January – March 2024 Curated Programming Schedule!
Jam-packed January, fan favorite February, and a March for the moonstruck!
Thank you to everyone that has come out to see a film, become a member, donated, or liked our memes on Instagram! 2023 has been the biggest year yet for our year-round curated programming and we hope that you had at least one unforgettable experience seeing a film for the first time at our theaters.
Now that the dust has settled on our Sight and Sound 100 series, we are excited to announce the most films we have ever done in a quarter! From January to March at the Philadelphia Film Center, the PFS East and the PFS Bourse, we invite you to join us for a Best Picture showdown series leading up to our 11th Annual Oscars Party, deep dives into directors’ filmographies (including all 10 of Denis Villeneuve’s features!), revolutionary films from some of the United States’ most esteemed Black filmmakers, After Hours titles nearly every weekend, and so much more. Be on the lookout for the PFS Member 50 selections as they get revealed throughout the year!
In 2024 we hope to continue to present not only more screenings, but new ways to engage as a filmgoing community and make the 33rd Philadelphia Film Festival the best one yet. Thank you again from everyone on the programming team and the entire staff at PFS!
More information and the full January – March Programming schedule below! See the digital version of our printed programming booklet here.
PFS MEMBER 50
After an unforgettable year showcasing the greatest films of all time in our Sight and Sound 100 series, we asked PFS Members to chime in with their own picks for top five films not included in the countdown. Throughout 2024 we will reveal and screen PFS Members’ picks across our monthly programs and limited series. See list here!
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
The wild films and filmmakers that contributed to the end of the New Hollywood era.
THE LAST MOVIE
DENNIS HOPPER | USA | 1971 | 108 MIN | R | ENGLISH, SPANISH, QUECHUA | 4K
January 3 | 7:30 PM /// January 12 | 9:00 PM /// January 17 | 7:30 PM
Dennis Hopper did what any newfound famed director would do after the smash hit EASY RIDER; take the studio’s million dollars and carte blanche agreement, a ton of drugs, and his buddies to Peru to film a meta-drenched rumination on the effects a movie’s production has on the local Indigenous community.
SORCERER
WILLIAM FRIEDKIN | USA | 1977 | 121 MIN | PG | ENGLISH, SPANISH, FRENCH, GERMAN | 4K
January 5 | 7:00 PM /// January 26 | 7:00 PM
Down and out in a rural Colombian village, four men embark on a suicide mission to transport highly unstable dynamite in hopes of securing a way out of the country (or die trying) in William Friedkin’s high tension, high budget, sensory overload masterpiece.
HEAVEN’S GATE
MICHAEL CIMINO | USA | 1980 | 219 MIN | R | ENGLISH
January 6 | 2:00 PM /// January 21 | 3:00 PM
Following the resounding success of THE DEER HUNTER, New Hollywood darling Michael Cimino made a controversial and financially strained western epic with Kristofferson, Walken, and Huppert about the ongoing battle between immigrants and cattle barons in 1890 Wyoming.
MIKEY AND NICKY
ELAINE MAY | USA | 1976 | 106 MIN | R | ENGLISH, HEBREW | 4K
January 6 | 6:00 PM /// January 18 | 7:30 PM
Elaine May’s masterpiece may be about two small-time mob buddies (Peter Falk and John Cassavettes) working through their complicated friendship over one night in Philadelphia, but a difficult and long production left May without final cut and access to the director’s chair for nearly a decade.
REDS
WARREN BEATTY | USA, UK | 1981 | 195 MIN | PG | ENGLISH, RUSSIAN | 4K
January 6 | 7:00 PM /// January 21 | 4:00 PM /// January 27 | 3:30 PM
Warren Beatty used all his capital and BONNIE AND CLYDE goodwill to produce this big-budget passion project; a historical epic about real life American journalist John Reed and his plight to report on the Russian Revolution and growing empathy for the proletariat.
DAYS OF HEAVEN
TERRENCE MALICK | USA | 1978 | 94 MIN | PG | ENGLISH, ITALIAN | 4K
January 7 | 4:00 PM /// January 28 | 6:00 PM
A new 4K restoration brimming with stunning cinematography, Terrence Malick’s second film about a trio of drifters attempting to con an ill wealthy farmer finds the auteur perfecting his marrying of romantic, naturalistic visuals with poetic musings after nearly two years of editing.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
MARTIN SCORSESE | USA | 1977 | 155 MIN | PG | ENGLISH
January 13 | 7:00 PM /// January 27 | 12:00 PM
Combining his patented gritty MEAN STREETS swagger with the visual artifice of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Scorsese creates a postmodern musical about the complicated love between an ego driven saxophonist (De Niro) and a strong-willed chanteuse (Minelli).
