One of film’s most talented cinematographers, Kazuo Miyagawa worked with many of the great Japanese directors, including Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, Kon Ichikawa, and Masahiro Shinoda, all represented in this series, which foregrounds his artistry on the big... View
Conceived in dialog with BAMPFA’s major exhibition New Time, The Future Is Feminist brings together a diverse range of works made since 2000 by women filmmakers representing an array of feminist voices and aesthetics, variously observational, confrontational,... View
Dedicated to a pillar of the Bay Area film scene, film critic, curator, and educator Albert Johnson (1925–1998) the films in this series gesture toward the breadth of his interests and provide a welcome opportunity to celebrate his brilliant legacy.
ViewWalter Murch, whose accomplishments have earned him respect and praise as “the film editor’s editor” and “a sound and image guru,” is our guest for Afterimage, sharing his wisdom on editing and sound design in three in-depth conversations.
ViewThe celebrated French author and filmmaker Marguerite Duras is the focus of this trio of works, including the Bay Area premiere of Suzanna Andler. Also featured are Alain Resnais’s Hiroshima mon amour and a new restoration of Le navire Night.
ViewNow that we are back in the Barbro Osher Theater, we want to share some highlights from the past year of virtual cinema as an affirmation of the importance of seeing films on the big screen and with an audience.
ViewFifty years after the founding of American Zoetrope, we celebrate the studio and its co-creator, Francis Ford Coppola. Along with Coppola’s works, the series features films by George Lucas, Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, and more.
ViewThis series, featuring the lyrical cinema of one of the most admired and influential directors of the silent era, F. W. Murnau, showcases restored versions of his extant work with live piano accompaniment.
ViewBarbara Stanwyck was the screen archetype of the independent woman, with her wits about her, alert, and often on the make. This spotlight showcases many of her best roles and demonstrates her remarkable talent.
ViewDjibril Diop Mambéty’s debut, Touki Bouki, was “unlike anything in the history of African cinema” (N. Frank Ukadike). Made nearly twenty years later, Hyenas and Le franc likewise showcase “his signature mix of wild narrative style” and “impeccable political commitment,” which,... View
Our annual series features an international array of recent and historical documentaries and nonfiction films.
ViewIn this hybrid series, shown in-theater and via BAMPFA’s streaming platform, we interview filmmakers who specialize in animation and ask them to discuss how they develop their stylistic approaches, and how they distill time, gesture, and mood, frame by frame, into the basic unit... View
In this hybrid series, shown in-theater and via BAMPFA’s streaming platform, we interview filmmakers who specialize in animation and ask them to discuss how they develop their stylistic approaches, and how they distill time, gesture, and mood, frame by frame, into the basic unit... View
We are delighted to present eight recent additions to our film collection: new silent 16mm films by local filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky, most made during the COVID-19 pandemic, photographed in San Francisco across different seasons.
ViewIn our first series to explore the breadth of Indigenous media currently being made in the Americas, we place works in relation to one another across geographies and stylistic approaches, with filmmakers from South and North America in conversation.
ViewRomantic. Elegant. Fantastical. We welcome back to the BAMPFA screen one of the greats, Federico Fellini, a “larger-than-life maestro who created an inimitable cinematic style combining surreal carnival with incisive social critique” (Criterion).
ViewA collection of narrative and documentary works on artists, writers, and ordinary citizens in China, presented in conjunction with the Townsend Center’s In Dialogue with China: Art, Culture, Politics.
ViewRecent releases, restored classics, and special guests grace the Barbro Osher Theater.
ViewFrom defining Asian American identity on-screen in Chan Is Missing and The Joy Luck Club to adapting the writing of Paul Auster and working with Jennifer Lopez, Wayne Wang is a filmmaking original. This series features new restorations of his work.
ViewAn overdue tribute to one of the giants of world cinema, Malian director Souleymane Cissé, a former projectionist, jailed dissident, and fiercely antiauthoritarian, proudly African filmmaker whose work includes Brightness, The Wind, Baara, and The Young Girl.
ViewBAMPFA is proud to partner with the SFFILM Festival, an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and a major cultural event in the Bay Area.
View“Since my first film I have attempted in a very deliberate and stubborn way to portray women capable of making independent decisions,” wrote acclaimed Hungarian filmmaker Márta Mészáros, who at age ninety is the subject of this major retrospective featuring new digital... View
This series showcases an impressive range of world cinema that has been preserved thanks to a concerted effort by The Film Foundation and the World Cinema Project over more than thirty years.
ViewA selection of films in which a dance scene crystallizes the experience of the movie, a moment leaving its imprint more than the plotline or even the characters.
ViewCelebrated for her performances in films by iconic directors, Tanaka also made a significant contribution to the golden age of Japanese cinema as a director. This series features new restorations of all six of Tanaka’s films, along with works representative of the scope of her... View
Ten essential films from Samuel Fuller’s influential oeuvre confront prejudice and inequity head-on, chronicling the grit, resilience, and soulful struggle of misfits, foot soldiers, petty criminals, detectives, and reporters surviving in the face of moral misgivings or... View
Bring a blanket or lawn chair to BAMPFA’s huge outdoor LED screen for three free screenings.
ViewAfter two years of pandemic-related cancellations or virtual screenings, we are proud to welcome the African Film Festival back to BAMPFA. This year, open your eyes to new horizons, new heroes, and new narratives.
ViewThis year our annual series showcases current and historical experimental films by local filmmakers, as well as works by artists from Brazil, Canada, Iran, Poland, Rwanda, and the United Kingdom.
ViewIncluding historical and contemporary documentaries, essay films, and works of fiction, this series reflects on the inherent racism and inhumanity of the prison industrial complex while celebrating courageous voices and acts of resistance from inside and outside of prison... View
Highly regarded as a comedian, screenwriter, playwright, and actress, Elaine May had a more tempestuous ride as a film director—often at odds with the Hollywood studio executives. Her films are championed by many for their ironic humor, sense of spontaneity, authenticity, and... View