Special Events and Series
We’re Moving!
Our lease was not renewed in 2025 and we have moved out of 1403 NE 50th. Plans are underway to relocate the cinema and we need your help to build an even grander Grand Illusion! For any questions about our pop-up showings below, please contact us rather than the screening venues.
Now Playing
Cactus Pears
- Sunday, Feb 8, 2026, 12:00pm
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle (located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
Anand, a 30-something city dweller compelled to spend a 10-day mourning period for his father in the rugged countryside of western India, tenderly bonds with a local farmer who is struggling to stay unmarried. As the mourning ends, forcing his return, Anand must decide the fate of his relationship born under duress.
Named one of the ten best movies of 2025 by Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com.
In Marathi with English subtitles.
“This is a gentle beauty of a film from a filmmaker who is on his way to greatness.” Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News
“Like the titular fruit at the center of Cactus Pears, sweetness abounds at the core of its compassionate beauty.” Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com
“There have been many films about queer people returning to their family homes, but few with this amount of tender specificity. There is awkwardness, there is grief — there’s also so much love.” Drew Gregory, Autostraddle
Truck Turner in 35mm
- Thursday, Feb 5, 2026, 7:30pm
- Monday, Feb 9, 2026, 7:30pm
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle (located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
Rare 35mm screenings of the Blaxploitation classic!
He’s a skip tracer, the last of the bounty hunters, living on blood money and borrowed time. Isaac Hayes is Truck Turner – a football star turned bounty hunter who’s tracking a sadistic pimp on the mean streets of Los Angeles. But when a tragic accident changes all the rules, suddenly the hunter finds himself being hunted by the city’s deadliest hired killers! Truck strikes back in a series of wild car chases, shootouts, and bone-crushing fistfights, knowing that the battles can lead to only one place: an intense struggle to the death against the brutal leader of L.A.’s crime syndicate, Harvard Blue (Yaphet Kotto).
Featuring an outstanding score by Hayes, a show stopping performance by Nichelle Nichols, and direction by Jonathan Kaplan (OVER THE EDGE), TRUCK TURNER is an explosive force that can’t be stopped!
“One of the best of the ’70s Blaxploitation films … directed with a great deal of style.” Ernest R. Dickerson, director of Juice and Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight
The Opening of Misty Beethoven
- Tuesday, Feb 10, 2026, 7:30pm
Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle
50th anniversary! An erotic retelling of George Bernard Shaw’s classic play Pygmalion, acclaimed filmmaker Radley Metzger’s THE OPENING OF MISTY BEETHOVEN is widely considered to be among the greatest adult films ever made.
After a chance meeting at a Parisian adult cinema, the noted sexologist Dr. Seymour Love (Jamie Gillis) sets himself the challenge of transforming trampy streetwalker Misty Beethoven (Constance Money) into the world’s greatest lover. With the help of his friend Geraldine (Jacqueline Beudant), Love devises an erotic training program with the goal of seeing Misty crowned a “Goldenrod Girl” at publisher Lawrence Layman’s next wild party.
Shot in New York, Paris, and Rome and with an all-star cast that also includes Gloria Leonard, Terri Hall, and gay superstar Casey Donovan, THE OPENING OF MISTY BEETHOVEN is a timeless, hilarious sex comedy from one of the true masters of erotic cinema.
Courtesy of Distribpix, the Rialto Report, and Muscle Distribution. Co-presented by SECS Fest!
*No one under 18 admitted*
Beauty and the Beast (Panna a netvor)
- Wednesday, Feb 11, 2026, 7:30pm
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle (located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
From the rich and textured imagination of Czech visionary Juraj Herz (THE CREMATOR) comes his own vivid reimagining of the classic fairy tale BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. The film follows the innocent Julie and her experiences living under the watchful eye of Netvor, a bird-like being torn between his growing affection for her and his animalistic urge to kill. Gorgeously shot, intriguingly surreal, thrillingly sensual - BEAUTY AND THE BEAST retells a beloved story in ways unlike any adaptation before or since.
