About

Inspired by the work of The Jim Henson Company and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the film program ‘Beyond Henson: Puppetry and World Cinema’ surveys the rich international history of storytelling through the artforms of cinema and puppetry.

Presented in conjunction with the ‘Make, Believe, Magic: The Worlds of The Jim Henson Company’ exhibition (12 September 2026 – 18 April 2027), the film program delves into crafted narratives that harness traditions of puppetry and cinema to move beyond belief and into the realms of the imagination.

To trace the anatomy of onscreen puppetry is to draw from millennia of performance and craft traditions that extend across the globe. From the marionette puppetry of France and the Bunraku theatre of Japan, to the Wayang Kulit puppetry of Indonesia and the British Punch and Judy show, the democratised nature of the puppet theatre has enabled an unbridled style of performance that can enact the truthful and the taboo. Taking direction from the television series Jim Henson Presents the World of Puppetry 1985, the selected titles include films that precede (and sit adjacent to) productions by The Jim Henson Company, positioning the Company’s work within the broader canon of on-screen puppetry.

QAGOMA acknowledges the generous assistance of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Canberra; the Academy Film Archive, Los Angeles; the British Film Institute, London; the NBCUniversal Archives & Collections, Los Angeles; the Library of Congress, Washington; the National Film Archive, Prague, the Australian Film Television and Radio School, Sydney and the Revival House, Perth in providing materials for this program. Program curated by Victoria Wareham, Australian Cinémathèque with additional film note writing by Rebekah Brammer.