’s only a cinema,” he said of the outcry from cinefiles.
”What do you do? We have obligations to our members and the various charities that we run … and they’re a lot more beneficial to society than a cinema.”
The cinema opened in 1974 and specialised in art house films. Fifteen jobs will be lost.