American Cinematheque

The American Cinematheque believes that cinema is a communal experience with the power to entertain, enlighten and inspire. We build a diverse and engaged film community through immersive film curation, conversation, and presentation. We bridge the filmmaker to the audience and film history to its future.

In 1984, after an inspiring trip to the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, Filmmaker Sydney Pollack joined forces with the team behind FILMEX to continue developing a year-round film festival for the city of Los Angeles where cinephiles and filmmakers could discover, engage with and discuss the seventh art.

Since it began screening films to the public in 1985, the American Cinematheque has provided diverse film programming and immersive in-person discussions and events with thousands of filmmakers and luminaries, presenting new and repertory cinema to Los Angeles.

True to the hope and intent of Sydney Pollack, the American Cinematheque is a place where both the public and members of the film industry come together as a community with the common language of film.