Stay tuned for 40th Anniversary announcements!
35mm, 70mm, nitrate, state-of-the-art digital. Q&As, retrospectives, double-features, triple-features, marathons. We’re a year-round film festival. There’s something for everyone in our programming lineup.
Everything we do is rooted in the collective, communal experience of the movies and bringing people together around the cinematic arts. Your membership ensures access to that experience is available to everyone and includes a number of personal benefits.
The American Cinematheque is a member-donor-volunteer supported 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization whose mission is to celebrate the experience of cinema.
40 years of American Cinematheque film programming….and counting. Dive into the AC Vault to discover past Q&As and clips from our vast and newly digitized archives, old calendars and programs, new podcasts, conversations and much more.
Since it began screening films to the public in 1985, the American Cinematheque has provided diverse film programming and immersive in-person discussions and events with thousands of filmmakers and luminaries, presenting new and repertory cinema to Los Angeles.
Home / About / News & Press
Honestly, just about any weekend could be / should be a Nancy Meyers weekend, but the American Cinematheque is celebrating the writer-director-producer with three of her films this weekend.
The American Cinematheque is kicking off a robust new Los Angeles nonfiction film festival dubbed This Is Not a Fiction, running from April 10-18. The festival opens with docuseries “Thank You, Good Night: The Bon Jovi Story,” with Jon Bon Jovi in-person at the Aero Theatre for the L.A. premiere screening.
The event will include in-person tributes to distinguished documentary filmmakers including Barbara Kopple, Joe Berlinger, Brett Morgen, Bill Morrison, Kirsten Johnson, Terry Zwigoff, Jeff Tremaine and Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, as well as a virtual Q&A with Frederick Wiseman.
It’s thanks to filmmakers’ passion to keep theaters alive and a new generation of fans, says Ken Scherer, executive director of the nonprofit American Cinematheque, which runs programming at the Egyptian and other theaters.
“New voices coming to the screen, new stories being told—all of that is playing into the cultural sense of [this] generation coming into its own,” he says, noting a membership uptick in his organization since the pandemic. “And yes, they’re seeing clips on YouTube or TikTok. [But] people have discovered sitting in a movie theater is really cool.”
The American Cinematheque has launched a series on New Black horror at the Los Feliz 3. Having already opened with Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning “Get Out,” the program really kicks into gear this week with Nikyatu Jusu’s “Nanny,” Bomani J. Story’s “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster,” Mariama Diallo’s “Master” and Peele’s “Us.” This is a smartly curated series with a group of films that, taken together, show the power of the horror genre to address contemporary social issues while also providing audiences with a thrilling time.
The American Cinematheque is screening 14 films from Ghibli, which was founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and has produced “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “My Neighbor Totoro,” to name its most famous movies.
But this retrospective at the Egyptian and Aero Theatres also includes movies you probably haven’t seen.
The two are both Oscar nominated for portraying swimmer Diana Nyad (Bening) and her best friend/coach Bonnie Stoll (Foster.) In a Q&A at the Aero Theatre for the American Cinematheque, the pair revealed they had only met in passing and Bening was a bit intimidated when she heard Foster was being offered the part of Stoll.
Helen Mirren got the royal treatment a queen deserves Thursday night from the American Cinematheque in a ceremony delayed by the actors strike but finally taking place right during crunch time in the Oscar race.
Harrison Ford, Vin Diesel, Patrick Stewart, Bryan Cranston, Pierce Brosnan, Alan Cumming, Andrea Riseborough and Mirren’s husband Taylor Hackford toasted the star at the event, which is an annual fundraiser for the American Cinematheque that supports its programming at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, Los Feliz 3 Theatre in Los Feliz and Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
When Dame Helen Mirren took the stage at the Beverly Hilton to accept the 37th annual American Cinematheque Award on Thursday night, she began by reciting an elegant, if cliched, declaration of gratitude for her lifetime spent working in Hollywood. It was the kind of predictable lifetime achievement speech fare that award circuit veterans have heard far too many times, so anyone could be forgiven for thinking it was genuine. But as soon as she reached the end, Mirren gleefully ripped up her papers as she announced “That was written by AI!”
