Film Forum
{{Short description|Movie theater in Manhattan, New York}}
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{{sources|date=July 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}{{Use American English|date=July 2024}}
File:Film Forum (48072659326).jpg
The Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater at 209 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. It is a four-screen cinema open 365 days a year, with up to 250,000 annual admissions, nearly 500 seats, 60 employees, over 6,500 members, and an operating budget of $7 million. It is the only autonomous nonprofit cinema in New York City and one of the few in the United States.{{Cite web |title=Film Forum · General Information |url=https://filmforum.org/about/general-information |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Film Forum |language=en}}
History
It began in 1970 as an alternative screening space for independent films, with 50 folding chairs, one projector and a $19,000 annual budget. Karen Cooper became director in 1972. Its current Greenwich Village cinema (on Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue) was built in 1990. In 1994, the Film Forum was honored with a Village Award by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation,{{cite web|title=Past Village Award Winners|url=http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/events/awards.htm|website=GVSHP.org|access-date=June 2, 2015|archive-date=May 28, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528014847/http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/events/awards.htm|url-status=dead}} even though it is technically in SoHo.
In 2018, the Film Forum had a major renovation, adding new seats (and in turn, more leg room) and a fourth theater. In 2023, it was announced that Cooper would step down from her position and she will be succeeded by the theater's deputy director, Sonya Chung.{{Cite web |last=Goldsmith |first=Jill |date=January 9, 2023 |title=Film Forum Director Karen Cooper To Step Down After 50 Years At Helm Of The NYC Indie Cinema; Deputy Director Sonya Chung To Succeed Her |url=https://deadline.com/2023/01/film-forum-director-karen-cooper-sonya-chung-new-york-city-1235215161/ |access-date=August 1, 2023 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}}
Programming
Film Forum presents two distinct film programs: premieres of American independents and foreign art films, programmed by Karen Cooper, Mike Maggiore, and Sonya Chung, and repertory programming, which includes foreign and American classics, genre works, festivals, and directors' retrospectives, programmed by Bruce Goldstein.
Reputation
Filmmakers such as Agnès Varda, D. A. Pennebaker, Christopher Nolan, Kelly Reichardt, Ramin Bahrani and many others have praised the theater and its programming.{{cite news|title=How Influential Is Film Forum? Christopher Nolan and Others Explain|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/31/movies/film-forum-cinema-manhattan.html|website=The New York Times|date=July 31, 2018 |access-date=August 1, 2018|last1=Aridi |first1=Sara }} Actor Ethan Hawke said in a 2018 testimonial that “part of what I love about Film Forum is that you can trust them. They will leave you better than you came.”{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9sRAPD4fxc |title=Ethan Hawke talks about Film Forum |date=2018-12-05 |last=Film Forum |access-date=2025-02-24 |via=YouTube}} Director and actor André Gregory said in 2022, "If New York lost the Statue of Liberty, it would not be a real loss, but if Film Forum disappeared, it would be absolutely heartbreaking."{{cite news|title=How Film Forum Became the Best Little Movie House in New York|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/t-magazine/film-forum-new-york-city.html|website=The New York Times|date=March 30, 2022 |access-date=March 31, 2022|last1=Nadelson |first1=Reggie }}
See also
{{portal|Architecture|Film|New York City}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{Official website|https://filmforum.org/}}
{{Greenwich Village}}
Category:1970 establishments in New York City
Category:Cinemas and movie theaters in Manhattan