ONE FROM THE HEART (tickets coming soon)
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA | USA | 1981 | 93 MIN | R | ENGLISH, GERMAN | 4K
Brand new 4K restoration opening at the PFS Bourse January 26
After an unprecedented run of films in the ‘70s, Coppola sought to make this magnum opus that nearly sank the film titan in the process. Over 40 years later the visionary and bold, Tom Waits-scored musical finds a gorgeous reverie between Golden Age musicals and New Hollywood grit in this brand new 4K restoration.
AND THE WINNER IS…
The biggest night in Hollywood may only happen once this year, but we are starting the party a little early with a showdown between some of our favorite Best Picture winners and their greatest contenders. Whichever film in each showdown has the highest attendance will be crowned the winner at our 11th Annual Oscars® Party to benefit PFS on March 10th, 2024!
2008
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN Best Picture Winner 2008
ETHAN COEN, JOEL COEN | USA | 2007 | 122 MIN | R | ENGLISH, SPANISH
January 12 | 6:30 PM /// January 18 | 7:00 PM /// January 20 | 3:30 PM
Joel and Ethan Coen’s taut neo-western is a brooding and dark masterpiece about the uncertain fates of three very different men hellbent on recovering a large sum of money at the Texas-Mexican border.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD Lost to NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON | USA | 2023 | 158 MIN | R | ENGLISH, ASL
January 4 | 7:00 PM /// January 20 | 6:15 PM
Like the large oil rigs spread across Daniel Plainview’s growing empire, Paul Thomas Anderson delivers a towering achievement in crafting a larger-than-life character while debunking the sanctity of the American Dream with greed, hypocrisy, and one momentous milkshake.
1998
TITANIC Best Picture Winner 1998
JAMES CAMERON | USA | 1997 | 194 MIN | PG-13 | ENGLISH, SWEDISH, ITALIAN, FRENCH
January 7 | 3:00 PM /// January 13 | 12:00 PM
The unsinkable James Cameron merged spectacle with romance in this mammoth ocean liner epic about a poor Leonardo DiCaprio wooing upper crust, and floating debris hogger, Kate Winslet during the titular ship’s tragic maiden voyage.
GOOD WILL HUNTING Lost to TITANIC
GUS VAN SANT | USA | 1997 | 126 MIN | R | ENGLISH
January 7 | 7:00 PM /// January 13 | 4:00 PM
Two Cambridge boys teamed up to write and star in this beloved drama from Gus Van Sant about a math wiz janitor, his caring therapist, and a Dunkin’ enthusiast navigating the world of academia and townie bars.
1996
BRAVEHEART Best Picture Winner 1996
MEL GIBSON | USA | 1995 | 178 MIN | R | ENGLISH, FRENCH, GAELIC, LATIN
March 9 | 3:00 PM /// March 10 | 3:00 & 6:30 PM
Best Director winner Mel Gibson cries for freedom in his historical epic about Sir William Wallace’s exploits in leading the charge against King Edward I in the First War of Scottish Independence.
BABE Lost to BRAVEHEART
CHRIS NOONAN | AUSTRALIA, USA, UK | 1995 | 91 MIN | G | ENGLISH
March 9 | 1:00 PM /// March 10 | 1:00 PM
In this joyous and comforting tale of friendship and benevolence, the unforgettable Babe becomes ingrained in a kind English farmer’s livestock and learns how to become a bonafide sheep-herder.
1976
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST Best Picture Winner 1976
MILOŠ FORMAN | USA | 1975 | 133 MIN | R | ENGLISH
January 13 | 4:30 PM /// January 14 | 3:00 PM
The conniving Randle McMurphy’s attempt to escape hard labor by faking his insanity blows up in his face when he meets his match in the mental institution’s tyrannical Nurse Ratched in Miloš Forman’s adaptation of the Ken Kesey counterculture classic.
NASHVILLE Lost to ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST
ROBERT ALTMAN | USA | 1975 | 160 MIN | R | ENGLISH | 4K
January 13 | 12:30 PM /// January 14 | 6:00 PM /// January 27 | 7:30 PM
Bursting with comedy, romance, drama and a whole lot of great music, Robert Altman’s magnum opus descends upon the country music capital of the world to weave an unprecedented epic as dozens of characters careen towards a star-studded rally in this defining American classic.
1974
THE STING Best Picture Winner 1974
GEORGE ROY HILL | USA | 1973 | 129 MIN | PG | ENGLISH | 4K
March 3 | 4:15 PM /// March 5 | 4:00 & 7:00 PM
Set during the Great Depression, the cunning Paul Newman and Robert Redford try to swindle mobsters out of their fortune through a hilariously entertaining, thrilling, and convoluted long con all to the tune of classic ragtime.
