Special Events and Series
We’re Moving!
Our lease was not renewed in 2025 and we have moved out of 1403 NE 50th. Plans are underway to relocate the cinema and we need your help to build an even grander Grand Illusion! For any questions about our pop-up showings below, please contact us rather than the screening venues.
Now Playing
Hard Boiled – New 4K Restoration
- Monday, Jan 26, 2026, 7:00pm
- Tuesday, Feb 17, 2026, 7:00pm
Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle
John Woo's long-unavailable action masterpiece, newly restored!
Chow Yun-Fat stars as a cop who loses his partner in a shoot-out with gun smugglers and goes on a mission to catch them. In order to get closer to the leaders of the ring, he joins forces with an undercover agent (Tony Leung) who's working as a gangster hitman. More than a cops-and-bad-guys story, HARD BOILED continually startles with its originality and dark humor.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.
Encore screening added Tuesday, Feb 17th!
“Woo has elevated the action movie into the realm of art. Infinitely more exciting than a dozen Die Hards, action cinema doesn’t come any better than this.” Mark Salisbury, Empire Magazine
“It’s nirvana for seekers of action, and it rarely gets any better than this.” Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
The Chronology of Water
- Friday, Jan 30, 2026, 7:00pm
- Sunday, Feb 1, 2026, 7:00pm
- Thursday, Feb 12, 2026, 7:00pm
- Wednesday, Feb 18, 2026, 7:00pm
- Sunday, Feb 22, 2026, 7:45pm
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle (located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
Kristen Stewart's feature-length directorial debut, shot in glorious 16mm.
Based on the beloved memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch, THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER is a raw and unflinching portrait of survival, sexuality, and self-invention. The film traces Lidia’s life from her earliest memories in the Pacific Northwest, as a promising swimmer, through fractured relationships, near-motherhood, addiction, and encounters with artistic heroes. Told as a fluid memory wash, the story transforms trauma into art, embodying Yuknavitch’s defiant voice that made her work a modern cult classic. It is not only a chronicle of a woman becoming a writer, but a visceral journey through the wreckage and resilience of a life lived against the grain.
February 22nd showing added due to popular demand!
“Kristen Stewart reveals a deft directorial hand and a distinct, languid, echoing style in her vividly made, emotionally visceral exploration of the life and times of American novelist Lidia Yuknavitch.” Christina Newland, Time Out
4/4 stars! “In partnership with Imogen Poots, who gives an astonishing performance as Lidia, Stewart boldly evokes the source material. There’s a collage aspect to the image placement, but Stewart is not afraid to be direct. This project has been years in the making. Stewart adapted the material, and you can feel her love for it.” Sheila O’Malley, RogerEbert.com
Coming Soon
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
- Tuesday, Feb 24, 2026, 7:15pm
Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle
ONE... LAST... PLAN.
When their plan to book a show at the Rivoli goes horribly wrong, Matt and Jay accidentally travel back to the year 2008. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Winner of the Midnighter Audience Award at SXSW 2025 and the Midnight Madness People's Choice Award at TIFF 2025!
“A thrilling, roof-shaking blast.” Sam Adams, Slate
“Hilarious as the movie can be, there’s an even more amusing meta level on which we laugh at how insane it is that it exists at all, marveling how they pulled it off.” Peter Debruge, Variety
Hundreds of Beavers
- Wednesday, Dec 3, 2025, 7:00pm
- Thursday, Dec 4, 2025, 8:00pm
- Thursday, Jan 29, 2026, 8:00pm
- Thursday, Feb 26, 2026, 8:00pm
Screening location: Central Cinema – 1411 21st Ave, Seattle
Twenty-fourth encore screening! This Febchewary, let the beavers be your Valentine.
Our friends at Central Cinema are generously helping us keep the beavers gnawing away while we search for a new home. 60% of ticket sales go to our relocation fund!
In this 19th century, supernatural winter epic, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America’s greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.
“Starts strange, gets stranger, and yet remains resolutely adorable… embraces the defiant glee of art cinema and distills it into something so thoroughly pure and sincere that it is surely hard not to fall in love with it.” Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Alliance of Women Film Journalists
“It’s sure to develop a significant cult following with its unique mix of silent-era slapstick, animation elements, theme-park-style critter costumes, and general air of inspired absurdity.” Dennis Harvey, Variety
“Steroidally swollen with gags and smarts.” Guy Maddin
A Better Tomorrow – New 4K Restoration
- Monday, Mar 2, 2026, 7:15pm
Screening location: Northwest Film Forum – 1515 12th Ave, Seattle
40th anniversary of John Woo's landmark action classic, newly restored!
The film that established John Woo as the king of the Hong Kong gunplay film and made a superstar of Chow Yun-Fat! An ex-gangster tries to reconnect with his estranged policeman brother, but he finds that his ties to gangs are harder to break than he thought.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.
Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.
“The Citizen Kane of Hong Kong cinema.” Dave Kehr, The New York Times
The Ugly Stepsister in 35mm
- Wednesday, Mar 11, 2026, 7:15pm
- Thursday, Mar 12, 2026, 7:15pm
Screening location: SIFF Film Center – 167 Republican St, Seattle (located within the Seattle Center, just north of Climate Pledge Arena / east of KEXP and The Vera Project)
One of the very best horror movies of 2025 and a wicked (and well-deserved) Academy Award nominee for Best Makeup and Hairstyling at this year's Oscars. Presented in glorious 35mm!
A sinister twist on the classic Cinderella story, writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt's THE UGLY STEPSISTER follows Elvira as she prepares to earn the prince's affection at any cost. In a kingdom where beauty is a brutal business, Elvira will compete with the beautiful and enchanting Agnes to become the belle of the ball.
In Norwegian with English subtitles.
“One of the best horror films of the decade so far.” Drew Gregory, Autostraddle
Critic’s Pick! “Slyly funny and visually captivating, its scenes move with ease from gross to gorgeous, and from grotesque to magical.” Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times