HELEN MUSA rounds up the town’s arts events and rolls out another busy Artsweek column.

The creative ideas of young choreographers will come to life on stage for Fresh Funk’s Young Choreographers Initiative, new dance works choreographed and performed by Fresh Funk’s most advanced dancers and guest choreographers. Tuggeranong Arts Centre, October 25-27.

The Queanbeyan Diwali Mela Lantern Festival will be at Waniassa Park, Queanbeyan, October 26. The event is free.

In an evening of scary Halloween Classics, including the theme from The Exorcist, a string quartet from Phoenix Collective Quartet will serenade visitors by candlelight at the NGA’s James Fairfax Theatre, October 31.

Berry Writers’ Festival run from October 25-27, with 30 sessions, including An Evening of Words & Music featuring Tim Minchin and Marc Fennell at the Berry School of Art on October 26.

Mother Tongue Multilingual Poetry’s next session is at Smith’s Alternative, Civic, October 28.

Cinema

• The Yeh! Nah! Horror Film Festival at Dendy Cinemas and AIE Atrium Cinema, October 25-31.
• The National Film and Sound Archive has a Canberra Writers Festival screening of Harry Watts’ 1949 film, Eureka Stockade , starring Chips Rafferty, October 24, then a pre- Halloween screening of Stanley Kubrick’s suspenseful 90s classic, Eyes Wide Shut, October 25.
• The Capital Film Festival runs at Dendy Cinemas, Civic, October 30-November 3, opening with Emilia Pérez, straight from the Cannes Film Festival where it took the Grand Jury Prize.

Galleries

• Margaret Hadfield’s oil paintings from her travels to the Southern Ocean and Dennis Mortimer’s series, The Ocean and Nothing, alongside Alison Oberg’s mixed media and felt works, A Sense of Place. Rusten House Art Centre, Queanbeyan, October 26-November 16.
• Am I doing this Right? by Sophia Childs is at Canberra Contemporary Art Space Manuka, October 24-November 3.
• In Aetherial Realms: Landscapes of Light and Stillness, Kris Ancog presents a solo exhibition rooted in classical technique. Aarwun Gallery, Nicholls, until December 3.
• Canberra Glassworks hosts a panel discussion with artists Emma Rani Hodges and Erin Dickson, with a demo by Katie-Ann Houghton. October 24.
• The Poetry of Place exhibition by Julia Charles is at ANCA Gallery, Dickson, October 30-November 17.

Concerts

• The ANU Orchestra Concerto Gala, conducted by Rowan Harvey-Martin, will perform then afterwards at the Athenaeum, the ANU Jazz Orchestra conducted by Greg Stott, will play. Audience members can choose how much they pay for each ticket. Llewellyn Hall, October 24.
• Ainslie Salon returns with Qais Essar, contemporary Afghan composer, instrumentalist and producer, who plays the rabab – the lute-like instrument of Afghanistan. Ainslie Arts Centre, Braddon, October 26.
• Masterworks for Winds concert by The Band of the Royal Military College at Llewellyn Hall, October 26.
• Whistle and Trick is a Melbourne-based children’s band made up of childhood friends Esther Holt and Maddy Kelly. Ainslie Arts Centre ,October 26.
• The next Sunday CSO Chamber Classics concert, Affinities, explores creative and personal affinities between Czech composer Antonín Dvořák and his protégé and later son-in-law, Josef Suk. Albert Hall, October 27.
• I Progetti Chamber Choir concert, St Peter’s Memorial Lutheran Church, Reid, October 27.
• Sublime Voices, Larry Sitsky Recital Room, ANU School of Music, October 28.

• Alma Moodie Quartet performs at Wesley Music Centre, October 30.
• Recital Remedies, part of Crossroads Festival Mental Health Festival, at Gorman Arts Centre Main Hall, October 27.
• Wesley Lunchtime concert series presents Irish pianist Daniel Kearney, who will explore the ways in which composers have used music and the piano to describe nature’s sights and sounds. Wesley Music Centre, October 30.

Stage

• The End of the Wharf As We Know It, October 25 -November 2, Canberra Theatre.
• Tempo Theatre’s Love From A Stranger by Agatha Christie, Belconnen Community Theatre, October 25-November 2.
• Postponed performance by Sophie Dumaresq at the Arboretum Amphitheatre, October 27.
• Songs in the Key of Motown at The B, Queanbeyan, October 30.