CRIES AND WHISPERS Lost to THE STING
INGMAR BERGMAN | SWEDEN | 1972 | 91 MIN | R | SWEDISH, GERMAN, DANISH
March 3 | 7:00 PM /// March 6 | 4:00 & 7:00 PM
Ingmar Bergman creates a dramatic and visual souffle, doused in red, when two sisters (Ingrid Thulin and Liv Ullmann) attempt to comfort their cancer-stricken sibling (Harriet Andersson), but their own grief and past resentment threaten to keep them apart.
1972
THE FRENCH CONNECTION Best Picture Winner 1972
WILLIAM FRIEDKIN | USA | 1971 | 104 MIN | R | ENGLISH, FRENCH
February 1 | 7:00 PM /// February 17 | 2:00 PM
Director William Friedkin swerves through frighteningly addicting car chases and a heated cat-and-mouse hunt between a determined Gene Hackman and an elusive drug smuggler in this 1971 thriller.
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW Lost to THE FRENCH CONNECTION
PETER BOGDANOVICH | USA | 1971 | 118 MIN | R | ENGLISH | 4K
February 3 | 7:30 PM /// February 17 | 4:15 PM
In a small Texas town, two high school seniors wade through the complexities of adolescence and their eroding community in Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 cinematic contribution to the coming-of-age genre.
1970
MIDNIGHT COWBOY Best Picture Winner 1970
JOHN SCHLESINGER | USA | 1969 | 113 MIN | NR | ENGLISH, ITALIAN
March 2 | 4:30 PM /// March 4 | 4:00 & 7:00 PM
The exploits of two hustlers, Ratso and Joe Buck, and their struggle for survival among the neon lights and dark alleys of New York City’s derelict streets has continued to keep everybody talkin’ since its controversial award-winning release.
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID Lost to MIDNIGHT COWBOY
GEORGE ROY HILL | USA, MEXICO | 1969 | 110 MIN | PG | ENGLISH, SPANISH
February 28 | 7:00 PM
Uniting their undeniable star power for the first time, Paul Newman and Robert Redford cavort across the southwest as sharp shooting outlaws dead set on pulling off high stakes train robberies until they find themselves on the run from a dangerous posse.
1966
THE SOUND OF MUSIC Best Picture Winner 1966
ROBERT WISE | USA | 1965 | 172 MIN | G | ENGLISH, GERMAN | 4K
February 3 | 12:00 PM /// February 10 | 4:30 PM
Filled with magnificent songs and performances, this timeless tale follows Julie Andrews’ governess Maria frollicking through the alps with seven singing little rascals in her wake as news of the Third Reich’s advancement ominously grows.
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO Lost to THE SOUND OF MUSIC
DAVID LEAN | ITALY, UK, USA | 1965 | 197 MIN | PG-13 | ENGLISH, RUSSIAN, FRENCH | 4K
February 3 | 3:30 PM /// February 10 | 12:00 PM
Master historical epic filmmaker David Lean focuses on the dizzying love story that emerges between Omar Sharif and Julie Christie as the world around them changes forever at the advent of the Russian Revolution and ensuing civil war.
1952
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS Best Picture Winner 1952
VINCENTE MINNELLI | USA | 1951 | 114 MIN | NR | ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN
February 4 | 6:00 PM /// February 11 | 3:00 PM
A year before Gene Kelly took to the rainy streets of LA, he was tapping his way across the City of Lights in this superb musical about a GI attempting to make a name for himself as an artist, but messy love affairs and a comedy of errors jeopardize his knack for rhythm.
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE Lost to AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
ELIA KAZAN | USA | 1951 | 122 MIN | NR | ENGLISH, SPANISH
February 4 | 3:00 PM /// February 11 | 5:30 PM
Through soul crushing performances and Elia Kazan’s vivid direction, Tennessee Williams’ heated play comes to life when Southern belle Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) visits her sister in New Orleans following a tragedy and encounters her intimidating brute brother-in-law, Stanley (Marlon Brando).
THE AMERICAN VANGUARD
Innovative, important, and independent visions from Black filmmakers of the 20th century.
CANE RIVER
HORACE JENKINS | USA | 1982 | 105 MIN | NR | ENGLISH | 4K
January 7 | 6:15 PM /// February 4 | 3:30 PM
Deep in the heart of rural Louisiana, a forbidden romance flourishes in defiance of social castes and colorism in Horace B. Jenkins’ heralded, rediscovered treasure of Black American independent cinema.
EVE’S BAYOU
KASI LEMMONS | USA | 1997 | 108 MIN | R | ENGLISH, FRENCH | 4K
January 24 | 7:30 PM /// February 3 | 3:30 PM
The sanctity of a family is tested when a young girl becomes privy to her father’s extramarital indiscretions along the bayou in Kasi Lemmons’ haunting, Gothic-draped feature debut.
BOYZ N THE HOOD
JOHN SINGLETON | USA | 1991 | 112 MIN | R | ENGLISH
January 26 | 7:30 PM /// February 2 | 7:00 PM
Becoming the first Black American to receive an Academy nod for Best Director, John Singleton masterfully depicts the beautiful but volatile world of South Central, LA, through the eyes of three friends navigating oppressive structures as they journey into manhood.
