A film festival at a Melbourne planetarium will immerse viewers with a giant curved screen above them – showing dinosaurs, floating heads, and the entire cosmos

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Since emerging in their present form in the 90s, full dome films have occupied a curious place in the cinema landscape. Exhibited at planetariums on a large curved display situated above the audience’s heads, they offer a unique experience: more immersive than the traditional rectangular frame, though not as transportive as technologies like virtual reality.

Maintaining the social aspects of cinema, watching a full dome film is sort of like going to the movies, and sort of not.