The Last First Time

Jan 23, 2026 — This week: Max Ophuls, Erich von Stroheim, David Lynch, the Biden years, and the best of 1935.

Jun 17, 2025 — Authors address overt and covert queer cinema, the avant-garde, and AI; plus notes on new collections and entire filmographies.

Jun 12, 2025 — From Hitchcock to Kubrick, Star Wars to Twin Peaks, the selection ranges as wide as the film gauges.

Jun 11, 2025 — Acropolis Cinema presents the LA premiere of The Damned and the world premiere of a new restoration of The Passage.

May 30, 2025 — The week wraps with an overlooked gem starring Jamie Lee Curtis, a new issue of Cineaste, and conversations with Lisa Lu and Takashi Miike.

Feb 13, 2025 — Isolated sequences are dazzling, but as a whole, The Light may be difficult to buy into.

Nov 27, 2024 — The week offers evasive icons, an archive to rummage through, and a great but overlooked critic.

Nov 12, 2024 — The festival’s second edition reasserts its emphasis on “showcasing and advocating for personal, ambitious regional cinema.”

Oct 18, 2024 — Names in the news this week: Bette Gordon, Robert Frank, Don Hertzfeldt, Alfonso Cuarón, Cate Blanchett, and Quentin Tarantino.

Sep 6, 2024 — Alex Cox discusses his first and next films, Warhol rarities screen in New York, and a courtroom drama revisits the culture wars of 1970s France.