Palestine's Official Submission for the 2025 Academy Awards, From Ground Zero is a powerful collection of short films by 22 Palestinian filmmakers living through war in Gaza. Through a unique blend of animation, documentary, and fiction, these stories capture the unyielding steadfastness of the human spirit and enduring creativity that thrives even in the face of relentless devastation. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has short-listed the film in its Best International Feature Film category for the 97th Academy Awards.From Ground Zero was created by filmmaker Rashid Masharawi and designed to give a voice to the people of Gaza and to
Laemmle Theatres is pleased to announce changes to our eclectic Culture Vulture series beginning next month. After ten years of screening filmed theater, opera, ballet/dance, gallery/art, and much more at our Town Center/Encino, Glendale, Monica Film Center/Santa Monica, and Claremont 5 theaters, we are now adding our Newhall theater. What's more, we will now screen the films Saturdays and Sundays at 10:00 A.M. and Mondays at 7:00 P.M. Tickets are now on sale for the first six films of the new year:*January 25-27: Utilizing the third act motifs of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters as a jumping off point, Dmitry Krymov’s Fragment focuses in on Olga
It has been another excellent year for animated features. Inside Out 2, The Wild Robot, Look Back, Art College 1994, Chicken for Linda and Memoir of a Snail stand out; Moana 2 just had a record-setting weekend; and we still have The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, The Colors Within and The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie to look forward to.But, as Yoda said, "there is another." The adventure-fantasy Flow follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive
Sabbath Queen, the new documentary filmed over two decades, follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie's epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis, including the Chief Rabbis of Israel. He is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and becomes a drag queen rebel, a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul—an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation.Sabbath Queen followsAmichai on his lifelong quest to creatively and radically reinvent religion and ritual, challenge patriarchy and supremacy, champion interfaith love, and stand up for peace. The film interrogates what Jewish
My Sweet Land director Sareen Hairabedian will participate in a Q&A following the 7:30 PM screening at the Laemmle Glendale on Friday, November 29. Abby Sun, Director of Artist Programs and Editor of Documentary Magazine, will moderate. Additional Q&A's:November 30 at 7:30pm: Q&A with Ms. Hairabedian moderated by Armen Karaoghlanian, Founder and CEO, Armenian Film Society.December 3 at 7:30pm: Q&A with Ms. Hairabedian moderated by Matt Carey, Documentary Editor at Deadline.
Sabbath Queen Q&A's:5-Dec 7:00 Royal, Sandi Simcha Dubowski with Amy Ziering, Producer/Director6-Dec 7:10 PM Royal Sandi with Gabe Dunn7-Dec 7:10 PM Royal Sandi with Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie and Jessica Yellin, political journalist8-Dec 1:20 PM Royal Sandi with Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie and Carolline Libresco, film festival curator8-Dec 7:10 PM Royal Sandi with Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie and Rabbi Sharon Brous, Senior & Founding Rabbi, IKAR9-Dec 7:00 PM NoHo Sandi with Joel Goodman, the film's composer10-Dec 7:00 PM Glendale Sandi with Damona Hoffman, Official Love Expert, The Drew Barrymore Show12/11 Town Center 7:00pmSandi Dubowski, DirectorShana
On December 20th we are opening Pedro Almodóvar's first movie in English, The Room Next Door, at the Royal. We'll bring it to Claremont, Glendale, Newhall, North Hollywood, and Encino in January. Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton star as two friends who reconnect after decades apart and embark on an unusual new phase of their friendship. Writing in Time Magazine, Stephanie Zacharek describes how "the colors of The Room Next Door are its secret message, a language of pleasure and beauty that reminds us how great it is to be alive. If it's possible to make a joyful movie about death, Almodóvar has just done it." "The Room Next Door, as driven by the
The newest episode of Inside the Arthouse just dropped and it's a fascinating one. Hosts Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge discuss the centenary of arthouse film with professor, historian, author and Academy Film Scholar Ross Melnick. It's a lively conversation about the amazing history of arthouse film -- Where it started, how far it's come, and where is it today. Laemmle, third generation arthouse theater owner, adds his perspective, as the trio explores the last century considers the future of arthouse.Here's a taste from the beginning of their conversation:ROSS MELNICK: The history of arthouse theaters is about a hundred years old. It really
