AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center HQ

The flagship non-profit movie theater of the American Film Institute (AFI), showcasing the best in American and international cinema.

Stories

VistaVision!

This summer, the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center goes wide with VistaVision!, a 17-film series that pays tribute to Paramount Pictures’ high-resolution, widescreen 35mm film format. Pictured above, the Silver’s programming team sports T-shirts emblazoned with the format’s chic logo promising “motion picture high-fidelity.”

21st New African Film Festival | Programmer Picks

The 21st edition of the New African Film Festival (NAFF) kicks off in one week on Friday, March 14! Presented by AFI and Africa World Now Project, the festival brings the vibrancy of African filmmaking from all corners of the continent and across the diaspora to the Washington, DC, area. Featuring 29 films from 19 countries, this year’s festival opens with NO CHAINS NO MASTERS, an epic historical drama that follows an enslaved father and daughter as they race to…

AFI European Union Film Showcase 2024: Programmers' Picks

The 37th AFI European Union Film Showcase is just one week away, and it is bringing 54 films from all 27 EU member states — including 12 Best International Feature Film Oscar® submissions and six U.S. premieres — to the Washington, DC region. With such a wide selection of films, it can be hard to know where to begin. That is why our programming team has handpicked some options to guide you through the diverse lineup of movies, which includes…

Recent reviews

April 3, 4, 6–8
Hitchcock/Herrmann

4K Restoration | Pre-recorded intro by film historian Steven C. Smith

Alfred Hitchcock’s landmark 1960 thriller has lost none of its power to shock, despite its familiar place and frequency of reference within the pop culture firmament. Impulsively fleeing a dead-end job with $40K of her employer’s money, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) stops at the Bates Motel for the night. The motel keeper, Norman (Anthony Perkins), seems nice, but his mother is another story. Hitchcock…

April 3, 6–9
George Pelecanos Presents: Glorious Black & White

Intro by Silver Spring-based author, producer and screenwriter George Pelecanos on April 3

Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical, violent-tempered Hollywood screenwriter headed toward has-been status, becomes the prime suspect in the brutal murder of a young woman. His personal and professional lives take dramatic turns when he falls in love with his alibi — Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), a vulnerable new neighbor in his apartment court. This classic noir is…

April 3, 4, 6–9
The Sundance Kid: Robert Redford Remembered

50th Anniversary | #77 on AFI’s 100 Years...100 Movies

“Follow the money.” Deep Throat’s advice has guided whistleblowers and reporters well in the 50 years since Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman starred as Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who uncover the Watergate scandal in this enduring classic. The power of journalists to hold figures of authority accountable has waxed and waned over the years, but this film…

April 3, 5–8
Diane Keaton: A Life in Film

#32 on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies

One of the all-time greatest movie sequels continues the saga of the Corleone clan, moving not only forward but back — as new don Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) weathers crushing setbacks and familial disintegration. The film explores the Corleone family’s voyage to America and struggle to survive in the rough-and-tumble immigrant ghetto of old New York, with Robert De Niro giving a brilliant performance as…

Liked reviews

Vertigo
★★★★★ Liked

70mm at the AFI Silver Theatre

Vertigo
★★★★★

Wow. Seeing this on the big screen was an incredible experience. Such an all time classic movie and the score is phenomenal!

There Will Be Blood
★★★★★ Liked

omg what a masterpiece!! rip marx and lenin, besties you would have RAVED about this movie

getting to watch in 35mm paul dano go toe to toe with THE daniel day lewis is absolute cinema

also this movie has no reason to be so fucking funny

There Will Be Blood
★★★★★ Liked

AFI Silver

One Movie After Another: Paul Thomas Anderson

Jan. 30–April 23