LOSING GROUND
KATHLEEN COLLINS | USA | 1982 | 86 MIN | NR | ENGLISH, SPANISH
January 28 | 3:30 PM /// February 3 | 1:30 PM
In the first feature length film directed by a Black American woman in over 50 years, a summer away from the city transforms into a journey of personal discovery for a philosophy professor struggling to maintain hold of her marriage.
BLACK PANTHERS & NATIONTIME
January 31 | 7:30 PM /// February 21 | 7:00 PM
BLACK PANTHERS | AGNÈS VARDA | FRANCE, USA | 1968 | 28 MIN | NR | ENGLISH
An observational gaze into the socio-political climate of the 1960s, featuring prominent voices of the Oakland Black Panther party rallying to free incarcerated leader, Huey P. Newton.
NATIONTIME | WILLIAM GREAVES | USA | 1972 | 80 MIN | NR | ENGLISH | 4K
The 1972 National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana is at the heart of William Greaves’ powerful documentary spotlighting political speeches and discourse from Black American activists mobilizing for change at the height of an urgent political period in American history.
CHAMELEON STREET
WENDELL B. HARRIS JR. | USA | 1989 | 94 MIN | R | ENGLISH, FRENCH | 4K
February 4 | 6:30 PM /// February 18 | 5:30 PM
Recently rediscovered and restored, Wendell B. Harris wrote, directed and starred in this ingenious 1989 Sundance award winner about an infamous Detroit con-man’s success in impersonating surgeons, lawyers, and more for his own amusement and income.
DIRECTORS SERIES
VILLENEUVE – Journey to Arrakis
For the past 25 years, visionary Denis Villeneuve has asked audiences to dream big of other worlds, but it’s the unexpected, intimate connections with our own that remain when we awake.
AUGUST 32ND ON EARTH
DENIS VILLENEUVE | CANANDA | 1998 | 88 MIN | NR | FRENCH, ENGLISH
January 10 | 7:00 PM /// January 20 | 2:00 PM
In his feature debut, acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve crafts a peculiar tale about a young model fixated on becoming pregnant in the desert after surviving a near-fatal car accident.
MAELSTRÖM
DENIS VILLENEUVE | CANADA | 2000 | 87 MIN | R | FRENCH, ENGLISH, NORWEGIAN
January 17 | 7:00 PM /// January 20 | 4:00 PM
In this surrealist drama narrated by a talking fish, a woman tormented by guilt following a hit-and-run accident embarks on a journey of redemption and love after she meets a mysterious man.
POLYTECHNIQUE
DENIS VILLENEUVE | CANADA | 2009 | 77 MIN | NR | FRENCH, ENGLISH
January 24 | 7:00 PM /// January 27 | 4:15 PM
Unfolding in stark black and white photography, the deadly consequences of misogyny unfold in Villeneuve’s heartbreaking portrayal of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre and its lasting impact on the survivors.
INCENDIES
DENIS VILLENEUVE | CANADA, FRANCE | 2010 | 131 MIN | R | FRENCH, ARABIC, ENGLISH
January 5 | 7:30 PM /// January 25 | 7:15 PM /// January 27 | 1:30 PM
Determined to understand the root of their mother’s trauma and source of lineage, two siblings embark on a journey to the Middle East in Villeneuve’s harrowing masterpiece investigating generational violence.
PRISONERS
DENIS VILLENEUVE | USA | 2013 | 153 MIN | R | ENGLISH
January 14 | 3:30 PM /// January 31 | 7:00 PM
The disappearance of two girls sets a community on edge, pushing a father past the line of morality and the law as he attempts to save his family in this airtight thriller, featuring never better performances from Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal.
ENEMY
DENIS VILLENEUVE | CANADA, SPAIN, FRANCE | 2013 | 91 MIN | R | ENGLISH
January 11 | 7:30 PM /// January 19 | 9:30 PM
A meek professor becomes dangerously infatuated with the world of his mysterious doppelgänger in Denis Villeneuve’s unsettling exploration of identity and arachnids.
SICARIO
DENIS VILLENEUVE | USA, MEXICO, HONG KONG | 2015 | 121 MIN | R | ENGLISH, SPANISH, UKRANIAN
February 15 | 7:00 PM
Villeneuve’s pulse-pounding thriller finds a naive FBI agent joining a covert task force combating the heightening war on drugs, but finds herself internally conflicted as she navigates the moral ambiguity present within her own ranks.
ARRIVAL
DENIS VILLENEUVE | USA, CANADA | 2016 | 116 MIN | PG-13 | ENGLISH, RUSSIAN, MANDARIN
February 10 | 8:30 PM
Amy Adams delivers an unforgettable performance as Louise Banks, a linguist recruited to investigate and ultimately communicate with an enigmatic alien species that has landed on earth, causing global chaos.
