At a second when a few of Los Angeles’ most storied film homes stay darkish — most notably the ArcLight Hollywood and Cinerama Dome — and plenty of others are nonetheless preventing via a fragile restoration, one among its oldest is taking a big step towards revival.
On Tuesday, director Jason Reitman and a coalition of greater than 30 filmmakers introduced that the American Cinematheque will function and program the Village Theater in Westwood because it undergoes a $25-million restoration geared toward a 2027 reopening. The administrators — who bought the 94-year-old film palace in February 2024 — have tapped the nonprofit to run the more-than-1,300-seat venue and assist form its future.
The settlement brings collectively two unusually highly effective forces in Los Angeles movie tradition: a who’s-who roster of A-list administrators and, within the American Cinematheque, one of many metropolis’s most seen and bold programming establishments. Reitman’s coalition — together with Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Damien Chazelle, Bradley Cooper, Alfonso Cuarón, Ryan Coogler, James Gunn, Denis Villeneuve, Karyn Kusama, Lulu Wang, Chloé Zhao and plenty of others — purchased the Village in an effort to protect it as a hub for communal moviegoing at a time of deep uncertainty for theaters.
“Final 12 months, a few of the biggest dwelling administrators rallied to avoid wasting a Los Angeles monument, the Village Theater in Westwood,” Reitman stated in an announcement. “We regularly like to think about film theaters as church buildings. In that case, the Village is a cathedral and with the American Cinematheque, we discovered our congregation.”
Underneath the brand new settlement, the American Cinematheque will handle every day operations and lead programming on the theater, with “lively participation from the filmmakers,” in response to the announcement.
The reworked venue is anticipated to host particular screenings with in-person conversations, premieres, awards-season occasions, new releases, repertory titles and an expanded slate of AC’s signature festivals, together with Past Fest, Bleak Week, This Is Not a Fiction and Extremely Cinematheque 70 Fest. The Village has been a showcase for Hollywood premieres since its opening in 1931, a practice the companions say they intend to proceed.
The Village Theater in Westwood is ready to endure a significant restoration underneath a filmmakers’ partnership.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Occasions)
The Village’s foyer will likely be redesigned as a multipurpose area for concessions, filmmaker artifacts, retail kiosks and premiere-related occasions. The administrators and AC are within the quiet part of a $25-million capital marketing campaign to help the renovation, which is scheduled to start early subsequent 12 months. Reitman stated he’s “very excited by the early management commitments by people and a significant expertise sponsor” and emphasised that they need to give audiences “a spot to expertise the movies they love with the folks they love.”
For the American Cinematheque — which operates the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica and co-programs each the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and the Los Feliz 3 — the partnership considerably expands its footprint. Based in 1984, the Cinematheque is a member-supported nonprofit devoted to fostering a various and engaged movie group via immersive programming, dialog and presentation, staging greater than 1,600 screenings a 12 months throughout codecs starting from 35mm and 70mm to digital and uncommon nitrate.
“Partnering with the sensible and virtuoso Village Administrators Circle to renovate the Village Theater is an thrilling milestone for the American Cinematheque,” AC Chair Rick Nicita stated. “Our objective is to create a vibrant cultural hub that not solely celebrates cinema but additionally enriches the group and welcomes audiences from throughout Los Angeles and the world.”
The announcement lands as Los Angeles continues to navigate a theatrical ecosystem reshaped by the pandemic. The Vista reopened underneath Quentin Tarantino’s stewardship, Vidiots rebounded in Eagle Rock and the Egyptian welcomed audiences again in 2023 after a significant restoration. But the restoration has been uneven, with some theaters thriving and others nonetheless struggling to regain pre-COVID audiences.
In the meantime, the standing of two of L.A.’s most well-known film homes stays unsure. The ArcLight Hollywood and the adjoining Cinerama Dome, closed since 2020, took a small step ahead this week when the Central Hollywood Neighborhood Council supplied unanimous help for a conditional-use allow permitting the complicated to serve alcohol. The theaters’ homeowners, the Decurion Corp., which is managed by the Forman household, have stated they continue to be dedicated to redeveloping the property, although no timeline has been introduced.
The Village’s revival dovetails with broader efforts to revitalize Westwood Village forward of the 2028 Summer season Olympics. With the theater doubtlessly repositioned for an attention-grabbing relaunch, the Village Administrators Circle and the Cinematheque hope to show the venue right into a cultural anchor that would stand alongside Walt Disney Live performance Corridor, the Hollywood Bowl and Griffith Observatory.
Talking to The Occasions final 12 months after the acquisition, Reitman put it this manner: “You understand, there’s one thing within the title — Westwood is a village and this theater is known as the Village. I believe that’s what all of us yearn for. Regardless of how technologically superior we get, irrespective of how a lot we crave the town heart, there’s part of us that at all times yearns for a village. It is a village for films.”