Tomorrow we open Blitz, the latest film English filmmaker Steve McQueen (Shame, 12 Years a Slave, Occupied City), at the Claremont, Glendale, Monica Film Center, Newhall, and Town Center. Starring Saoirse Ronan, it follows the stories of a group of Londoners during the events of the British capital bombing in World War II. Top film critics have been singing its praises:"McQueen—a director who understands we can only look forward by looking back—gives us a new lens through which to examine WWII in this masterful film." ~ Emily Zemler, Observer"I’ve been to whole film festivals with less cinema than Steve McQueen packs into just two hours." ~
When he accepted the Palme d'Or for his colorful, authentic, surprising, exciting, thrilling comedy Anora earlier this year at Cannes, writer-director Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket) spoke eloquently about seeing movies in theaters. You can watch the whole thing online, but here's the key excerpt:"This literally has been my singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years. So I’m not really sure what I’m gonna do with the rest of my life, but I do know that I will continue to fight for cinema because right now, as filmmakers, we have to fight to keep cinema alive. This means making feature films intended for theatrical
THE EYE OF THE SALAMANDEROpening at the Laemmle Glendale on Friday, November 1Q&A with Writer/Director Pavel Nikolajev and Producer Olga Polevaya on Saturday, November 2 following primetime showingAn Aztec pyramid figurine found in the ancient city of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico stores a dark secret, which is discovered by professor Hiscock, a non-traditional hero, who will learn quantum teleportation the hard way, facing primal folklore fears and his alter ego in the gruesome catacombs of uncharted realm.DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT"I had a vision to create a film about instant teleportation via an ancient artifact for quite some time and was
Union Q&A schedule:Royal 10/23: co-director Brett Story, producer Samantha Curley, and subject Chris Smalls;Monica Film Center 10/25, 7:20 PM show: co-directors Steve Maing and Brett Story, producer Samantha Curley, and subject Chris Smalls with Adam Conover moderating;Monica Film Center 10/26, 4:20 PM show: co-director Steve Maing, producer Samantha Curley, subject Chris Smalls, and UTLA president Cecily Myart-Cruz;Glendale 10/26, 7:20 PM show: co-director Steve Maing, producer Samantha Curley, and subject Chris Smalls;Glendale 10/27 noon show: co-director Steve Maing, producer Samantha Curley, and subject Chris Smalls.
The newest episode of Inside the Arthouse features the fantastic documentary Union. Having received a Special Jury award at Sundance, and played thirty of the most prestigious documentary film festivals around the world, it opens October 25 at Laemmle Monica Film Center and Glendale. (We'll have multiple in-person Q&A's with the filmmakers and the main subject, Chris Smalls; details here.)Through intimate cinema vérité, Union chronicles the extraordinary efforts of a group of warehouse workers as they launch a grassroots campaign to unionize an Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island.The filmmakers document the struggle from day one against one
NURSE UNSEEN Q&A scheduleFriday 10/111:30 PMQ&A with director/producer/lead editor Michele Josue and producer Carlo Velayo7:10 PMPresented by SoCal Filipinos & FilAm CreativeQ&A with director/producer/lead editor Michele Josue and producer Carlo Velayo, and cast members: Jollene Levid, Nora Levid, Gertrude Tan, Joyette Jagolino, Shantell Pambuan, Tiffany Olega, Allison MayolSaturday 10/121:30 PMPresented by The Council of Young Filipinx Americans in Medicine (CYFAM)Q&A with director/producer/lead editor Michele Josue, producer Carlo Velayo, and Alex Argame, CYFAM Community Engagment Co-Chair, RN, Medical Student.Moderated by CYFAM's Antonio Moya7
Stolen Time Q&A schedule:(1) Thursday 10/17, Royal, 7:20pm Moderator: Thyonne Gordon (AARP California) Panelists: Fernando Torres-Gil (Director, UCLA Center for Policy Research on Aging), Dr. K. Madara Marasinghe (Oxford Institute of Population Aging) + film participant Melissa Miller(2) Friday 10/18, Glendale, 7:30pm Moderator: Laura Nix Panelists: Melissa & filmmaker Helene Klodawsky(3) Saturday 10/19, Glendale, 7:30pm Moderator: Lydia Storie (Caring Across Generations) Panelists: Astrid Zuniga from (United Domestic Workers), Melissa & Helene(4) Sunday 10/20, Glendale, 12:45pm Moderator: Astrid Zuniga (United Domestic Workers) Panelists: Rachel
Rule of Two Walls filmmaker David Gutnik will participate in Q&A's after the October 22 and 25-27 screenings at the Laemmle Royal and the October 23 screening at the Laemmle Glendale. The moderators:Tuesday, October 22 ~ Sharon StoneWednesday, October 23 ~ Marina MazepaFriday, October 25 ~ Yan GordienkoSaturday, October 26 ~ Vlad KlimchukSunday, October 27 ~ Amman Abbasidiv>
Ruth Reichl—trailblazing New York Times food critic, groundbreaking Gourmet Magazine editor, best-selling memoirist, and, for decades, one of the most influential figures shaping American food culture—grows concerned about the fate of small farmers, ranchers, and chefs as they wrestle with both immediate and systemic challenges as the pandemic takes hold.In Food and Country, Reichl reaches across political and social divides to discover innovators who are risking it all to survive on the front lines. As one person leads her to the next, she follows the unfolding stories of ranchers in Kansas and Georgia; farmers in Nebraska, Ohio, and the Bronx; a