BLADE RUNNER 2049
DENIS VILLENEUVE | USA, UK, CANADA, SPAIN | 2017 | 164 MIN | R | ENGLISH, FINNISH, JAPANESE, SPANISH | 4K
February 17 | 7:00 PM
Only enhancing the mystery and world building of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece, Villeneuve’s triumphant, visually sumptuous sequel centers on a blade runner replicant whose life unravels when he discovers a long buried secret that may destroy the world as he knows it.
DUNE (2021)
DENIS VILLENEUVE | USA, CANADA | 2021 | 155 MIN | PG-13 | ENGLISH, MANDARIN | 4K
February 22 | 7:00 PM
The political intrigue and philosophical musings of Frank Herbet’s classic sci-fi series is magnificently reimagined in Villeneuve’s epic about feuding families and foretold prophecies.
VAN PEEBLES – American Baadasssss
The cigar-chomping iconoclast that kickstarted a cinematic revolution is revisited through his art-house debut, transgressive studio hit, and one earth-shattering, wild indie classic. Plus a bonus screening of his own son’s biopic surrounding the creation of SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG.
THE STORY OF A THREE DAY PASS
MELVIN VAN PEEBLES | FRANCE, USA | 1967 | 86 MIN | NR | FRENCH, ENGLISH
January 4 | 7:30 PM /// February | 7:00 PM
As an expat in France, Van Peebles flourished in the much less segregated arts culture. He not only produced a number of books and plays, but created his first film: a poignant and romantic tale of an African American soldier on leave caught up in a whirlwind romance with a white French woman.
WATERMELON MAN
MELVIN VAN PEEBLES | USA | 1970 | 100 MIN | R | ENGLISH
February 7 | 7:30 PM
Melvin Van Peebles created one of the most audacious studio films of the time about a bigoted, loudmouth white man in an ironic predicament when he wakes up to find he’s transformed into a Black man.
SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG
MELVIN VAN PEEBLES | USA | 1997 | 97 MIN | R | ENGLISH
January 26 | 10:00 PM /// February 2 | 10:00 PM /// February 8 | 7:00 PM
Hailed for its revolutionary narrative and French New Wave-inspired filmmaking, Melvin Van Peebles’ pioneering feature follows the thrilling journey of a fugitive on the run from “the man”; signaling the start of the blaxploitation era.
BAADASSSSS!
MARIO VAN PEEBLES | USA | 2003 | 109 MIN | R | ENGLISH
February 8 | 9:00 PM
Mario Van Peebles becomes Melvin Van Peebles in his 2003 biographical drama, dissecting the trials and tribulations of his father’s production of the groundbreaking film, “SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG” in the 1970s.
VARDA – Merci, Agnès
The iconic filmmaker created nearly 50 unforgettable features and shorts in her celebrated 60 year long career and not once did she abandon her playfulness, integrity, or commitment to the feminist movement. Merci, Agnès.
VAGABOND
AGNÈS VARDA | FRANCE | 1985 | 105 MIN | NR | ENGLISH
March 2 | 2:00 & 7:00 PM /// March 12 | 4:00 & 7:00 PM
In 1985, Varda blended her now established documentary style with narrative storytelling to weave a fragmented journey of a mysterious young woman wandering the French countryside and her interactions with villagers along the way.
LE BONHEUR
AGNÈS VARDA | FRANCE | 1965 | 80 MIN | NR | FRENCH
March 13 | 4:00 & 7:00 PM /// March 17 | 6:00 PM
Varda’s most gorgeous, yet slyly spiteful, film finds a handsome young woodworker with a beautiful family finding new love in unexpected places. With the belief that his happiness can steer his beloved through these uncharted waters, what could go wrong?
THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS
AGNÈS VARDA | FRANCE | 2008 | 112 MIN | NR | FRENCH, ENGLISH
March 17 | 3:30 PM /// March 18 | 4:00 & 7:00 PM
Originally intended to be her final film, the beaches of Varda’s youth emerge as a backdrop to the director’s autobiographical ode to her career and life, coated in poignant reflections and theatrical recreations.
VARDA BY AGNÈS
AGNÈS VARDA | FRANCE | 2019 | 119 MIN | NR | FRENCH, ENGLISH
March 17 | 1:00 PM /// March 20 | 4:00 & 7:00 PM
Varda’s final bittersweet film, released the year of her passing in 2019, finds the brilliant director reflecting upon her entire life, film career, and the world at large with the playfulness and wit you’d expect from one of the most beloved filmmakers to ever live.