When introducing Mirren with her American Cinematheque Award, Harrison Ford said of his longtime scene partner and friend, “You are the kindest, funniest, wackiest broad, and I thank you for it.” Other actors who took the stage to honor Mirren were Bryan Cranston, Patrick Stewart, Pierce Brosnan, Andrea Risenborough, Alan Cumming, Vin Diesel and Mirren’s filmmaker husband Taylor Hackford, each of them sharing fond memories of their experiences alongside the evening’s honoree.
Helen Mirren ripped AI to shreds while being honored Thursday night at the American Cinematheque Awards.
After being presented with the lifetime achievement award by her “Mosquito Coast” and “1923” co-star Harrison Ford at the Beverly Hilton gala, Mirren began to read her acceptance speech from a piece of a paper. Then she added, “And that was written by AI,” before proceeding to tear up the speech and letting the pieces of paper fall to the stage floor.
The American Cinematheque rolled out the red carpet for this year’s American Cinematheque Awards ceremony honoring Helen Mirren. One of the Hollywood nonprofit’s biggest fundraising events of the year, tonight’s ceremony was originally set for November, before the SAG-AFRTA strike forced organizers to delay.
Robert Downey Jr. still has some secrets to share, despite a life lived in public since he was around five years old. At an American Cinematheque event celebrating his filmography at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, just a short distance from where he went to high school, the actor repeatedly surprised the audience with previously untold tales about some of the most beloved movies ever made. If things had gone differently, comic book movie history could have been vastly different—with Downey playing the villain in a DC comics blockbuster, and Tom Cruise taking the lead of Iron Man.
The Sopranos creator David Chase is in Los Angeles this weekend to honor the 25th anniversary of TV’s greatest drama series this Sunday, when he joins Matt Weiner and Terry Winter to swap stories in a sold out event at the American Cinematheque. What better time to hail such an important milestone by drawing Chase out on the influences and experiences that honed the unique creative outlook, sense of humor and yes, demons, that informed the groundbreaking HBO series that changed TV in its six season run from 1999 to 2007?
For the last couple of months I’ve been working my way through Oscar contenders, and last night I managed to catch the final screening of Chilean director Felipe Gálvez’s “Los Colonos” (“The Settlers”) at the American Cinematheque. The film is a western that is also an anti-western, recounting the genocidal settlement of Tierra del Fuego by European and criollo ranching families who hired mercenaries to systematically kill Indigenous Selk’nam people to seize their land.
Directed by Nancy Savoca and adapted by Savoca and her husband Richard Guay from the novel by Francine Prose, 1993’s “Household Saints” has gotten a new restoration and re-release. The film is playing tonight at the American Cinematheque’s Los Feliz 3 with Savoca and Guay in person for a Q&A.
At the Aero theater on Monday, the American Cinematheque is showing Ava DuVernay’s new ORIGIN ahead of its theatrical release on Jan. 19, along with DuVernay’s 2014 drama SELMA. The filmmaker will be there for a Q&A with Black List founder Franklin Leonard.
A few years ago, filmmaker Nancy Savoca came to believe that one of her movies had been lost forever. Now, HOUSEHOLD SAINTS gets a second shot at its own canonization.
[The film] opens in Los Angeles on Friday, January 26 at American Cinematheque.
Ever since Michael Mann became one of the first A-list directors to embrace digital filmmaking with 2004’s COLLATERAL, he’s left film behind, shooting all of his subsequent features using digital capture rather than celluloid. That might change, however; as Mann told a sold-out crowd at the American Cinematheque on January 5, he’s considering a return to film — and it will be for a sequel to his most beloved movie.
With bold renovations and new ideas, deep-pocketed investors have renewed faith in the brick-and-mortar movie business after it suffered devastating pandemic closures.