Restored by Národní filmový archiv, Prague and Severin Films, supported by The Czech Audiovisual Fund. In Czech with English subtitles.
“The 1978 adaptation by the Czechoslovak film-maker Juraj Herz is both a vital addition to – and a radical departure from – the tradition of fairy tales on film.” David Melville, Senses of Cinema
The Chronology of Water
- Friday, Jan 30, 2026, 7:00pm
- Sunday, Feb 1, 2026, 7:00pm
- Thursday, Feb 12, 2026, 7:00pm
- Wednesday, Feb 18, 2026, 7:00pm
- Sunday, Feb 22, 2026, 7:45pm
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle (located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
Kristen Stewart's feature-length directorial debut, shot in glorious 16mm.
Based on the beloved memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch, THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER is a raw and unflinching portrait of survival, sexuality, and self-invention. The film traces Lidia’s life from her earliest memories in the Pacific Northwest, as a promising swimmer, through fractured relationships, near-motherhood, addiction, and encounters with artistic heroes. Told as a fluid memory wash, the story transforms trauma into art, embodying Yuknavitch’s defiant voice that made her work a modern cult classic. It is not only a chronicle of a woman becoming a writer, but a visceral journey through the wreckage and resilience of a life lived against the grain.
February 22nd showing added due to popular demand!
“Kristen Stewart reveals a deft directorial hand and a distinct, languid, echoing style in her vividly made, emotionally visceral exploration of the life and times of American novelist Lidia Yuknavitch.” Christina Newland, Time Out
4/4 stars! “In partnership with Imogen Poots, who gives an astonishing performance as Lidia, Stewart boldly evokes the source material. There’s a collage aspect to the image placement, but Stewart is not afraid to be direct. This project has been years in the making. Stewart adapted the material, and you can feel her love for it.” Sheila O’Malley, RogerEbert.com
Coming Soon
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
- Sunday, Feb 15, 2026, 12:30pm
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle (located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature!
As captivating and joyful as it is eye-opening and sobering, MR. NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN is a uniquely collaborative film that showcases rare footage revealing the profound impact of Putin’s regime on the lives of everyday Russians, particularly its children.
Pasha Talankin is an unlikely hero—a beloved Russian primary school teacher, known as a mentor and prankster who offers students a safe haven in his office. After Russia invades Ukraine, Pasha’s role in the school changes dramatically as he is reluctantly drawn into Putin’s propaganda machine. Forced to promote state-sanctioned messages and horrified by the transformation of his school and community, he struggles with guilt and a sense of powerlessness, leading him to become an international whistleblower.
As the school’s videographer, Pasha documents intimate and revealing footage of Putin’s regime, capturing the rise of militarized children’s groups, repressive laws, fervent nationalism, and the recruitment of graduating students to fight in the war. When he learns his own life may be at risk, Pasha is forced to plan a dangerous escape from Russia.
In Russian with English subtitles.
“…a striking work of rebel cinema.” Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
“Remarkable… An exemplary work of cinematic modernism.” Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Critic’s Pick! “Mr. Nobody Against Putin is unique in dealing with serious issues about war and dehumanization with a light, even humorous, and certainly personality-filled, touch — in the serious-as-a-heart-attack war documentary landscape, it is a unicorn. The fact that it leads to more empathy and understanding, and a capacity for seeing ordinary Russians in a more human light, makes it a profound film as well as an engaging one.” Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire
Sound of Falling
- Sunday, Feb 15, 2026, 3:00pm
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle (located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
In Mascha Schilinski’s transcendent SOUND OF FALLING, fragments from a hundred years in one farmhouse coalesce into a cinematic flood of memory.
Germany’s shortlisted Best International Feature Film entry to the 98th Academy Awards tracks the lives of four adolescent girls (Alma, Erika, Angelika, Lenka) across the last century – their desires and distress, their secrets and truths, their encounters with another’s gaze and defiant gaze in return. Though separated by time, far-reaching resonances emerge as echoes of experience linger.
