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The Victorian Government has announced the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) will undergo the biggest transformation in its 16-year history.

ACMI occupies a four-storey purpose-built building at Melbourne’s Federation Square designed by Lab Architecture Studio and Bates Smart.

Victorian Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley this week advised that the Victorian Government will commit $31.6 million to the project in its 2018/19 budget.

The funding follows an allocation of $5 million in the 2017/18 Victorian budget for the first stage of its redevelopment while a further $5 million will be sought from donations for the more than $40 million project.

The redevelopment will transform ACMI’s permanent exhibition, which has not been significantly updated since it opened in 2002, expand the learning centre, add a new audience lab, a digital preservation lab and embed new interactive an immersive technologies throughout.

According to Creative Victoria “in addition to developing designs for a major physical and technological overhaul of the Federation Square attraction, ACMI will also improve the current Flinders Street entrance.”

ACMI is Australia’s only museum for film, television, video games, digital culture and art and is the busiest film cultural centre in the world. It will close for nine months as part of the redevelopment.

Federation Square has been the centre of intense public debate around a plan to demolish the Yarra building to make way for a proposed Apple flagship store, designed by Foster and Partners.

In a recent opinion article for Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper, Federation Square Chief Executive Jonathan Tribe advised “(Federation Square) faces significant challenges - the buildings and surrounds need refurbishment, visitor numbers are dwindling and the visitor experience has not been modernized.

“We are working on a number of fronts to reverse that trend, attract more visitors and make Fed Square a more vibrant, community hub.”

The redevelopment of ACMI is expected to double visitor numbers to around two million a year.

The renewal project is expected to be completed by late 2019.

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