Cornell Cinema is pleased to announce our Fall 2025 season which features more than a dozen unique film series designed to advance interdisciplinary thinking and connect diverse communities through collective encounters with the art of film. More information about our fall semester line-up is now available on our website: cinema.cornell.edu.
Screenings resume on Thursday, August 28, with a new 4K restoration of Wim Wender’s Paris, Texas (1984). The film is part of the series “Robby Müller: Light Work,” which centers the luminary Dutch cinematographer Robby Müller, who influenced a generation of filmmakers through his masterful ability to harness the textures and complexities of natural light on screen. The series will include five films, including Müller’s first and best-known collaborations with Wim Wenders, two striking, black-and-white films he made with Jim Jarmusch, and William Friedkin’s stylish thriller To Live and Die in L.A. (1985).
Still from The Thin Man (1934, dir. W.S. Van Dyke). Courtesy of Warner Bros. and Swank Motion Pictures.
There are ample opportunities for laughter at Cornell Cinema this fall. We kick off the semester with “Screwball Comedies from the ‘30s and ‘40s,” a genre which emerged in Hollywood during the Great Depression and established a playbook for on-screen romance that continues to be followed today. These fast-talking films — which feature witty dialogue, memorable characters, and an ever-evolving set of comedic mishaps — achieved an ideal combination of Hollywood escapism and light social critique in their preoccupation with the escapades of a glamourous upper class.
As the days get shorter and the fall chill sets in, Cornell Cinema invites you to travel “over the rainbow” and into the enchanting world of "Technicolor Musicals". Technicolor's groundbreaking, color filmmaking technologies forever transformed the expressive potential of cinema. Though it was deployed across a wide variety of genres, Technicolor was frequently reserved for prestige projects with big budgets and elaborate sets, including some of the most enduring musicals in Hollywood history. Our Cornell Cinema series will feature one film from each decade of the "golden age" of Technicolor, which lasted from the mid-1930s to the mid-1970s.
Still from Saving Face (2004, dir. Alice Wu). Courtesy of Sony Picture Classics.
Cornell Cinema is also pleased to partner with the LGBT Resource Center and QGrads to present “Queer Classics,” a selection of cult classic films that center LGBTQ+ stories of laughter, love, resilience, and community. Our series will feature two mainstream comedies — the drag queen road movie To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995) and Saving Face (2004), a romantic comedy by Alice Wu — alongside Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman (1996), which was part of the “New Queer Cinema” movement. This selection foregrounds queer films written or directed by queer people and aims to foster community and connection through the collective experience of the cinema. All are welcome!
Things take a more sinister turn in October with “The American Nightmare,” a six-part film series that will explore the monstrous evolution of the American family in horror films from the ‘70s and ‘80s. The series will feature horror classics — including a Halloween night double feature of Friday the 13th (1980) and John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) — as well as deeper cuts like Brian de Palma’s Sisters (1974) and Brian Yuzna’s Society (1989).
Still from Halloween (1978, dir. John Carpenter). Courtesy of Swank Motion Pictures.
Our annual Sage Chapel event is another major highlight of the Halloween season in Ithaca. This year, The Invincible Czars will return to Sage Chapel to celebrate the 100th anniversary of The Phantom of the Opera (1925) — enlivening this early horror classic with their signature blend of eclectic instrumentation, adventurous arrangements and emotional depth. This special event, cosponsored by the Wharton Studio Museum as part of Silent Movie Month in Ithaca, is sure to sell out, so be sure to get your ticket today! In addition, Cornell Cinema will partner with the Wharton Studio Museum and Cinemapolis on a special Silent Movie Month film series exploring trains in silent cinema. The series is presented in conjunction with the Wharton Studio Museum's new exhibition "Off the Rails with the Wharton Brothers" at The History Center in Tompkins County in downtown Ithaca.
2025 also marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and in honor of the beloved British novelist, we will spotlight contemporary film adaptations of her work. Screenings will be introduced by colleagues from the Department of Literatures in English, who will share insights on the original texts and how successfully the films capture their complexities. The series kicks off with a screening of Clueless (1995) on Friday, September 5, with introduction by Elisha Cohn, Associate Professor in the Department of Literatures in English.
