The Upper West Side Needs More Art Film Screens

When the Lincoln Plaza Theater closed in January of 2018, it was like a body blow to the Upper West Side, an area that historically housed a huge community of arts lovers who were educated, sophisticated and open to a wide variety of cinema experiences.

It wasn’t as if there weren’t alternatives. Film at Lincoln Center is one of the best curated art houses in the country. AMC has two large multiplexes that, in addition to playing the latest Hollywood movies, also squeeze in the occasional Focus, Searchlight, A24 or Neon film. But, with the passing of the Lincoln Plaza Theater, a stalwart community institution was gone.

In the time since that closure, there have been some good and some bad developments. On the bad side, The Landmark on 57th Street also closed. While it was never going to fulfill the UWS neighborhood’s needs due to its incredibly inconvenient location, Landmark did attempt to play some of the smaller art films that couldn’t find a home elsewhere. I’ve heard that someone is taking over that theater, but I’m guessing it will end up mainly playing commercial Hollywood films. Continue reading “The Upper West Side Needs More Art Film Screens”

Art Cinemas Dying? No Way!

In case you thought that we were approaching some kind of art film apocolypse, I have good news. Art film theaters are thriving, wherever they are managed by people who really know what they are doing, and who really care. I’d like to offer up one example.  The Miami Beach Cinematheque, one of the venues on our Emerging Cinemas Network, has just announced plans to move into new, larger quarters. This is great news not just because it shows that such an institution can still thrive in the age of i-stuff, but the increase in seating capacity will enable larger grosses for distributors out of a market that should be one of the best in the country. Check out the link below and be blown away.

http://miamibeachfilmsociety.memberlodge.org/new-mbc-coming-soon

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