LA POINTE COURTE
AGNÈS VARDA | FRANCE | 1955 | 80 MIN | NR | FRENCH
March 24 | 5:30 PM /// March 27 | 7:00 PM
Predating the international recognition of the French New Wave, Varda’s debut is a beautiful yet hard hitting examination of a couple’s marriage on the rocks as they ebb and flow amongst the populace of a small southern French village.
EPHRON – When Nora Met Meg
Before her illustrious film career, Nora Ephron sought meaningful change in the workplace and at home for women with her smart and impactful reporting on once taboo women’s issues that inspired generations and films to come.
YOU’VE GOT MAIL
NORA EPHRON | USA | 1998 | 119 MIN | PG | ENGLISH | 4K
March 14 | 4:00 & 7:00 PM
An online romance between Shopgirl (Meg Ryan) and NY152 (Tom Hanks) is threatened when the chatpals discover they are business rivals. It’s already been over 25 years since this beloved AOL-approved classic slid into the DMs of our hearts.
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
ROB REINER | USA | 1989 | 95 MIN | R | ENGLISH | 4K
March 15 | 4:00 & 7:00 PM
Though directed by comedic great Rob Reiner, it’s Nora Ephron’s biting, romantic, and hilarious script that had the whole world wanting what Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal were having as they navigate friendship, sex, and love.
SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE
NORA EPHRON | USA | 1993 | 105 MIN | R | ENGLISH
March 21 | 4:00 & 7:00 PM /// March 28 | 7:30 PM
It’s like magic when Nora Ephron strings together heartbreak, missed connections, laughs, and one very persistent child to create an unforgettable romcom tearjerker between a widower and his secret admirer on the other side of the country.
GRIER – Coffy with Foxy
A new type of action star was born the moment this LA transplant escaped the shackles of early women-in-prison films and became Pam Grier, the baddest one-chick hit-squad that ever hit the silver screen!
COFFY
JACK HILL | USA | 1973 | 90 MIN | R | ENGLISH | 4K
March 1 | 4:30 & 7:00 PM /// March 16 | 7:30 PM
The illustrious and charismatic Pam Grier shot to stardom as a nurse turned vigilante seeking to eliminate drug dealers after her sister succumbs to addiction in this groundbreaking and empowering role for Black women representation on screen.
FOXY BROWN
JACK HILL | USA | 1974 | 92 MIN | R | ENGLISH
March 1 | 9:15 PM /// March 16 | 3:00 & 5:15 PM
In 1974, Jack Hill and Pam Grier rejoin forces for another Blaxploitation hit about a woman navigating the murky criminal underworld in a quest to avenge her murdered lover.
FILM ESSENTIALS
Cinema’s greatest treasures as they were meant to be seen: on the biggest screen in Center City!
CINEMA PARADISO
GIUSEPPE TORNATORE | ITALY, FRANCE | 1988 | 155 MIN | PG | ITALIAN
January 3 | 7:00 PM /// January 20 | 12:00 PM
Celebrating the powerful effect film has had on all our lives, we kick off the new year with the sublime epic that finds a young boy’s love for the cinema being born amidst the reels of a small projection booth in a war-torn Sicilian town.
PEEPING TOM
MICHAEL POWELL | UK | 1960 | 101 MIN | NR | ENGLISH | 4K
January 6 | 8:30 PM /// January 11 | 7:00 PM /// January 14 | 7:00 PM
Released the same year as PSYCHO, director Michael Powell (THE RED SHOES) was unceremoniously derided for this proto-slasher film that invited audiences to be voyeurs to a series of murders by an unassuming “nice guy” Brit armed with a movie camera.
WATERMELON MAN
MELVIN VAN PEEBLES | USA | 1970 | 100 MIN | R | ENGLISH
February 7 | 7:30 PM
Melvin Van Peebles created one of the most audacious studio films of the time about a bigoted, loudmouth white man in an ironic predicament when he wakes up to find he’s transformed into a Black man. Part of our “Van Peebles – American Baadasssss” series.
THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT
JACQUES DEMY | FRANCE | 1967 | 126 MIN | G | FRENCH, ENGLISH
February 14 | 7:00 PM /// February 16 | 7:00 PM
Jacques Demy’s whimsical tale is brought to life by real-life sisters, Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac, portraying lovelorn twins who dream of leaving their seaside town of Rochefort, one dazzling and colorful, yet poignant musical number at a time.
MOONSTRUCK
NORMAN JEWISON | USA | 1987 | 102 MIN | PG | ENGLISH, ITALIAN | 4K
March 8 | 4:00 & 7:00 PM /// March 19 | 4:00 & 7:00 PM
In this endlessly rewatchable classic with a pitch-perfect script, the incomparable Cher falls for her fiancé’s brother; a hot-headed, one-handed bread baker with a screw or two loose, played by Nicholas Cage.