The American Cinematheque is launching a tribute series this weekend, with Mann in person for a number of Q&As. The sharpness and vividness with which he recalls production details of his older films is riveting and will make for a great series of conversations. The series will also bring into focus the ways in which Mann returns to certain archetypes throughout his work, but always brings something new, whether technically in his craft or in his ongoing examinations of masculine identity.
The American Cinematheque has programmed a retrospective to celebrate the work of three-time Oscar nominee Wim Wenders ahead of the Feb. 7 nationwide release of his latest film PERFECT DAYS, Neon announced.
The retrospective screenings and in-person Q&As will begin on Jan. 11 at the Aero Theatre with a double feature of PERFECT DAYS and TOKYO-GA at 7:30 p.m. There will be a Q&A segment with the director in between the films.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread” knowingly cribs from David Lean’s 1949 drama “The Passionate Friends” for the staging of its New Year’s Eve sequence, with Anderson creating an all-timer of romantic longing. In the film, a fashion designer living in 1950s London, Reynolds Woodcock, in what for now seems to be his final screen role, falls for a woman, Alma, who upends the precise order of his existence.
The film is playing at the Egyptian Theatre in 70mm on New Year’s Eve, with a 5 p.m. showtime that means you’ll still have plenty of time for festivities after.
LONE STAR at the Egyptian Theatre, Los Angeles, December 14, 2023. At its 4K restoration premiere at the newly renovated Egyptian Theatre, I learned secrets that changed how I see LONE STAR, John Sayles’s 1996 Western.
This year, I had a few times when I went to a see a movie and got more than I expected, with surprise guests that only deepened my appreciation for the work onscreen. I went to see a rare 70mm print of Luis Valdez’s 1981 film, “Zoot Suit,” at the Aero Theatre, and the film’s star, Edward James Olmos, made an unannounced appearance, having just watched the film himself for the first time since its release.
I reached out to a handful of local film programmers [incl. Imani Davis, Cindy Fernanda Flores, Chris LeMaire]to ask them for their most memorable individual screening events from this year, whether they were ones they attended or ones they put on themselves.
Leaning into to two decades of shining a spotlight on Tinseltown’s most liked unproduced screenplays, the Franklin Leonard-founded Black List has teamed up with American Cinematheque for a screening series to kick off next month. Going into the Black List crates, a heavy hitting double bill of Emerald Fennell’s SALTBURN and PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN and Ava DuVernay’s January 19 released ORIGIN and her 2014 picture SELMA are the first films in the series.
The American Cinematheque announced the honorees for the third annual Tribute to the Crafts, which include OPPENHEIMER for cinematography and editing, POOR THINGS for costume design and “I’m Just Ken” from BARBIE for song. The event will take place on Jan. 19, 2024, at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
In its continuing effort to shine the spotlight on industry artisans who toil behind the scenes to make movie magic, the American Cinematheque on Thursday revealed the 2023 honorees for its third annual Tribute to the Crafts.
Tribute to the Crafts honors those who are at the heart of filmmaking and have exhibited extraordinary work behind the camera over the past year. The evening will celebrate individuals in 15 categories covering all aspects of filmmaking and will showcase clips from each of their respective films.
Talent behind movies including BARBIE, OPPENHEIMER and MAESTRO are among the honorees for the American Cinematheque‘s third annual “Tribute to the Crafts,” which will be held Jan. 19 at the newly renovated Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
Best new old venue: Egyptian Theatre.
After a few dark years in the world of local screening rooms, there was finally some light for cinema-loving Angelenos thanks to the reopening of Vidiots, the Vista and—most marvelously—the Egyptian Theatre. Now under the ownership of Netflix but still largely programmed by the nonprofit American Cinematheque, the 101-year-old venue looks a little closer to its Old Hollywood days.
As the American Cinematheque pays tribute to the “Rocky” and “Raging Bull” producer, Winkler and Scorsese reflect on their partnership.
