2021 – 2022 Season
Smith Theatre, Horowitz Visual & Performing Arts Center, Howard Community College · Seven Fridays/Saturdays · January–June 2022
2022
The Cakemaker
Thomas, a young and talented German baker, is having an affair with Oren, an Israeli married man who dies in a car crash. Thomas travels to Jerusalem seeking answers regarding Oren's death. Keeping his secret to himself, Thomas starts working for Anat, his lover's widow, who owns a small café. A beautiful film that explores love, loss, and religion. "Sad and sweet, and with a rare lyricism that believes in a love that neither nationality, sexual orientation nor religious belief can deter."
2022
Nomadland
Following the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, Fern (Frances McDormand) packs her van and sets off on the road exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad. Nomadland is a work of exploration — not just across the sprawling American West. Fern is exorcising her darkest demons, which spring from the systemic neglect that has been visited on so many Americans in recent years. "The odyssey makes Nomadland a transfixing mix of reckoning and catharsis." Winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, 2020.
2022
Sound of Metal
Riz Ahmed is brilliant as a rock drummer rapidly losing his hearing. The bulk of the film is silent, deliberate — we are thrust inside the drummer's mind to hear what he hears, a pulsating, muted nothing, which is then jarringly contrasted with everyday sounds when we're yanked back out of his head. Most importantly, Sound of Metal gives the audience one of the most illuminating glimpses into deaf culture of any movie to date. Received six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor.
2022
Judas and the Black Messiah
FBI informant William O'Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) infiltrates the Illinois Black Panther Party and is tasked with keeping tabs on their charismatic leader, Chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). A career thief, O'Neal revels in the danger of manipulating both his comrades and his handler, Special Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons). An electrifying dramatization of historical events, a forceful condemnation of racial injustice, and a major triumph for its director and stars. Received six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture.
2022
The Dig
Set in Suffolk, England, in 1939 and based on a true story of buried treasure, The Dig is a restorative escape — a small, gentle picture whose transportive qualities should not be underestimated. Carey Mulligan portrays Edith, an upper-class English widow fulfilling a long-deferred dream of archaeology on her estate. She hires Basil Brown, a determined freelance archaeologist played with stoic mien by Ralph Fiennes. "Sometimes you just don't want a movie to end. The characters are so vivid and multidimensional, the milieu so inviting, the circumstances so compelling, you don't want to let go."
2022
Driveways
Kathy, a single mother, travels with her shy eight-year-old son Cody to her deceased sister's home, which she plans to clean and sell. While there, Cody develops an unlikely friendship with Del (the late Brian Dennehy), the Korean War veteran and widower who lives next door. The filmmakers never underline the emotions they want to evoke, and yet by the end, audiences may be moved to tears by this tale of fractured lives that find the right measure of repair.
2022
Minari
A tender and sweeping story about what roots us. Minari follows a Korean-American family that moves to a tiny Arkansas farm in search of their own American Dream. The family home changes completely with the arrival of their sly, foul-mouthed, but incredibly loving grandmother. Amidst the instability and challenges of this new life in the rugged Ozarks, Minari shows the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home. Sensitively written and acted, beautifully shot. Nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture; winner of the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
2022 – 2023 Season
Smith Theatre, Horowitz Visual & Performing Arts Center, Howard Community College · Nine Fridays/Saturdays
2022
Belfast
Kenneth Branagh's autobiographical film is one of the glories of its year's cinema. Set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, it is original and heartfelt — a childhood memory immortalized on screen with brilliant performances across the board, most notably from Jude Hill, who really does seem like a 9-year-old Branagh. "One of the glories of this year's cinema." Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture.
2022
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Faced with an unintended pregnancy and a lack of local support, Autumn and her cousin Skylar embark across state lines to New York City on a fraught journey of friendship, bravery, and compassion. The film carefully examines the emotional consequences of abortion restrictions. "In this superbly crafted drama, two teenage girls are forced to navigate a system seemingly designed to foil their autonomy and dignity at every turn — while on paper concepts like parental notification and waiting periods can seem benign, in this microscopically detailed portrait, their disastrous implications loom larger with every tick of the clock."
2022
Parallel Mothers
Two women, Janis and Ana, coincide in a hospital room where they are about to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn't regret it and is exultant; Ana, an adolescent, is scared and traumatized. On the surface an engaging melodrama centered around a fabulous performance by Penélope Cruz, but as is typical of Pedro Almodóvar's films, it is deeply layered — dealing with issues of personal morality and family ties, and mixed with a reminder of Spain's dark and not-so-distant fascist past.