Sensual and sensory, this awe-inducing Cannes prizewinner invites audiences to witness an eternal summer, a constant now, and ask: what is looking back at us from the past – or perhaps even from the future?
In German with English subtitles.
Named one of the ten best films of 2025 by The New Yorker, Variety, Vulture, Slant, and more!
Crtic’s Pick! “Unfold[s] like 100 years of home video footage that were shot by the family ghosts… rich and mesmeric…” David Ehrlich, IndieWire
“It’s an astonishing work, twining together the lives of four generations of families with an intricacy and intimacy that feels like an act of psychic transmission.” Alison Willmore, Vulture
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen a filmmaker wield the tools of her craft with such an ingenious and committed sense of mischief… [Sound of Falling] is both disorienting and enveloping; it knocks you off your feet and then sweeps you up again.” Justin Chang, The New Yorker
Hard Boiled – New 4K Restoration
- Monday, Jan 26, 2026, 7:00pm
- Tuesday, Feb 17, 2026, 7:00pm
Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle
John Woo's long-unavailable action masterpiece, newly restored!
Chow Yun-Fat stars as a cop who loses his partner in a shoot-out with gun smugglers and goes on a mission to catch them. In order to get closer to the leaders of the ring, he joins forces with an undercover agent (Tony Leung) who's working as a gangster hitman. More than a cops-and-bad-guys story, HARD BOILED continually startles with its originality and dark humor.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.
Encore screening added Tuesday, Feb 17th!
“Woo has elevated the action movie into the realm of art. Infinitely more exciting than a dozen Die Hards, action cinema doesn’t come any better than this.” Mark Salisbury, Empire Magazine
“It’s nirvana for seekers of action, and it rarely gets any better than this.” Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
- Tuesday, Feb 24, 2026, 7:15pm
Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle
ONE... LAST... PLAN.
When their plan to book a show at the Rivoli goes horribly wrong, Matt and Jay accidentally travel back to the year 2008. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Winner of the Midnighter Audience Award at SXSW 2025 and the Midnight Madness People's Choice Award at TIFF 2025!
“A thrilling, roof-shaking blast.” Sam Adams, Slate
“Hilarious as the movie can be, there’s an even more amusing meta level on which we laugh at how insane it is that it exists at all, marveling how they pulled it off.” Peter Debruge, Variety
Hundreds of Beavers
- Wednesday, Dec 3, 2025, 7:00pm
- Thursday, Dec 4, 2025, 8:00pm
- Thursday, Jan 29, 2026, 8:00pm
- Thursday, Feb 26, 2026, 8:00pm
Screening location: Central Cinema – 1411 21st Ave, Seattle
Twenty-fourth encore screening! This Febchewary, let the beavers be your Valentine.
Our friends at Central Cinema are generously helping us keep the beavers gnawing away while we search for a new home. 60% of ticket sales go to our relocation fund!
In this 19th century, supernatural winter epic, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America’s greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.
“Starts strange, gets stranger, and yet remains resolutely adorable… embraces the defiant glee of art cinema and distills it into something so thoroughly pure and sincere that it is surely hard not to fall in love with it.” Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Alliance of Women Film Journalists
“It’s sure to develop a significant cult following with its unique mix of silent-era slapstick, animation elements, theme-park-style critter costumes, and general air of inspired absurdity.” Dennis Harvey, Variety
“Steroidally swollen with gags and smarts.” Guy Maddin
A Better Tomorrow – New 4K Restoration
- Monday, Mar 2, 2026, 7:15pm
Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle
40th anniversary of John Woo's landmark action classic, newly restored!
The film that established John Woo as the king of the Hong Kong gunplay film and made a superstar of Chow Yun-Fat! An ex-gangster tries to reconnect with his estranged policeman brother, but he finds that his ties to gangs are harder to break than he thought.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.
Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.
“The Citizen Kane of Hong Kong cinema.” Dave Kehr, The New York Times