THE SEVENTH SEAL
INGMAR BERGMAN | SWEDEN | 1957 | 97 MIN | NR | SWEDISH, LATIN
March 24 | 3:00 PM /// March 27 | 7:30 PM
Once again utilizing film to confront his own wavering faith, Ingmar Bergman’s iconic and symbolic tale pits a medieval knight against Death itself in a game of chess with the mortal’s own life and belief in God on the line.
AFTER HOURS
Bringing together the odd, eerie, thrilling, and downright weird, this is the home of cult classics.
THE FUNHOUSE
TOBE HOOPER | USA | 1981 | 96 MIN | R | ENGLISH
January 5 | 10:00 PM /// January 26 | 9:40 PM
A night of mischief inside a carnival funhouse becomes one of horror for a band of teens locked in and at the mercy of murderous carnival workers in this claustrophobic cult classic from TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE maestro Tobe Hooper.
THE OTHERS
ALEJANDRO AMENÁBAR | SPAIN, USA, FRANCE, ITALY | 2001 | 104 MIN | PG-13 | ENGLISH | 4K
January 5 | 9:40 PM /// January 10 | 7:30 PM /// January 20 | 9:30 PM /// January 27 | 7:15 PM
Nicole Kidman embraces her inner-goth in Alejandro Amenábar’s eerie haunted house shocker set in 1945. A woman protects her light-sensitive children from unwanted guests where, somehow, heartbreak and shrieks feels good in a film like this.
MALIGNANT
JAMES WAN | USA, CHINA | 2021 | 111 MIN | R | ENGLISH
January 12 | 7:00 PM /// January 19 | 9:00 PM /// January 20 | 7:00 PM
Finally released from the confines of streaming and unleashed on the big screen, director James Wan and writer Akela Cooper’s (M3GAN) out of control, loony horror symphony finds a disturbed woman having visions of brutal murders that go straight to her head.
BASKET CASE
FRANK HENENLOTTER | USA | 1982 | 91 MIN | NR | ENGLISH | 4K
January 12 | 9:30 PM /// January 19 | 7:00 PM /// January 20 | 9:45 PM
After renting a room at a seedy NYC hotel with only a large wicker basket in tow, wide-eyed and wholesome Duane spends his days interacting with the eccentric tenants, striking up a new romance, and wolfing down dozens of fast food burgers in bed with his bro.
NOWHERE
GREGG ARAKI | FRANCE, USA | 1997 | 82 MIN | R | ENGLISH | 4K
January 13 | 7:30 PM /// January 19 | 7:30 PM /// January 27 | 9:15 PM
Lauded as a cinematic acid trip, the final film in Gregg Araki’s Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy chronicles the lives of a group of angsty, totally f***ed up LA teens juggling sexuality, love, and existentialism.
NATURAL BORN KILLERS on 35mm
OLIVER STONE | USA | 1994 | 119 MIN | R | ENGLISH, NAVAJO, JAPANESE | 35MM
February 3 | 10:00 PM /// February 9 | 9:45 PM
Relationship goals were cemented for many in Oliver Stone’s gonzo, mixed-medium, carnage-filled satire about two bloodlust lovebirds on the run (Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson) with a hyper-violent saturated media train on their tail.
TIMECRIMES
NACHO VIGALONDO | SPAIN | 2007 | 92 MIN | R | SPANISH
February 2 | 9:30 PM /// February 3 | 9:30 PM
Spanish filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo’s (COLOSSAL, 2016) thrillingly bizarre, shocking and humorous debut finds a man attempting to solve a murder mystery while stuck in a one hour continuous time loop. Happy Groundhog Day!
POSSESSION
ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI | FRANCE, GERMANY | 1981 | 124 MIN | R | ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN | 4K
February 9 | 7:00 PM /// February 16 | 9:45 PM
In this film, you gotta get the divorce first. Then when you get the divorce, you get the freedom. Then when you get the freedom, then you get to have a liberating orgasmic freakout in the metro. Happy Valentine’s Day with our annual Possession screening!
MIRROR MIRROR
MARINA SARGENTI | USA | 1990 | 104 MIN | R | ENGLISH
March 2 | 9:30 PM /// March 9 | 7:00 PM
A Winona-Ryder-from-BEETLEJUICE doppelgänger must deal with typical high school issues like unrequited crushes and bullying. What’s not typical is the magical mirror under her control that can violently eradicate the aforementioned issues.
GREENER GRASS
JOCELYN DEBOER, DAWN LUEBBE | USA | 2019 | 95 MIN | NR | ENGLISH
March 8 | 9:15 PM /// March 15 | 9:15 PM
The horrors of suburban fragility mixed with complete absurdity cemented triple threat filmmaking duo Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe as queens of contemporary cult film in this insane tale that commences with one woman’s admiration for another’s newborn.
SCREAM
WES CRAVEN | USA | 1996 | 111 MIN | R | ENGLISH
March 16 | 9:30 PM | BYOB at the PFS EAST /// March 29 | 7:00 PM | Film Center
Drew Barrymore stars in Wes Craven’s hit horror film about a Jiffy Pop connoisseur with a big, football playing boyfriend who is tormented on a landline by a horror movie edgelord. BYOB screening 3/16 at the PFS East!
