THE STRIKE (2024)
7:00pm
The Strike is a feature documentary that tells the story of a generation of California men who endured decades of solitary confinement and, against all odds, launched the largest hunger strike in U.S. history.
BOXCUTTER (2024)
Rome has the talent to break out as a rapper, but his chance to impress a megastar producer is jeopardized when the only copy of his album is stolen.
TOY STORY
A cowboy doll is profoundly jealous when a new spaceman action figure supplants him as the top toy in a boy's bedroom. When circumstances separate them from their owner, the duo have to put aside their differences to return to him.
SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)
Fame isn’t forever—just ask Norma Desmond. Once a Hollywood legend, now a forgotten relic, the silent movie star refuses to fade away. When struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis stumbles into her decaying mansion, he becomes trapped in her web of ob...
THE PLAYER
A hotshot Hollywood studio executive starts receiving death threats from a rejected writer.
TWIN PEAKS: SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4 + EPISODE 5
Cooper and company have tea with the Log Lady, who tells them there was a third man following after Leo and Jacques the night Laura died. At Jacques Renault's cabin Cooper, Hawk, and Truman find Waldo the bird.
WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR?
The hostess (Juliet Prowse) at a Manhattan disco receives nasty phone calls from a sexual predator (Sal Mineo) and she requests help from a vice squad detective who takes a personal interest in the case.
ENCANTO
A Colombian teenage girl has to face the frustration of being the only member of her family without magical powers in the the tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia.
NO ONE CARES ABOUT CRAZY PEOPLE
7:00pm
An intimate, immersive deep dive into the crisis and chaos of severe mental illness – and a burgeoning grassroots movement to do something about it.
ROT
10:00pm
Director Marcus Koch joins us in person for a tale of punks and corpses that has to be seen in VHScious Video.
MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION
Vivie Warren is a woman ahead of her time. Her mother, however, is a product of that old patriarchal order. Exploiting it has earned Mrs. Warren a fortune– but at what cost?
STORIES OF COMMUNITY 2025 ROUNDUP
12:30pm
A celebration of FilmScene's two year partnership with Resilient Sustainable Future for Iowa City.
NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950)
Two-bit hustler Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) aches for a life of ease and plenty. Trailed by an inglorious history of go-nowhere schemes, he stumbles upon a chance of a lifetime, but there's no easy money in this underworld of shifting alliances, b...
TWIN PEAKS: SEASON 1 - EPISODE 6 + EPISODE 7
Audrey is hired at One Eyed Jack's, but is caught in a trap when her father arrives. Cooper gets Jacques Renault to reveal the details of Laura's last night in the cabin. Deputy Andy saves Truman's life and apprehends Renault.
UNCONVENTIONAL
In honor of the 35th anniversary of New Jersey's Chiller Theatre Horror Convention we look back at the documentary of the 13th annual con.
MY LIFE IS WIND (A LETTER)
6:30pm
A refugee torn from her Middle Eastern home, Myriam resettles in the Midwest, documenting her early experiences in this new land through a poignant letter addressed to her grandmother she was forced to leave.
THE TOWER (WORK IN PROGRESS CUT)
8:00pm
A kaleidoscopic tapestry of colorful characters collide in a small Iowa town. Spooky, serendipitous resonances bubble up between stories where people play themselves in fictionalized as well as real life scenarios.
KILLER OF SHEEP
7:00pm
Set in the Watts area of Los Angeles, a slaughterhouse worker must suspend his emotions to work at a job he finds repugnant and finds he has little sensitivity for his family.
LA HAINE
7:00pm
Aimlessly passing their days in the concrete environs of their dead-end suburbia, three young men give human faces to France’s immigrant populations, their resentment at their marginalization simmering until it reaches a boiling point.
VIOLENT NIGHT
10:00pm
A team of mercenaries break into a mansion on Christmas Eve, but they are not ready for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus.
MONSTER GIRLS
10:00pm
Director Jessie Seitz joins us at FilmScene for the world premiere of the first documentary to cover the past, present, and future of women in special effects makeup and monster movie creature design.