There is yet another important milestone to celebrate in 2025: 100 years of Willard Straight Hall! To celebrate, Cornell Cinema will highlight a few of the many Cornellians who have made substantial contributions to the film industry, working in creative roles both on screen and behind the scenes throughout the course of Hollywood history. Alumni spotlights in our "Cornellians in Hollywood" series include director Howard Hawks (Class of 1918), screenwriter Arthur Laurents (Class of 1937), film editor Thelma Schoonmaker (Class of 1961), and the “Wizard of Oz” himself Frank Morgan (Class of 1912). Additional events will be added into the spring semester.
Still from The Wizard of Oz (1939, dir. Victor Fleming), which stars Cornell alum Frank Morgan, Class of 1912. Courtesy of MGM and Swank Motion Pictures.
Finally, we are excited to introduce a few of the many Campus Collaborations that will take place throughout the fall semester. In September, the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program will present “The Caribbean: Social Issues, Yesterday and Today,” which invites viewers to consider social issues of global concern from the perspective of the Caribbean and celebrates the launch of a new minor in Caribbean Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. The annual "Cine Con Cultura" film festival, which is organized in collaboration with the Department of Romance Studies and Ithaca College, will feature the Ithaca premieres of cutting-edge films from Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Brazil.
“Scale on Screen” will feature three films selected by this year’s Society for the Humanities Fellows that each explore questions of scale and how it helps us understand relationships between objects, ideas, forms of embodiment, and notions of justice. The Migrations Program at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies will present “Stories in Motion: A Migrations Film Series,” which features three films that chronicle harrowing migration journeys. Maltese filmmaker Rebecca Cremona will join on Wednesday, October 8, for a screening and discussion of her film Simshar (2014). Additional collaborations include a presentation of the documentary RBG (2018) on October 1 as part of the “Iconic Cornell” series, hosted by the North Campus Faculty Living-Learning Programs, as well as a screening and panel discussion of the biopic Fanon (2024) on September 17, hosted by the Institute for Comparative Modernities.
Still from YANUNI (2025, dir. Richard Ladkani) which screens as part of Cine Con Cultura.
Our “Docs Spots” and “Worth a Watch” series feature compelling new films from around the world. Highlights include the Ithaca premieres of Andrea Arnold’s Bird, Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch, and Sierra Falconer’ Sundance hit Sunfish (& Other Stories from Green Lake), and documentaries including Elizabeth Sankey’s Witches, Shiori Itō’s Black Box Diaries, and Amanda McBaine & Jesse Moss’s Middletown. We will also host our annual CatVideoFest on Saturday, October 4, and Sunday, October 5, with a portion of ticket proceeds donated to the SPCA of Tompkins County.
As always, additional films will be announced throughout the semester, so please sign up for our email list and follow Cornell Cinema on social media to receive the latest updates.
The best way to take advantage of all that Cornell Cinema has to offer is to purchase an All-Access Pass. This membership program offers admission to all regular Cornell Cinema screenings for the entire academic year — plus a discount on special events — for one low price. Prices are $40 for General Admission, $30 for Students (including all College and K-12 students), $36 for Cornell Faculty and Staff, and $25 for Cornell Graduate & Professional Students and passes are valid through May 2026.
If you would like to share this news with students or colleagues, you can download our Fall 2025 poster and other promotional materials here.
Still from The Draughtsman's Contract (1982, dir. Peter Greenaway). Courtesy of Zeitgeist Films.
About Cornell Cinema
Established in 1970, Cornell Cinema is a long-standing and celebrated film exhibition program at Cornell University, dedicated to expanding access to and fostering deeper appreciation of moving image work by filmmakers from across the globe. Working in collaboration with partners on campus and beyond, we seek to spark conversation, inspire innovative thinking, and advance interdisciplinary teaching through collective encounters with the art of film.
For more information, please contact:
Molly Ryan (she/her)
Director of Cornell Cinema
cinema@cornell.edu
