The Academy Museum’s 2023–24 film programming is generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.

 The Academy Museum’s 2023–24 film programming is generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.

 The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures continues its extensive repertoire of public programming with an announcement of new film series, public events, and education programs to kick off the fall season. New programs include a screening of Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, including the 4K restoration world premiere of Nowhere (1997); a conversation and book signing with production designer Joe Alves and author Dennis Prince for Joe Alves: Designing Jaws on September 9; Fleischer cartoon shorts screened in the David Geffen Theater every weekend in the fall beginning September 30; Home Movie Day in collaboration with the Academy Film Archive on November 5; and in-gallery programming and family workshops focusing on Indigenous voices, location and set design, portraiture, animation, and tactile filmmaking.

To celebrate the opening day of the exhibition John Waters: Pope of Trash on September 17, the museum will present an ultra-rare silent screening of Eat Your Makeup (1968) with simultaneous live commentary from Waters in person, as well as a 35mm screening of Serial Mom (1994), a  book signing and meet and greet with the filmmaker, and a Drag Queen Story Hour featuring a family-friendly reading of scenes from Waters’s most iconic films.

Film programming limited series begins on September 1 with Yasujirō Ozu in Color: The Final Six Films, a screening of Ozu’s six films shot in color. Additional series begin on September 3 with Enter the VardaVerse: Afternoons in Paris; September 6 with New Italian Cinema/Nuovo Cinema Italiano; September 17 with John Waters: Pope of Trash; October 6 with Ennio Morricone: Essential Scores from a Movie Maestro. These series join the museum’s ongoing film programs Oscar® Sundays, Family Matinees, Branch Selects, and Available Space. The Academy Museum also announced it will be offering free admission to all guests on Sunday, September 30, to celebrate its two-year anniversary. Advanced reservations are encouraged, and walk-up tickets will also be available.   

“This fall’s slate of programs at the Academy Museum is designed to tell immersive and dynamic stories of moviemaking for visitors of all ages and abilities,” said Amy Homma, chief audience officer of the Academy Museum. “Visitors can experience the John Waters: Pope of Trash exhibition, then join us for Drag Queen Story Hour to see kid-friendly live scene readings from his films. Or visit the Director's Inspiration gallery to view some of Agnes Varda’s personal artifacts before making their way to the theater to see the pieces come together on the big screen. And of course, we’re also thrilled to continue our successful Weekend Shortcuts series with a new focus on Fleischer studio cartoons—a free and family-friendly way to experience animated shorts made almost a century ago!”

The Academy Museum Store will host another of its popular book signings on September 9 with a conversation and book signing of Joe Alves: Designing Jaws with production designer Joe Alves and author Dennis Prince. The conversation will focus on Alves’s development of this celebrated film including preproduction illustrations; handwritten location and production notes; on-set photographs; blueprints of the shark’s design; and first-time publication of his complete catalog of storyboards. Tickets can be found here and include a copy of the book.

Beginning on September 1, the museum’s fall screening series kick off with Yasujirō Ozu in Color: The Final Six Films, a celebration of the influential Japanese filmmaker and screenwriter Yasujirō Ozu ( 小津 安二郎). Ozu made 54 feature-length films during his career, several of which, including his much-heralded masterpiece Tokyo Story (1953), are uttered in the same breath as history’s most beloved movies. The museum will screen Ozu’s six films shot in vibrant color to celebrate the 120th anniversary of his birth. An exhibition of rare behind-the-scenes photographs, publicity stills, and never-before-seen snapshots from Ozu’s life and work is on display through December 2023 at the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library, organized by Director of the Margaret Herrick Library, Matt Severson.

This September and October, the museum will present Enter the VardaVerse: Afternoons in Paris. As the grandmother of the French New Wave, filmmaker Agnès Varda’s (1928–2019) influence on cinema history cannot be overstated. The series juxtaposes several of Varda’s rare shorts against classics old and new by the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Bresson, Jacques Rivette, Jean-Pierre Melville, Maurice Pialat, Eric Rohmer, Leos Carax, and other filmmakers who shaped Paris on film in both physical and metaphorical ways. The series begins on September 3 with a screening of Cléo from 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7) (1962) preceded by ‎ The So-Called Caryatids (Les dites cariatides) (1984).

New Italian Cinema/Nuovo Cinema Italiano pays tribute to the long and rich history of Italian filmmaking. With 14 Academy Award® wins in the Foreign Language Film category (now called International Feature Film), Italy has historically been recognized in this category more than any other country. Beginning with the neorealism period that saw both Vittorio De Sica’s Shoeshine (1946) and Bicycle Thieves (1948) take home Honorary Awards, the country has seen nominations or wins in every decade. The series looks at the last five years of Italian cinema and kicks off on September 6 with Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of the classic horror film Suspiria.

The Academy Museum opens a first-of-its-kind exhibition, John Waters: Pope of Trash, on September 17, and presents this accompanying retrospective screening series. Anointed the “Pope of Trash” by William S. Burroughs in 1986, DIY filmmaker, author, contemporary art collector, fashion icon, and self-proclaimed “filth elder” John Waters is the very definition of a self-made American iconoclast. The series kicks off opening day with an ultra-rare silent screening of Eat Your Makeup (1968), with simultaneous live commentary from Waters, as well as a 35mm screening of Serial Mom (1994), preceded by a conversation with Waters and Peaches Christ.

Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy will be screened September 15–16 and include the 4K restoration premiere of his film Nowhere (1997). Araki is considered an integral part of the New Queer Cinema movement, in part established at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, where his breakout feature, The Living End, presented unfiltered gay male identities on-screen. Araki and contemporaries Isaac Julien, Todd Haynes, Sadie Benning, and Marlon Riggs would shape a new, rebellious language for queer cinema. Araki’s three subsequent features, which comprise his wildly influential Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, would inspire an entire generation of outcasts and queer folks to embrace themselves and throw a middle finger to anyone who dared judge them. Araki is included in Outside the Mainstream, a companion installation to John Waters: Pope of Trash that pays homage to the work of other radically independent filmmakers such as Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith, Andy Warhol, Todd Haynes, and of course Araki. The gallery focuses on examples from the American avant-garde, underground film, and New Queer Cinema movements.

Ennio Morricone: Essential Scores from a Movie Maestro, screening October 6–November 25, highlights the iconic Italian composer Ennio Morricone (1928–2020). Dubbed the “Maestro of Music” and with a career spanning eight decades, this series offers an overview of many iconic scores from across the maestro’s catalogue and collaborations with filmmakers Dario Argento, Sergio Leone, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Elio Petri, and Giuseppe Tornatore in his native Italy, and Brian De Palma, Terrence Malick, and Quentin Tarantino in Hollywood. The series begins with a screening of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) on October 6.

Oscar® Sundays: Held every Sunday evening in the David Geffen Theater, this series celebrates films that have been honored at the Academy Awards®. September focuses on Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month with three films honored at the Academy Awards; October highlights Ennio Morricone’s Oscar ®-nominated and winning scores; and November reflects four titles of the film noir genre honored at the Oscars ®. The series begins with Stand and Deliver (1988) on September 3.

Family Matinees: Held every Saturday for families of all ages, Family Matinee screenings this fall will focus on road trip films; a nod to William Castle’s influence on John Waters’s films; and highlight the importance of family and all its various definitions. The series kicks off with A Goofy Movie (1995) on September 2.

Branch Selects: Each week, a different branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selects a film—from the silent era to contemporary cinema—that represents a major achievement in the evolution of moviemaking and its unique disciplines. The fall series begins with Ghost (1990) on September 6, selected by the Marketing and Public Relations Branch.

Available Space: Our monthly series showcases experimental and independent film and media. Fall programming features screenings of films by George and Mike Kuchar, who were major influences on John Waters; screenings of Academy Film Archive restorations of Stan Brakhage films; and a series dedicated to visual artist Maureen Selwood. The series begins on September 22 with The Tawdry Visions of George and Mike Kuchar.

Stories of Cinema Drop-In Tours: All are welcome to join public drop-in-style gallery conversations to explore moviemakers, their ideas, and beloved movie objects in conversation with museum educators. The tours are free with admission, from 1pm to 3pm on Fridays.

Drop-In Workshops for Teens: Held on the third Friday of every month from 4:30pm to 6:30pm and designed for teens ages 14 and up, Drop-In Workshops for Teens include various activities such as artmaking, experimenting with movie-making equipment, and learning the elements of filmmaking. All workshops are free with museum admission and are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Drop-In Workshops for Families: Held the first three Saturdays of every month, Drop-In Workshops for Families are designed for families with children ages 2 and up. They are also free with museum admission and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Education and family programs are ongoing at the Academy Museum, complementary to the film programming. Programs take place throughout the museum in exhibition galleries, theaters, and the Shirley Temple Education Studio. In September, the museum will host Drag Queen Story Hour with drag queens reading books including It’s Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr as well Scenes with Queens–family-friendly readings of scenes from some of John Waters’s most iconic films. October celebrates Latinx voices such as documentarian Lourdes Portillo and the local filmmakers highlighted in the museum’s exhibition Stories of Cinema. November focuses on Indigenous voices, spotlighting the documentary Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change (Canada, 2010) in the museum’s Impact/Reflection gallery; and Home Movie Day on November 5 in partnership with the Academy Film Archive. The museum invites the public to share their amateur and personal home movie media, speak with on-site media archivists, and drop off their materials for digitization for pickup at a later date. Additionally, Pro8mm will be donating vouchers for home movie transfers as Bingo prizes.

Monthly, the museum offers ASL Interpreted Tours for the hard of hearing and Deaf communities, Visual Description Tours for the low vision and blind communities, Calm Morning programs, and accommodative Family Matinee film screenings for neurodivergent visitors. A full schedule of Family Matinees may be accessed here.

You can see the full schedule of the Academy Museum’s film screenings and public and educational programs here.

TICKETS AND ADMISSION

Tickets for film screenings and public programs are sold separately and do not require general admission to the museum. All tickets are available through advance online reservations via the Academy Museum’s website.

Film screening tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for seniors (age 62+), $5 for students, $5 for children (ages 17 and younger), and $8 for Museum Members. Admission to daytime film screenings is $5.

Public and education program tickets range from free with admission to $20 for adults.

Museum Members receive complimentary general admission for unlimited visits and priority admission. Visitors can learn more about membership benefits, which include a 10% discount in the Academy Museum Store, and exclusive members-only advance film screenings, by visiting the museum’s website.