2022
Passing
Adapted from the celebrated 1929 novel by Nella Larsen, Passing tells the story of two Black women — Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga) — who can "pass" as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line during the Harlem Renaissance in late 1920s New York. As their lives become more deeply intertwined, Passing becomes a riveting examination of obsession, repression, and the lies people tell themselves and others to protect their carefully constructed realities. Named one of the top ten films of the year by the New York Film Critics.
2023
The Duke
In 1961, Kempton Bunton, a 60-year-old taxi driver, stole Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London — the first and only theft in the Gallery's history. He sent ransom notes demanding that the government provide free television for the elderly. What happened next became the stuff of legend; only fifty years later did the full story emerge. Roger Michell's delightful true-crime caper comes bolstered by a terrific lead performance from Jim Broadbent, rattling about the red-brick terraces of early 1960s Newcastle.
2023
The Worst Person in the World
Director Joachim Trier returns with a modern twist on a classically constructed character portrait of contemporary life in Oslo. Chronicling four years in the life of Julie, the film examines one woman's quest for love and meaning in the modern world. Fluidly told in twelve chapters, it features a breakout performance by Cannes Best Actress winner Renate Reinsve as she explores new professional avenues and embarks on relationships with two very different men. "The rare piece of art actually invested in why an entire generation can seem so aimless and indecisive." Declared the best film of 2021 by both Vanity Fair and The Atlantic.
2023
A Hero
Rahim is in jail for a debt he hasn't been able to pay. During a two-day leave, he tries to convince his creditor to withdraw his complaint in exchange for a partial repayment — and is then confronted with a crisis he never could have imagined. Directed by Asghar Farhadi, the two-time Oscar winner (including for A Separation, previously screened by the Columbia Film Society). A superb morality play that immerses us deeply in a society's values and rituals. Winner of the Grand Prix at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.
2023
Petite Maman
When her beloved grandmother dies, eight-year-old Nelly worries she didn't say goodbye properly. At the slightly mysterious house by the woods where Grandma lived, the task begins of clearing away the past. Exploring the house and surrounding woods, Nelly meets a girl her own age with a startling resemblance to herself. Together they build a treehouse, and a relationship with unexpected revelations begins. A mesmerizing film, not a minute longer than necessary. "It is, in short, a small wonder."
2023
I'm Your Man
In order to obtain funds for her research, Alma is persuaded to participate in an extraordinary study. For three weeks she must live with Tom (Dan Stevens, of Downton Abbey), a humanoid robot designed to be the perfect life partner for her, tailored to her character and needs. An unexpected delight, succeeding as a romantic comedy — and as much more. Thoughtful, funny, haunting, and expertly played. A film about relationships, love, and what it means to be human in the modern age.
2023 – 2024 Season
Smith Theatre, Horowitz Visual & Performing Arts Center, Howard Community College · Nine Fridays/Saturdays
2023
Close
Leo and Rémi are two thirteen-year-old best friends whose seemingly unbreakable bond is suddenly, tragically torn apart. Lukas Dhont's second film is an emotionally transformative and unforgettable portrait of the intersection of friendship and love, identity and independence, and heartbreak and healing. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Film.
2023
The Quiet Girl
Rural Ireland, 1981. Nine-year-old Cáit is sent away from her overcrowded, dysfunctional family to live with foster parents for the summer. Quietly struggling at school and at home, she has learned to hide in plain sight from those around her. She blossoms in the foster family's care, but in that house where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one painful truth. "The Quiet Girl is, quite simply, a genuine work of art by a genuinely empathetic artist, and one of the single most moving, heartfelt, and heartbreaking movies from any country in the last decade." Nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Film.
2023
She Said
Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan star as New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who together broke one of the most important stories in a generation — a story that helped launch the #MeToo movement and shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood. "She Said takes a story we thought we knew and gives it new, utterly shattering life."
2024
Argentina, 1985
Inspired by a true story, Argentina, 1985 depicts a legal team's David-vs-Goliath battle in which, under constant threat, they dare to prosecute Argentina's bloodiest military dictatorship in a race against time to bring justice to the victims of the military junta. "Earns its gravitas from the gripping testimony of those who survived kidnapping — the closing argument is blunt and moving; its usage of the simple yet inspiring 'never again' stands as a challenge to anyone shrinking from the duty of pressing on with a case, under great duress and in a violently divided land, to bring the criminally powerful to justice." Nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Film.
