Circle of Trust

Movie Theaters in Greater Los Angeles - places that select the movies we need to see

• Academy Museum Theaters - Home of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the newly opened Academy Museum has two incredible theaters and has the ability to program virtually anything because, well, they’re the academy. Their film schedule is a combination of the critically acclaimed, the popular, and the obscure. A temple to filmmaking and for filmmakers.

• The New Beverly - The New Beverly had been a staple for film lovers even before Quentin Tarantino bought it in 2007 to save it from extinction. Now they only screen on film prints, still have midnight showings, embrace B movies, and will ban people for life for cell phone use during the screening. They’ve retained the dingy, film clubhouse atmosphere that made it popular and even offer free popcorn for kids’ weekend matinee screenings.

• Vidiots - Vidiots was a long-time VHS and DVD rental house in Santa Monica - one of the only places in LA at the time where you could rent independent films. When DVDs started to falter in the streaming era, Vidiots switched to a non-profit foundation model. Then COVID hit and they moved out of their Santa Monica space but kept their inventory in storage thanks to help from a producer/savior. In 2023, the owners finished rehabilitating an old theater and space in Eagle Rock and relaunched there with their rental house, theater, and bar to much fanfare. They rent out DVDs and Blu-rays while also screen their vast variety of titles to a packed house. (The DVDs are organized by director, naturally.) A real LA success story that needs to be supported.

• Alamo Drafthouse - A truly amazing chain of theaters that narrowly escaped disaster (has it?) during the pandemic. My only complaint is that there aren’t more of them in Los Angeles - only one, and it’s downtown. There needs to be one on the Westside and one in the Valley and - well, everywhere. Movie lovers made this place a landmark in Austin and it’s a perfect model that can hopefully continue to grow.

• American Cinematheque, operators of The Aero, The Los Feliz Theater and The Egyptian - A non-profift organzation that belives “cinema is a communal experience with the power to entertain, enlight and inspire.” We believe the same. Their selections range from classic films to film festival fare and often with Q&As with filmmakers. In November 2023, partnering with Netflix, they reopened the hallowed Egyptian Theater in Hollywood with an eye towards both Netflix films and the continued great titles selected by the Cinematheque.

• NuArt Theater and Cinefile - Though separate entities, they’ve been joined at the hip for at least a quarter century in West LA. The single-screen NuArt is a local institution that shows great indie fare that reliably every Friday and Saturday night hosts midnight shows of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). It’s the place you hoped existed in LA - quirky, unique, and run by movie-loving Landmark Theaters. Cinefile, next door, is the “last video rental house in LA” where you’ll encounter a lot of snobby movie nerds - the place you also figured existed in LA, and another institution that deserves local support.

• Laemmle Theaters - For nearly 90 years, the Laemmle family has showed a movie in a Laemmle theater. A champion of independent cinema and a “secret pathway to the Oscars” for smaller films, the Laemmle’s seven theaters in greater Los Angeles need to be supported, if for nothing else to keep a viable indie film theater going as a counterweight to the big studio-leaning chains.