Powerhouse commissioned a documentary about its move. It will cost more than $1.7 million

It took Christopher Nolan two years to bring his blockbuster The Odyssey to the IMAX screen, but the Powerhouse Museum’s new million-dollar documentary – destined for its archives and slated for possible theatrical and public broadcaster release – has been a much longer epic.

The feature-length documentary was commissioned from local filmmakers Felix Media in 2021 to track the building and opening of the $1.2 billion Powerhouse Parramatta, western Sydney’s first major cultural institution and the state’s biggest cultural infrastructure project since the Sydney Opera House.

For the first time, The Sydney Morning Herald can reveal the estimated contract price for the documentary is $2.5 million. Depending on the size of producer offset rebates received – a tax refund mechanism for initial production costs – the museum will pay between $1.7 million and $1.9 million for the film project it says will drive international and national audience engagement.

The Powerhouse estimates it will receive a producer offset amount of $787,851, the amount to be assessed and confirmed at the completion of the project next year.

The Herald obtained the contract details after filing an application under freedom of information laws. The museum agreed to informally release the contract information but then sought to impose an embargo until after the building’s opening. The Herald declined such terms.

The expense comes as NSW Treasury has been brought in to scrutinise the operating budget of the new Powerhouse museum, with Treasury executive Cassandra Wilkinson installed as the museum’s acting chief operating officer.

Publicly available contracts show the institution has burnt through more than $70 million in the lead-up to its headquarters’ grand opening, which is happening in four months.

The spending spree includes $3 million for public relations, marketing and advertising consultancies, including eight short films for placement on a luxury global digital channel originally launched as a brand by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, and the engagement of the bespoke London public relations specialists Bolton & Quinn.

These services are in addition to the museum’s communications and marketing team. A further $2.5 million has been contracted to decorate the 30 studio residences for visiting researchers, including bespoke bedheads, rugs and wardrobes. More than $25 million has been committed to the design and to building the framework for five opening exhibitions, not including loans, freight, art commissions and other expenses.

Asked if the government thought the spending was appropriate in a cost-of-living crisis, Arts Minister John Graham said the contract was first approved in 2021 under the former government.

“Cancelling it may have had its own costs,” he said. “I expect all government bodies – from departments, agencies and cultural institutions, to be considering the most appropriate use of taxpayers’ funds at all times.”

The contract was extended in 2025 for a further two years as a result of construction delays.

The Powerhouse said it had undertaken the competitive documentary tender, with advice from a Screen NSW panellist, as a “project for future generations at an important historical moment in time for NSW”.

“Powerhouse Parramatta is a significant NSW government commitment to establish the first NSW state cultural institution in western Sydney and is the largest investment in cultural infrastructure since the Sydney Opera House,” the museum said in a statement.

“The documentation began in 2021 and has tracked the design, construction, and development process to create the new museum. This has included documenting NSW industries and workers that have collaborated with Lendlease and Infrastructure NSW throughout the building process.”

The Sydney-based independent Australian production company that won the tender is co-founded by producers Bridget Ikin and John Maynard, and specialises in feature films, feature documentaries, and multiplatform visual arts/moving image projects.

Maynard said filming would continue until the museum opens. “We anticipate completion in June 2027,” he said. “Felix is an independent production company, contracted to make and deliver the film. We have editorial independence over who and what we film, as well as the final edited film.”

Ikin was a former commissioner of SBS Independent, and her film credits include Look Both Ways (2005), Sherpa (2015) and Jirga (2018), which won the AACTA Award for best indie film and was Australia’s submission for the best foreign language film Oscar.

Under the terms of the contract, the filmmakers will produce a 60-minute feature which it can shop to SBS and ABC, an 87-minute extended feature-length film to run in its new cinema, as well as stills, publicity material and copies for the museum archives, and will gift full copyright to the museum.

Industry figures said the Powerhouse was unlikely to recoup most of its investment from any broadcast licensing fees and was sceptical about a wide theatrical release that might have justified the museum’s expenditure.

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