As the end of the year draws ever closer, so does the eventual conclusion of the iconic horror podcast, Post Mortem With Mick Garris. While our hearts are heavy about the end of an era, we’re excited to celebrate seven years of Mick Garris with an incredible farewell event in partnership with the incredible folks at Beyond Fest and American Cinematheque.
[Mark Olsen] recently spoke to writer-director-producer James L Brooks for the 40th anniversary of TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, his debut feature as director that netted him three Oscars.
[…] Brooks mined that sad-funny tone further in his follow-up with BROADCAST NEWS. It is a near-perfect film about deeply flawed people. As part of a celebration of Brooks’ career, the American Cinematheque will be showing BROADCAST NEWS on Friday and Saturday at the Los Feliz 3.
“To make this deal with Netflix and have it come back stronger than ever,” said Grant Moninger, the artistic director at the American Cinematheque, “it is a real blessing.”
Film fans can take heart in this fact: The programming slate at the Egyptian will offer more than Netflix films. As part of the deal with the streaming service, the American Cinematheque has a 100-year-lease to show films every weekend. Classic films like ALIENS and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA will be projected on 70mm, as well as some smaller art house movies.
The historic Egyptian Theater in Hollywood officially reopened its doors after a three-year closure and extensive renovation. It’s sale to Netflix in 2020 drew some criticism but moviegoers so far have been enthusiastic about it being able to sit in its seats once again to watch a film.
The theater has a long history in Los Angeles. When Sid Grauman first opened it in 1922 it helped establish Hollywood as a destination and the city as a place for the movies.
Additional Guests: Ross Melnick, theater historian who teaches film and media at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Grant Moninger, Artistic Director at the American Cinematheque
More than a century after its first screening, the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard is coming back to life following a restoration process that kept it dark for three years. But this isn’t the storied venue’s first makeover.
Sid Grauman’s homage to Egyptian culture debuted in 1922 and hosted the first Hollywood premiere in history, for Douglas Fairbanks’ Robin Hood. After the theater shut down in the early 1990s and was nearly destroyed by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, it was purchased for a dollar in 1996 by the nonprofit American Cinematheque.
It can be far tougher than it once was to get a ticket to top events [at the American Cinematheque] where Larry Karaszewski and Paul Thomas Anderson lurk as regular moderators, but there’s an engaged membership unlike the organization has ever had before, encouraging regular attendance with series such as the cult haven of Cinematic Void and the black-and-white matinees Sunday Print Edition and creating the trust necessary to take a chance on films that one might otherwise shy away from. [Grant] Moninger recently promised rare nitrate prints at the Egyptian when it’s one of only a handful in the world that can project the flammable format, but now if anyone knows about handling something precious, it seems like it’s the Cinematheque.
Clear your calendar, L.A. cinephiles! The American Cinematheque has announced the titles for its extraordinary 70mm festival taking place at the iconic Egyptian Theatre in the days after the movie palace reopens following a three-year restoration. Chief projectionist Ben Tucker will be in the booth along with American Cinematheque union projectionists when the theater reopens November 9 and after.
One of Los Angeles’s most revered film locations, the iconic Egyptian Theater, is all set to not only reclaim its place in Hollywood’s illustrious history as it was announced earlier this year, but American Cinematheque has also announced to kick things off with a 70mm film festival titled Ultra Cinematheque 70: Hollywood from November 10 to 21. This festival will feature rare 70mm presentations of classic and popular films.
The American Cinematheque will curate the Egyptian’s repertory offerings, including a 70mm festival titled “The American Cinematheque Presents: Ultra Cinematheque 70 Fest 2023” that’ll run from November 10 to November 21.
L.A.’s beloved not-for-profit film organization revived the venue in the late ‘90s and has kept it stocked with double bills and top-talent conversations ever since—including going forward on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
October 18 marks the 101st anniversary of the grand opening of the iconic Egyptian Theatre. To mark this historic milestone, Netflix and the American Cinematheque have joined forces to announce that, on Thursday, November 9, this venerable theater will come back to life with a special screening of David Fincher’s upcoming film, The Killer, which will be followed by a question and answer session with the acclaimed filmmaker.
