Stage & Screen
Presenting an exciting selection of filmed performances ranging from one-of-a-kind concerts to stage productions from the National Theatre. Upcoming engagements will be announced on an ongoing basis.
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AFI Silver After Dark
All tickets just $8!
Join us for a monthly late-night series showcasing classic, soon-to-be classic and should-be-classic horror, sci-fi, action, fantasy and cross-genre gems hand-picked by the AFI Silver programming team. We promise deep cuts — sometimes literally — underrated classics, sneak peeks, new restorations and all-time favorites up on the big screen, the way late-night movies are meant to be seen!
Monthly selections will be announced on an ongoing basis.
NEW: Pick up our new After Dark Punch Card at the Silver Box Office! Catch six After Dark flicks and your next one is on us.
Three Films by Mamoru Hosoda
May 11–September 30
Mamoru Hosoda was born in Toyama, Japan, in 1967. Trained as an oil painter at Kanazawa University of Arts and Crafts, Hosoda honed his considerable skills working at famed anime production houses such as Toei and Studio Ghibli. In 2003, he directed SUPERFLAT MONOGRAM, a video for Louis Vuitton’s spring/summer collection in collaboration with artist Takashi Murakami. Hosoda established his name in feature animation in 2006 with THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, which became a long-running box office hit and earned numerous awards. Hosoda’s subsequent films further cemented his reputation both in Japan and abroad with award-winning titles including SUMMER WARS, WOLF CHILDREN, THE BOY AND THE BEAST and MIRAI, which was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature Film in 2019. Hosoda, along with longtime collaborator and producer Yûichirô Saitô, co-founded Studio Chizu, the animation house that has produced his works since 2011.
The Hackman Connection
July 11–Sept. 17
Gene Hackman (1930–2025) was a Hollywood everyman who brought to life all manner of characters: a relentless cop, a ruthless politician, a sadistic sheriff, an encouraging coach, an eccentric patriarch. Rarely undertaking the kind of full body transformations that awards pundits frequently acclaim, Hackman instead slipped into these varied roles through subtle gradations of his face and voice, blessing the silver screen with a wide range of multifaceted characters over the course of his 40-year career. Along the way, he amassed wide acclaim, receiving five Academy Award® nominations and two wins, for THE FRENCH CONNECTION and UNFORGIVEN. This series celebrates Hackman’s impressive career with screenings of films that feature his most volcanic yet endearing performances, the kind that only an atypical Hollywood movie star like he could embody.
AFI Life Achievement Award: Francis Ford Coppola
July 11–Sept. 9
Over the course of a seven-decade career, Francis Ford Coppola has proven himself an uncompromising cinematic rebel and a peerless artist. Cutting his teeth on Roger Corman’s sets in the early ‘60s, the maverick filmmaker made his debut with the 1963 Corman-produced horror flick DEMENTIA 13. In 1969, he and George Lucas founded American Zoetrope, the independent studio that produced every Coppola feature film since, in addition to works by Lucas, Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa and Paul Schrader, among others. Though he was armed with creative freedom, poor box office results led Coppola to accept what ended up being a serendipitous work-for-hire gig directing THE GODFATHER. He would follow THE GODFATHER PART II — winner of six Academy Awards®, including Best Director — with the ambitious war epic APOCALYPSE NOW. The tumultuous production deep in the jungles of Vietnam (documented in Eleanor Coppola’s HEARTS OF DARKNESS) quite nearly killed him, but the film proved a financial success that firmly cemented Coppola’s standing in the American film canon. Saddled with debt, Coppola spent the ‘80s churning out films, but much of this work — including THE OUTSIDERS, RUMBLE FISH and ONE FROM THE HEART — equally shaped contemporary American cinema. In celebration of the 50th AFI Life Achievement Award honoree, we present a tour through the inspirational filmography of this immensely talented and fiercely independent filmmaker.
Oh My Godzilla Raids Again!!
July 11–Sept. 16
The ocean current turns turbulent as large, segmented dorsal fins part the calm waters. Up from the depths emerges a giant reptilian monster with a mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth, a dreadful primordial roar and massively destructive atomic breath. This terrifying creature is none other than Godzilla, the fearsome yet beloved kaiju that trekked through the AFI Silver Theatre last year and returns to raid the silver screen once again! Featuring nine films that span seven decades in Godzilla’s mammoth filmography, plus one featuring a certain giant moth’s debut, this series presents a wide range of campy, frightening and emotional films starring one of Japanese cinema’s most iconic creations.
VistaVision!
July 11–Sept. 18
As the marvel of television gripped the nation in the early 1950s, Hollywood studios scrambled to lure audiences back into movie theaters with a plethora of new film formats that expanded the traditional, boxy Academy aspect ratio into wondrous widescreen. But the standard 35mm frame just did not hold up to these new dimensions. Enter Paramount Pictures’ VistaVision format, which oriented the normally vertical film strip horizontally as it ran through the cameras, thereby doubling the picture area and allowing incredible sharpness, finer grain and added detail. After debuting this new format with 1954’s WHITE CHRISTMAS, Paramount utilized it for everything from big screen epics like THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and WAR AND PEACE to soaring musicals like FUNNY FACE with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire. Even rival studios boarded the VistaVision train, with Alfred Hitchcock shooting his beloved classic NORTH BY NORTHWEST for MGM and John Ford his enduring western THE SEARCHERS for Warner Bros.; the latter screens in a new 70mm print alongside Hitchcock’s masterpiece for Paramount, VERTIGO. While VistaVision became mostly obsolete by the late ’50s, the format has found a second life thanks to filmmakers like Brady Corbet, Emerald Fennell and Paul Thomas Anderson who have chosen the special format for their latest films, reminding us that the big screen spectacle of the movies is still hard to beat.
