Film Series

Past Film Series
  • Luis Buñuel’s Magnificent Weapon

    July 7–November 19, 2023

    From the eye slice in his revolutionary collaboration with Salvador Dalí, Un chien Andalou, to the explosive finale of his last film, That Obscure Object of Desire, this retrospective offers the opportunity to see films from throughout Luis Buñuel’s career.

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  • Rialto Pictures Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Salute

    September 2–November 29, 2023

    It would not be possible for BAMPFA to showcase many essential films from the history of cinema without the stellar work of Rialto Pictures, a boutique distributor based in New York. This salute features digital restorations of many landmark films, including two by Jean-Luc Godard, Contempt and Alphaville; two French thrillers, Army of Shadows and Le cercle rouge, directed by Jean-Pierre Melville; two Italian classics starring Alberto Sordi, Federico Fellini’s The White Sheik and Dino Risi’s Una vita difficile; Carol Reed’s exceptional The Third Man; a masterpiece from postrevolutionary Iran, The Runner; and Akira Kurosawa’s stunning film adaption of King Lear, the monumental Ran.

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  • Alternative Visions

    September 6–November 15, 2023

    Our annual showcase of historical and current experimental film includes presentations by filmmakers including Peggy Ahwesh, Ernie Gehr, Jacqueline Goss, and Lindsay McIntyre, plus an exciting array of short films and guest-curated programs. 

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  • Illuminations: Jerome Hiler

    September 13–October 28, 2023

    Local filmmaker Jerome Hiler presents two programs of his “formally and visually astonishing” experimental films, along with his two features reflecting his passion for music and medieval stained glass. 

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  • Cambodian Cinema: Rising from the Ashes

    September 24–October 6, 2023

    This series focuses on the especially challenging situation of film preservation in Cambodia, a country whose cultural heritage was ravaged by the Pol Pot regime of genocide and destruction in the 1970s. Thanks to the efforts of filmmaker Rithy Panh, who cofounded the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center in 2005, there is a sense of renewal and important work being done by archivists, industry professionals, and young filmmakers documenting Cambodian life today and telling individuals’ stories.

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  • The People Are Present: Films of Želimir Žilnik

    September 28–29, 2023

    Celebrated Yugoslav filmmaker Želimir Žilnik, who, since the 1960s, has been at the forefront of politically engaged cinema in Europe, joins us in person for two programs of his docu-fiction films.

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  • African Film Festival 2023

    October 1–November 16, 2023

    This year’s edition of the African Film Festival invites audiences to learn from and bear witness to the stories, visions, and histories of people across Africa and the African diaspora, whether through moments of the past that still mark our present day or through the events and struggles that color and define our current lives.

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  • Mill Valley Film Festival at BAMPFA

    October 7–15, 2023

    BAMPFA is pleased to partner with the Mill Valley Film Festival to present selected screenings from MVFF46 in the Barbro Osher Theater.

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  • Chinese Musicals from 1957 to 1963

    October 19–28, 2023

    We are delighted to welcome back to BAMPFA the Hong Kong film scholar Paul Fonoroff with a series highlighting Mandarin-language musicals from 1957 to 1963, during the genre’s postwar rebirth.

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  • Artists on Film

    October 22–November 5, 2023

    Three recent feature films and two historical short films provide in-depth, intimate access to the creative process of painters Peter Bradley and Mike Henderson, sculptor Brian Wall, and traditional Japanese wood-carver Master Seki Koun, as well as a number of his apprentices.

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  • Limited Engagements & Special Screenings

    Ongoing

    Recent releases, restored classics, and special guests grace the Barbro Osher Theater.

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  • Infinite Horizons: The Films of Werner Herzog

    November 9, 2023–February 2024

    German filmmaker Werner Herzog joins us November 9–12 for the launch of this major retrospective, which continues into 2024. Herzog’s great facility for storytelling (he writes nearly all of his screenplays) and his fascination with eccentric characters, whose lives and endeavors he observes, allow him to illuminate the human condition in his narrative and nonfiction films.

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