SCREAM 2
WES CRAVEN | USA | 1997 | 120 MIN | R | ENGLISH
March 29 | 9:30 PM | Film Center
Jada Pinkett Smith attends opening night of the new movie STAB and gets more than she bargained for; while David Arquette’s Dewey gets in a little pep in his step from an iconic theme song when he attempts to woo Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers.
THROWBACK THURSDAY QUIZZO
Come out to the Philadelphia Film Center for a screening of a crowd-pleasing modern classic preceded by a few rounds Quizzo where all questions are inspired by that night’s movie.
THE MUMMY
STEPHEN SOMMERS | USA | 1999 | 124 MIN | PG-13 | ENGLISH, ARABIC
January 8 | 7:00 PM /// January 28 |3:00 PM
A horror-tinged, action adventure romp, with a ridiculously good looking cast led by the always charming Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, finds an expedition team grappling with awakening ol’ Imhotep and saving the world from Biblical plagues one wisecrack and thrilling set piece at a time.
WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT
ROBERT ZEMECKIS | USA | 1988 | 104 MIN | PG | ENGLISH
February 18 | 3:00 PM /// February 29 | 7:00 PM
With Roger Rabbit’s brains and his wife Jessica’s good looks, the pair could certainly go places if it wasn’t for the murder of an ACME bigwig and Roger’s fur all over the crime scene. Only one man can save the “it” couple of Toontown: Bob Hoskins.
9 TO 5
COLIN HIGGINS | USA | 1980 | 109 MIN | PG | ENGLISH, FRENCH
March 28 | 7:00 PM /// March 30 | 3:00 PM
Tumble out of bed / and stumble into the cinema / kneel at the altar of three divas / and watch and love and try not to laugh / watchin’ 9 to 5 / what a way to spend your Thursday! / Barely an eye is dry / as they dismantle patriarchy.
DEBUT
All filmmakers have to start somewhere. A debut film may catapult a director into the auteur stratosphere or be merely a blip on their IMDb list, yet the debut remains a defining moment that can serve as film forensic for everything that follows. Throughout January, February, and March we are featuring the debut films from Melvin Van Peebles, Denis Villeneuve, Agnes Varda, Kasi Lemmons, Peter Bogdanovich, and more!
LADY BIRD
GRETA GERWIG | USA | 2017 | 94 MIN | R | ENGLISH, SPANISH
March 3 | 2:00 PM /// March 7 | 4:00 & 7:00 PM /// March 11 | 4:00 PM & 7:00 PM
Acclaimed actress and writer Greta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut is an electrifying and utterly gratifying coming-of-age story about an awkward teen yearning to escape her hometown.
FAMILY MATINEES
Welcoming children, caregivers, and children-at-heart to experience kid-friendly classics both new and old.
MEGAMIND
TOM MCGRATH | USA, AUSTRALIA | 2010 | 95 MIN | PG | ENGLISH
March 24 | 3:30 PM | Film Center
After finally defeating his superhero nemesis, the beloved Metro Man, supervillain Megamind is thrown into an unexpected identity crisis when he realizes a world without an adversary is meaningless.
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Limited engagements, Community Partnerships, Science on Screen, and Event Screenings!
BIG GEORGE FOREMAN
GEORGE TILLMAN JR. | USA | 2023 | 129 MIN | PG-13 | ENGLISH
February 3 | 6:00 PM | FREE
This is a special Black History Month cultural event, open to the public, presented by the Philadelphia Film Society and Greater Enon Missionary Baptist Church, an urban civic-minded ministry in North Philadelphia, dedicated to the personal, cultural, and spiritual uplift and love of the people.
TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME
MARK BROWN | USA | 2001 | 90 MIN | R | ENGLISH
March 30 | 7:00 PM | FREE
Vivica Fox stuns in this classic 00s rom-com as Shante Smith, the fourth-wall-breaking relationship connoisseur who may have all the answers but can’t prevent her own love life from imploding.
A POWERFUL THANG
ZEINABU IRENE DAVIS | USA | 1991 | 57 MIN | NR
February 1 | 7:30 PM
Zeinabu irene Davis’s refreshing romantic drama spotlights the divinity of Black love through an African American couple grappling with the intense nature of desire and intimacy as their relationship evolves.
PHILLY FILM SHOWCASE
February 2 | 7:30 PM
March 29 | 9:30 PM
A FREE to attend exhibition supporting new work by talented up-and-coming local filmmakers of all ages, levels, and backgrounds complete with a post- screening Q&As with the filmmakers and talent.
SAVE THE DATE: Exhumed Films 35mm Marathon
March 30 | 12:00 PM