The Cameo Cinema at 1628 Burwood Highway, Belgrave.

The Cameo is local historic and aesthetic significance.

The Cameo cinema is of high local significance as the only Interwar cinema still operational in the city and with a generally intact interior. It illustrates the increasing popularity of cinema during the Interwar period and has been an important focus of community activity.

RNE Criterion A.4

The Cameo Cinema is also of aesthetic significance, primarily embodied in the extant Art Deco features of the original 1935 cinema auditorium. RNE Criterion E.1

The facade has been extensively remodelled with only the stepped parapet recalling the form of the original building. Internally the auditorium features the original Moderne plaster ceiling and pilasters and a set of bracketed torchieres. Most original seats have recently been replaced although the original foot-warmers have been retained.

The only comparable interwar cinema in Yarra Ranges is the Healesville Cinema. It is located in the 1923 Healesville Memorial Hall and features a polished timber ticket booth in the vestibule. This building, however, was built as a multi-purpose hall and not solely as a cinema, as was the Cameo. The Healesville Cinema also lacks the architectural decoration that still survives at the Cameo.

The early 20th-century  Upper Yarra Arts Centre in Warburton also shows movies, but it was originally a theatre and not a purpose-built cinema.