Il Bello Marcello: Mastroianni on Screen
July 12–Sept. 16
Join us for a centennial celebration of Marcello Mastroianni (1924–1996), spanning four decades of the iconic actor’s incredible 50-plus-year career and featuring some of his breakthrough collaborations with legendary directors Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Michelangelo Antonioni, and legendary actresses Sophia Loren, Anouk Aimée, Claudia Cardinale, Monica Vitti and Catherine Deneuve. Highlighting his early roles in rarely-seen gems AGAINST THE LAW (1950) and TOO BAD SHE’S BAD (1954), star-making turns in Fellini’s LA DOLCE VITA (1960) and 8½ (1963) — presented in a newly-struck 35mm print — and Oscar®-nominated performances in DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE (1961), A SPECIAL DAY (1977) and DARK EYES (1987), this series reflects Mastroianni’s charm, intelligence and emotional nuance as a performer; his ability to move seamlessly between comedy, drama and surrealist fantasy; and his indelible impact on Italian and world cinema.
Presented with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute (IIC) of Washington as part of Fare Cinema. Special thanks to the Italian Cultural Society of Washington, DC; Istituto Luce Cinecittà; VIGGO and Movietime.
Robert Altman Centennial
July 18–Sept. 18
A signature stylist in American filmmaking, Robert Altman (1925–2006) was known as an innovator and iconoclast. Altman’s work helped to define the 1970s. He may have slowed down in the 1980s, but he reemerged in the 1990s and early 2000s (more than once) with some of his best work. The hallmarks of Altman’s celebrated style — overlapping dialogue, improvisational acting, mobile camera and zooms, subversive humor — have been displayed since the career-making M*A*S*H in 1970. (Ironically, it might have never been: his unorthodox methods so puzzled co-stars Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould that they tried to have him removed from the picture!) A century after his birth, his films have lost none of their vitality. They have also continued to greatly influence younger filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson and Wes Anderson. Altman received five Academy Award® nominations for Best Director and never won, but the Academy awarded him an honorary Oscar® in 2006 “for a career that has repeatedly reinvented the art form and inspired filmmakers and audiences alike.”
Killer Vision: 30 Years of Killer Films
July 20–Sept. 17
As Killer Films marks its 30th anniversary, we celebrate three decades of bold storytelling, boundary-pushing cinema and visionary perspectives. Founded in 1995 by producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, Killer Films has carved out a singular space in independent film, becoming synonymous with daring, auteur-driven storytelling and launching enduring creative partnerships with filmmakers such as Todd Haynes, Mary Harron, Todd Solondz and, more recently, Celine Song. This retrospective honors Killer Films’ legacy with a selection of films — including rare 35mm screenings of Harron’s I SHOT ANDY WARHOL, Kimberly Peirce’s BOYS DON’T CRY and Cindy Sherman’s OFFICE KILLER — that reflect the company’s fearless approach to subject matter and form and its ongoing commitment to queer cinema, feminist narratives and outsider perspectives. Here is to 30 years of killer stories — and the ones still to come.
A Tribute to Circle Films
Aug. 9–Sept. 17
Circle Films was a Washington, DC-based independent production company that, along with its distribution wing, Circle Releasing Corporation, enjoyed significant success in the 1980s and 1990s, despite being located outside of the traditional film production and distribution hubs of Los Angeles and New York. Led by brothers Ted and James Pedas, Circle Films’ most significant success came with their association with the early career of the Coen brothers, distributing their debut film BLOOD SIMPLE and subsequently producing BARTON FINK, RAISING ARIZONA and MILLER’S CROSSING. Other notable titles distributed by Circle Releasing included John Woo’s international breakthrough THE KILLER (1989) — look for a new 4K DCP to screen at the Silver this fall — Guy Maddin’s debut TALES FROM THE GIMLI HOSPITAL and Al Reinert’s NASA documentary FOR ALL MANKIND. The Pedas brothers also operated the famed Circle Theatre, formerly located in DC’s Foggy Bottom/West End neighborhood, and the Circle Theatres chain, which once numbered 80 screens across Washington. Ted Pedas passed away in March of this year at the age of 93, after a lifetime of generous support for numerous arts organizations, including serving for many years on AFI Silver’s advisory council. This retrospective series honors his and his brother Jim’s unique and innovative legacy in the film world.
Noir City DC: The Washington DC Film Noir Festival
October 10–23
Full lineup coming soon!
Each year, Eddie Muller and the Film Noir Foundation (FNF) team deliver an impeccably curated selection of films noir, combining canonical classics with rarities ripe for rediscovery. This year, Noir City DC shines a spotlight on women whose cinematic legacies are entwined with the rise of film noir, including actresses profiled in Muller’s 2001 book “Dark City Dames: The Women Who Defined Film Noir,” which was reissued in April in a revised and expanded edition.
Film historians and FNF board members Foster Hirsch and Alan K. Rode will introduce screenings Oct.10–12 and Oct. 17–19, respectively.
Special thanks to the FNF, including Eddie Muller, Foster Hirsch, Alan K. Rode, Daryl Sparks and Katherine Majeed.
Noir City DC All-Access Pass: $200
The All-Access Pass gives you admission for one to every screening in Noir City DC at a significant discount. Purchase passes here.
*Silver Cinema Club discounts currently available in person only.
Stay in Silver Spring and save!
We’ve partnered with Courtyard Silver Spring Downtown to offer a limited number of discounted rooms for Noir City DC attendees Oct. 9–25. Book before Sept. 12 to secure a special rate! Make a reservation here or call the hotel at 301.589.4899 and reference Noir City DC.