2024
Aftersun
Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between miniDV footage as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't. "It's hard to find a critical language to account for the delicacy and intimacy of this movie. With the unaffected precision of a lyric poet, director Charlotte Wells is very nearly reinventing the language of film, unlocking the medium's often dormant potential to disclose inner worlds of consciousness and feeling."
2024
Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb
This documentary explores the remarkable fifty-year relationship between two literary legends: writer Robert Caro and his longtime editor Robert Gottlieb. Now 87, Caro is working to complete the final volume of his masterwork, The Years of Lyndon Johnson; Gottlieb, still waiting to edit it at the time of filming, died in June 2023 at age 92. With humor and insight, this unique double portrait reveals the work habits, peculiarities, and professional joys of two ferocious intellects at the culmination of a journey that has consumed both their lives and impacted generations of politicians, activists, writers, and readers.
2024
Full Time
Julie is a single mother raising two children in the suburbs of Paris while working in the city. The commuter train is her lifeline — and it has suddenly been severed during a transit strike. Without it, she can't get to her job as head maid at a five-star hotel, nor to the interview for a better position she has lined up. Out of desperation, Julie turns to neighbors and her own gutsy resourcefulness, barely making it back in time to pick up her children. And it's only Monday. "Full Time works because of, not despite, its cutting thrills. The anxiety we feel as we watch is very much the point. Julie is living on the edge. The movie marvels at her ability to keep her balance."
2024
Past Lives
Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrenched apart after Nora's family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny and love, and the choices that make a life. "A note-perfect directorial debut — restrained and brimming with feeling, big and small at once. It's a wonder that a first-time filmmaker could manage that feat so impressively. A dreamy, gently heartbreaking film."
2024
The Fabelmans
Part memoir, part ode to the power of the movies, The Fabelmans finds Steven Spielberg digging at the family roots that helped make him a beloved filmmaker — and proves he hasn't lost his magic touch. "The Fabelmans left me with a floating feeling of happiness." Received seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture.
2024 – 2025 Season
Smith Theatre, Horowitz Visual & Performing Arts Center, Howard Community College · Ten Fridays/Saturdays · $35.00
2024
American Fiction
Cord Jefferson's hilarious directorial debut confronts our culture's obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a frustrated novelist who's fed up with the establishment profiting from "Black" entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to write an outlandish "Black" book of his own — a book that propels him to the heart of the hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.
2024
The Zone of Interest
The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp. It's a remarkable film — chilling and profound, meditative and immersive, a movie that holds human darkness up to the light and examines it as if under a microscope. In a sense, it's a movie that plays off our voyeurism, our curiosity to see the unseeable. Yet it does so with a bracing originality. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes and the Best International Film at the Oscars.
2024
The Teachers' Lounge
Carla Nowak, a dedicated sports and math teacher, starts her first job at a high school. She stands out among the new staff because of her idealism. When a series of thefts occur at the school and one of her students is suspected, she decides to get to the bottom of the matter on her own. Carla tries to mediate between outraged parents, opinionated colleagues, and aggressive students, but is relentlessly confronted with the structures of the school system. The more desperately she tries to do everything right, the more the young teacher threatens to break. Named one of the Top Five International Films by the National Board of Reviews.
2025
A Thousand and One
A dazzling showcase for Teyana Taylor, who delivers a fierce, career-defining performance as a mother struggling to raise her son in New York City. "This is a tough, beautiful, honest, and bracingly hopeful movie about mutual care and unconditional love, with a transformative and indelible performance at its core. A Thousand and One isn't just worth seeing — it's worth celebrating."
2025
All of Us Strangers
One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam (Andrew Scott) has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbor, Harry (Paul Mescal), which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life. As a relationship develops between them, Adam is preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up, and the childhood home where his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before. The film won seven awards at the 2023 British Independent Film Awards.
2025
The Monk and the Gun
Bhutan — known throughout the world for its extraordinary beauty and its emphasis on Gross National Happiness — was the last nation to connect to the internet and television. And if that weren't enough change, the King announced shortly afterwards that he would cede his power to the people via their vote and a new form of government: Democracy. The Monk and the Gun captures the wonder and disruption as Bhutan becomes one of the world's youngest democracies.