THE FIFTH STEP
Olivier Award-winner Jack Lowden (Slow Horses, Dunkirk) is joined by Emmy and BAFTA-winner Martin Freeman (The Responder, Sherlock) in the critically acclaimed and subversively funny new play.
REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA
A worldwide epidemic encourages a biotech company to launch an organ-financing program similar in nature to a standard car loan. The repossession clause is a killer, however.
THE EYE OPENER 2025
Find joy in cinema and community at our annual fundraising celebration with delicious drinks, marvelous auction items, a hand-picked short film, and sweet treats.
THE IDIOT (1951)
6:30pm
A Japanese veteran, driven partially mad from the war, travels to the snowy island of Hokkaido where he soon enters a love triangle with his best friend and a disgraced woman.
KRAMPUS: THE RECKONING
10:00pm
Zoe is a strange little girl, with a not-so-imaginary friend, the Krampus.
Photos with Krampus in the lobby before the show!
LITTLE WOMEN (1994)
Jo March struggles for independence and sometimes clashes with her beloved mother and sisters Meg, Amy and Beth, their cranky Aunt March and their impulsive neighbor Laurie.
AUTISM SOCIETY OF IOWA SCREENING: BAMBI
Lights up, sound low, and limited tickets allowing room to move!
BAMBI
In this life-changing adventure, Bambi sets off with his best friends Thumper and Flower to explore the wonders and challenges of the woods—and fulfill his destiny as prince of the forest.
BRAZIL
A bureaucrat in a dystopic society becomes an enemy of the state as he pursues the woman of his dreams.
BETTER GO MAD IN THE WILD
7:00pm
A magical hybrid documentary fairy tale about a Czech poet and his twin brother, adapted from the book "Better to Go Mad in the Wilderness" by Aleš Palán.
FILMSCENE 101: HOLIDAY AFFAIR (1949)
In this FilmScene 101, we explore Holiday Affair’s unusual emotional register: a dash of melancholy with the merry, achieved through savvy casting and the distinct stylings of the RKO studio.
BUDDIES (1985)
7:00pm
When 25 year-old gay yuppie David volunteers to be a "buddy" to an AIDS patient, the gay community center assigns him to Robert, a 32 year-old politically impassioned gay California gardener abandoned by his friends and lovers.
TO ALL A GOODNIGHT
10:00pm
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, Santa Claus is stirring, and he's not bringing gifts.
Photos with our own Bad Santa in the lobby before the show.
THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL
'Tis the season for love, laughter and one of the most cherished stories of all time. Join Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and all the hilarious Muppets in this merry, magical version of Charles Dickens' classic tale.
HOME ALONE
When bratty 8-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) acts out the night before a family trip to Paris, his mother (Catherine O'Hara) makes him sleep in the attic, and he is mistakenly left home alone. Now must defend his home against a pair of...
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Frank Capra's paean to small-town values stars James Stewart as a man who's come to the end of his rope one Christmas Eve in this classic story of redemption and second chances.
DIE HARD
When a New York City policeman visits his estranged wife and daughters on Christmas Eve, and a group of terrorists take over the exclusive high-rise where he's attending a holiday party, he realizes that there's no one to save the hostages but him.
HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT
A hot-headed ship owner refuses to accept his wife 's (Jean Arthur) divorce and hires his driver to forge adultery with her in Paris to make the decree null. When the headwaiter of the Chateau Bleu (Charles Boyer) overhears the commotion, he comes to...
ONLYFANGS
10:00pm
Did you miss it when it was our secret screening at FilmScream? Here's another chance to see the vampire comedy with bite!
COME SEE ME IN THE GOOD LIGHT
A poignant and unexpectedly funny love story about poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley facing an incurable cancer diagnosis with joy, wit and an unshakable partnership.
SSSSSTONER SNAKE
10:00pm
Director Daryl Hook joins us in person for the worst movie you’ve ever seen! Part bad comedy, part awful horror film. You’ll laugh, you’ll scream, you’ll wonder who the hell financed this!