Opening this Friday at the Laemmle Royal and Glendale, Paradise is Burning is an emotional drama that navigates the complexities of society and family in working-class Swedish suburbia. Three sisters – sixteen-year-old Laura (Bianca Delbravo), twelve-year-old Mira (Dilvin Asaad), and seven-year-old Steffi (Safira Mossberg) - are left to their own devices by their absent mother. As summer approaches, the trio revels in the excitement of freedom, letting their days unfold without the constraints of adult supervision. However, when Laura receives a call that threatens to place them in foster care, she frantically searches for a substitute mother to
The new comedy Between the Temples, starring Jason Schwartzman as a troubled cantor who finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher (a never-better Carol Kane) re-enters his life as his adult Bat Mitzvah student, is living up to the hype and bringing audiences into theaters. Peruse this sampling of the catalyst for the film's success, critics' reviews:"A spiky, hilarious, and thoroughly unorthodox screwball comedy about a grief-stricken cantor who loses his voice, only to find that he’s surrounded by a chorus of well-intentioned people who are happy to speak for him." ~ David Ehrlich, indieWire"We get the sense that
Introducing the new video podcast Inside the Arthouse. Hosted by Greg Laemmle, President of Laemmle Theatres, and actor and Emmy award-winning director Raphael Sbarge, Inside the Arthouse is an insider’s perspective on filmmakers and the people responsible for the movies showing on arthouse screens across the U.S.Episode 101: Merchant Ivory: A Conversation with Stephen Soucy is now live everywhere you get your podcasts.Laemmle Theatres opens Merchant Ivory this Friday at the Royal/West L.A. and Town Center/Encino. In his Hollywood Reporter review, David Rooney wrote of the film, "anyone with a fondness for...what might be described as a gentlemen
Palestine's Official Submission for the 2025 Academy Awards, From Ground Zero is a powerful collection of short films by 22 Palestinian filmmakers living through war in Gaza. Through a unique blend of animation, documentary, and fiction, these stories capture the unyielding steadfastness of the human spirit and enduring creativity that thrives even in the face of relentless devastation. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has short-listed the film in its Best International Feature Film category for the 97th Academy Awards.From Ground Zero was created by filmmaker Rashid Masharawi and designed to give a voice to the people of Gaza and to
Laemmle Theatres is pleased to announce changes to our eclectic Culture Vulture series beginning next month. After ten years of screening filmed theater, opera, ballet/dance, gallery/art, and much more at our Town Center/Encino, Glendale, Monica Film Center/Santa Monica, and Claremont 5 theaters, we are now adding our Newhall theater. What's more, we will now screen the films Saturdays and Sundays at 10:00 A.M. and Mondays at 7:00 P.M. Tickets are now on sale for the first six films of the new year:*January 25-27: Utilizing the third act motifs of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters as a jumping off point, Dmitry Krymov’s Fragment focuses in on Olga
It has been another excellent year for animated features. Inside Out 2, The Wild Robot, Look Back, Art College 1994, Chicken for Linda and Memoir of a Snail stand out; Moana 2 just had a record-setting weekend; and we still have The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, The Colors Within and The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie to look forward to.But, as Yoda said, "there is another." The adventure-fantasy Flow follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive
Sabbath Queen, the new documentary filmed over two decades, follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie's epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis, including the Chief Rabbis of Israel. He is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and becomes a drag queen rebel, a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul—an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation.Sabbath Queen followsAmichai on his lifelong quest to creatively and radically reinvent religion and ritual, challenge patriarchy and supremacy, champion interfaith love, and stand up for peace. The film interrogates what Jewish
On December 20th we are opening Pedro Almodóvar's first movie in English, The Room Next Door, at the Royal. We'll bring it to Claremont, Glendale, Newhall, North Hollywood, and Encino in January. Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton star as two friends who reconnect after decades apart and embark on an unusual new phase of their friendship. Writing in Time Magazine, Stephanie Zacharek describes how "the colors of The Room Next Door are its secret message, a language of pleasure and beauty that reminds us how great it is to be alive. If it's possible to make a joyful movie about death, Almodóvar has just done it." "The Room Next Door, as driven by the