2025
Perfect Days
Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past. A deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us. "A sweet and sad slice-of-life about the comfort and sorrow of solitary repetition, buoyed by a Yakusho performance that rightly earned him the Best Actor prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival."
2025
Anatomy of a Fall
For the past year, Sandra (Sandra Hüller), her husband Samuel, and their 11-year-old son Daniel have lived a secluded life in a remote town in the French Alps. When Samuel is found dead in the snow below their chalet, the police question whether he was murdered or committed suicide. Samuel's suspicious death is presumed murder, and Sandra becomes the main suspect. What follows is not just an investigation into the circumstances of Samuel's death but an unsettling psychological journey into the depths of Sandra and Samuel's conflicted relationship. Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
2025
TBA
To be announced.
2025
TBA Bonus Feature
To be announced.
2025 – 2026 Season
Smith Theatre, Horowitz Visual & Performing Arts Center, Howard Community College · Ten Fridays/Saturdays · 5:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.
2025
A Real Pain
Directed by Jesse Eisenberg, this poignant dramedy follows mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their late grandmother. As old tensions resurface, the journey becomes a moving exploration of grief, memory, and family connection — a road trip of humor, unresolved sorrow, and more baggage than fits in a suitcase.
2025
Universal Language
Directed by Matthew Rankin, this surreal cultural mosaic intertwines Iranian and Canadian identities, where Winnipeg becomes a dreamlike reflection of Iran. The film blends poetic realism with absurdist comedy, creating a warm, visually inventive experience that defies convention — a cinematic poem about culture, connection, and quiet rebellion.
2025
Thelma
Directed by Josh Margolin, this comedy-drama stars June Squibb as a 93-year-old woman on a mission to track down the scammer who stole her money. What follows is a humorous and heartfelt road trip of unexpected grit and surprising charm — proof that you are never too old to fight back. Celebrated for its humor, pacing, and standout performances.
2026
All We Imagine as Light
Directed by Payal Kapadia, this lyrical drama portrays the quiet, interconnected lives of women navigating love, work, and displacement in modern-day Mumbai. Softly luminous and quietly powerful, it gives voice to inner lives seldom seen on screen. Winner of the Grand Prix at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.
2026
La Chimera
Directed by Alice Rohrwacher, this dreamlike tale follows a young English archaeologist entangled in illegal tomb raiding in 1980s Tuscany. A richly textured meditation on love, loss, and what lies beneath the surface — blending myth and memory, magic and dirt. Noted for its masterful direction and poetic magical realism.
2026
Green Border
Directed by Agnieszka Holland, this urgent political drama confronts the refugee crisis at the Poland-Belarus border. Through intimate character stories, it offers a searing indictment of cruelty and indifference while championing human dignity. Raw, riveting, and deeply humane — a reminder that borders aren't only geographic. Praised for its powerful storytelling and moral clarity.
2026
Inshallah a Boy
Directed by Amjad Al Rasheed, this compelling debut follows Nawal, a newly widowed mother in Jordan who discovers she may lose her home because she has no son. As she navigates the country's inheritance laws, the film builds a portrait of resistance, dignity, and a system overdue for change. Jordan's entry for the 2024 Academy Awards and a standout on the global festival circuit.
2026
The Ballad of Wallis Island
Directed by James Griffiths, this heartwarming British comedy follows Charles (Tim Key), an eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island and dreams of reuniting his favorite musicians — McGwyer and Mortimer (Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan) — for a private concert. As the former bandmates and lovers accept his invitation, old tensions resurface in a poignant exploration of nostalgia, regret, and the healing power of music. Praised for its charm and wit.
2026
The Friend
Directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, this introspective drama stars Naomi Watts as Iris, a solitary New York writer whose life is upended when her close friend and mentor, Walter (Bill Murray), dies and bequeaths her his 150-pound Great Dane, Apollo. As Iris navigates grief and the challenges of caring for the imposing dog, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery and healing. Adapted from Sigrid Nunez's acclaimed novel, the film offers a nuanced and emotionally resonant meditation on loss and companionship.
2026
The Librarians
A 2025 Sundance documentary chronicling a growing movement of librarians on the front lines of the American culture wars. From Texas to Florida, these defenders of intellectual freedom confront censorship, book bans, and political pressure with courage and grace. A timely, inspiring portrait of resistance and resolve — a reminder that freedom of thought isn't just a value, it's a fight.