The Egyptian will host the American Cinematheque’s annual 70mm festival, Ultra Cinematheque 70 Fest, Nov. 10-21, featuring classics from the golden age of the wide, high-resolution format through its modern-day revival. That lineup will be announced on Oct. 24 with tickets available on the American Cinematheque’s website.
Divinity expands to LA next weekend for special 35mm screenings with the American Cinematheque before a national expansion Nov. 3.
Guillermo del Toro attended a Beyond Fest screening and Q&A, in partnership with the American Cinematheque, for Pacific Rim on Saturday… Nicolas Cage attended a Beyond Fest screening and Q&A, in partnership with the American Cinematheque, for Dream Scenario on Tuesday.
The American Cinematheque and NEON-backed ‘Beyond Fest’ is the highest-attended film event of its kind in the U.S. and its line-ups –both on screen and off– are the reason, with discussions, panels and more. From the opening night premiere of Gareth Edwards’ The Creator to a celebration of Roger Corman and the controversial “ultimate” cut of Caligula, to appearances by legends Michael Mann and James Cameron, the fest has been showcasing impressive line-ups, and this year’s have been bigger than ever.
John Carney at the Cinematheque Beginning Thursday, Oct. 12, the American Cinematheque will have a tribute to the charming musical films of Irish filmmaker John Carney. The series opens with the delightful ’80s tribute “Sing Street” and the Oscar-winning “Once,” and closes with “Begin Again,” starring Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo. Carney himself will appear with the screening of the new “Flora and Son” along with producer Anthony Bregman and composer-songwriter Gary Clark.
Hail to the King: A Celebration of Roger Corman event
Beyond Fest hosted a screening and Q&A event, in partnership with the American Cinematheque, celebrating Roger Corman on Saturday.
After dancing in their seats at their TIFF reunion last week, the Talking Heads came to the American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre in Santa Monica to bring down more houses, Tuesday night’s sellout seeing tickets priced as high as $32. While Oscar winner Spike Lee moderated the band’s get-together in Toronto, their prior being 21 years ago, 11x Oscar nominee Paul Thomas Anderson got his nerd out with the post-punk band.
Richard Shepard’s latest project, a documentary titled “Film Geek,” will premiere on Sept. 22 at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles. Ahead of the doc’s debut, Shepard spoke with Variety’s Executive Vice President of Global Content Steven Gaydos to detail the films that spoke to him the most during his high school years.
Beyond Fest is almost here. The biggest genre film festival in the United States returns on September 26 for over two weeks of world premieres and special screenings. Now, just a few weeks from its killer start, Beyond Fest has released their full lineup which includes a whopping 55 films. Included in that are three North American, seven US, and 18 West Coast premieres.
This week, the American Cinematheque and the Hola Mexico Film Festival will co-host Ripstein and Paz Alicia Garciadiego, his longtime screenwriter and wife, in Los Angeles for a seven-day retrospective in honor of the director’s career (beginning Sept. 14 at the Aero Theatre and Los Feliz 3). It’s the first time the Mexican master will enjoy such a celebration in the entertainment capital of the world.
The American Cinematheque is launching a series in celebration of the centennial of the birth of Ousmane Sembène, frequently referred to as the father of African cinema. The series launches tonight with a 4K restoration of the 1977 film “Ceddo,” an ambitious historical epic about the resistance of common people to the ruling class.
On Saturday, Sept. 2, the American Cinematheque will put on a four-film marathon tribute to actor Paul Reubens, who died July 30 at the age of 70. The series will include Danny DeVito’s 1996 “Matilda,” Tim Burton’s 1985 “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” Randal Kleiser’s 1988 “Big Top Pee-wee,” and Kinka Usher’s 1999 “Mystery Men.”
In Bulk Membership Mode