Tomorrow we open Blitz, the latest film English filmmaker Steve McQueen (Shame, 12 Years a Slave, Occupied City), at the Claremont, Glendale, Monica Film Center, Newhall, and Town Center. Starring Saoirse Ronan, it follows the stories of a group of Londoners during the events of the British capital bombing in World War II. Top film critics have been singing its praises:"McQueen—a director who understands we can only look forward by looking back—gives us a new lens through which to examine WWII in this masterful film." ~ Emily Zemler, Observer"I’ve been to whole film festivals with less cinema than Steve McQueen packs into just two hours." ~
When he accepted the Palme d'Or for his colorful, authentic, surprising, exciting, thrilling comedy Anora earlier this year at Cannes, writer-director Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket) spoke eloquently about seeing movies in theaters. You can watch the whole thing online, but here's the key excerpt:"This literally has been my singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years. So I’m not really sure what I’m gonna do with the rest of my life, but I do know that I will continue to fight for cinema because right now, as filmmakers, we have to fight to keep cinema alive. This means making feature films intended for theatrical
THE EYE OF THE SALAMANDEROpening at the Laemmle Glendale on Friday, November 1Q&A with Writer/Director Pavel Nikolajev and Producer Olga Polevaya on Saturday, November 2 following primetime showingAn Aztec pyramid figurine found in the ancient city of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico stores a dark secret, which is discovered by professor Hiscock, a non-traditional hero, who will learn quantum teleportation the hard way, facing primal folklore fears and his alter ego in the gruesome catacombs of uncharted realm.DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT"I had a vision to create a film about instant teleportation via an ancient artifact for quite some time and was
The newest episode of Inside the Arthouse features the fantastic documentary Union. Having received a Special Jury award at Sundance, and played thirty of the most prestigious documentary film festivals around the world, it opens October 25 at Laemmle Monica Film Center and Glendale. (We'll have multiple in-person Q&A's with the filmmakers and the main subject, Chris Smalls; details here.)Through intimate cinema vérité, Union chronicles the extraordinary efforts of a group of warehouse workers as they launch a grassroots campaign to unionize an Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island.The filmmakers document the struggle from day one against one
Rule of Two Walls filmmaker David Gutnik will participate in Q&A's after the October 22 and 25-27 screenings at the Laemmle Royal and the October 23 screening at the Laemmle Glendale. The moderators:Tuesday, October 22 ~ Sharon StoneWednesday, October 23 ~ Marina MazepaFriday, October 25 ~ Yan GordienkoSaturday, October 26 ~ Vlad KlimchukSunday, October 27 ~ Amman Abbasidiv>
Ruth Reichl—trailblazing New York Times food critic, groundbreaking Gourmet Magazine editor, best-selling memoirist, and, for decades, one of the most influential figures shaping American food culture—grows concerned about the fate of small farmers, ranchers, and chefs as they wrestle with both immediate and systemic challenges as the pandemic takes hold.In Food and Country, Reichl reaches across political and social divides to discover innovators who are risking it all to survive on the front lines. As one person leads her to the next, she follows the unfolding stories of ranchers in Kansas and Georgia; farmers in Nebraska, Ohio, and the Bronx; a
Opening this Friday at the Laemmle Royal and Glendale, Paradise is Burning is an emotional drama that navigates the complexities of society and family in working-class Swedish suburbia. Three sisters – sixteen-year-old Laura (Bianca Delbravo), twelve-year-old Mira (Dilvin Asaad), and seven-year-old Steffi (Safira Mossberg) - are left to their own devices by their absent mother. As summer approaches, the trio revels in the excitement of freedom, letting their days unfold without the constraints of adult supervision. However, when Laura receives a call that threatens to place them in foster care, she frantically searches for a substitute mother to
The new comedy Between the Temples, starring Jason Schwartzman as a troubled cantor who finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher (a never-better Carol Kane) re-enters his life as his adult Bat Mitzvah student, is living up to the hype and bringing audiences into theaters. Peruse this sampling of the catalyst for the film's success, critics' reviews:"A spiky, hilarious, and thoroughly unorthodox screwball comedy about a grief-stricken cantor who loses his voice, only to find that he’s surrounded by a chorus of well-intentioned people who are happy to speak for him." ~ David Ehrlich, indieWire"We get the sense that
Introducing the new video podcast Inside the Arthouse. Hosted by Greg Laemmle, President of Laemmle Theatres, and actor and Emmy award-winning director Raphael Sbarge, Inside the Arthouse is an insider’s perspective on filmmakers and the people responsible for the movies showing on arthouse screens across the U.S.Episode 101: Merchant Ivory: A Conversation with Stephen Soucy is now live everywhere you get your podcasts.Laemmle Theatres opens Merchant Ivory this Friday at the Royal/West L.A. and Town Center/Encino. In his Hollywood Reporter review, David Rooney wrote of the film, "anyone with a fondness for...what might be described as a gentlemen