Los Ángeles Silent Film Festival

08/22/2026

Some Films Are Rediscovered. Others Are Rescued.

Every film has two stories. The first is the one you see on the screen. The second is the story of how it survived. This year's Los Angeles Silent Film Festival proudly presents the World Premiere restorations of Help Yourself (1927) and The Slanderers (1924), two remarkable films that disappeared for decades.

The Slanderers, once believed lost, has been restored from the only known surviving copy, found in the USC HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive. It is a compelling drama featuring outstanding cinematography, about a World War I veteran confronting rumor, corruption, and injustice in his hometown.

Help Yourself, a charming comedy short starring El Brendel, was never released and remained unseen for nearly a century before being painstakingly reconstructed by USC HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive Curator Dino Everett and film collector Louie Despres.

These aren't simply old movies. They're cultural history that has been brought back to life through the dedication of archivists, historians, preservationists, and collectors. We're honored to share them with audiences for the very first time.

At the American Cinematheque at the Los Feliz 3 Theatre, September 11–13, 2025. For tickets & complete Festival schedule, go to https://www.americancinematheque.com/series/los-angeles-silent-film-festival-2026/

08/21/2026

Before Batman... there was The Bat. Bob Kane himself acknowledged that The Bat influenced the creation of Batman.

Roland West's The Bat (1926) introduced audiences to a mysterious, masked criminal who moved through hidden passageways, disappeared into the shadows, and terrorized the occupants of a gloomy old mansion. The film's striking imagery and the villain's wing-like silhouette helped establish visual ideas that would echo through popular culture for decades.

Directed with extraordinary visual flair, the film remains one of silent cinema's great mystery thrillers, combining suspense, humor, elaborate camera movement, and unforgettable atmosphere. Its influence can still be seen in mystery, horror, and superhero films today. LASFF is thrilled to present the West Coast Premiere of a new restoration during the film's 100th anniversary year.

Part of the Los Angeles Silent Film Festival, at the American Cinematheque at the Los Feliz 3 Theatre, September 11–13, 2026. For tickets & complete Festival schedule, click link in bio, or go to:

https://www.americancinematheque.com/series/los-angeles-silent-film-festival-2026/

08/21/2026

VIP FESTIVAL PACKAGES ARE NOW AVAILABLE!

Want to experience the entire 2026 Los Angeles Silent Film Festival? Purchasing a VIP package is a way to directly support the Los Angeles Silent Film Festival.

While individual ticket sales are handled by the American Cinematheque, proceeds from our VIP packages go directly to our nonprofit organization and help us continue bringing silent cinema to new audiences.For $500, our VIP Festival Package includes admission to every screening and program throughout the three-day festival, September 11–13, plus some very special festival keepsakes:

* A printed copy of the 2026 Los Angeles Silent Film Festival Program Booklet

* A special printed copy of our inaugural 2025 Festival Program Booklet, available in physical form for the first time

* A copy of the official 2026 Los Angeles Silent Film Festival poster, designed by LASFF Board member J.C. Wenhold

* Hollywood Trains and Trolleys by Josef Lesser and Marc Wanamaker, the new book about the history of trains and trolley movies, personally signed by historian and LASFF Board of Directors member Marc Wanamaker

Only a very limited number of VIP Festival Packages are available. 👉 To purchase your package, simply email us at [email protected].

Join us September 11–13 at the American Cinematheque at the Los Feliz 3 for three days of silent cinema on the big screen with live music. For complete festival information and tickets, visit https://bit.ly/4zpOSRW.

35mm, 70mm, nitrate, state-of-the-art digital. Q&As, retrospectives, double-features, triple-features, marathons. We’re a year-round film festival. There’s something for everyone in our programming lineup.

08/20/2026

Why are audiences still watching silent films more than a century later? The answer is simple: Great storytelling never becomes obsolete.

Long before dialogue filled movie theaters, filmmakers learned to tell stories through images, movement, lighting, editing, music, and unforgettable performances. Those techniques remain the foundation of filmmaking today. Silent cinema isn't simply where movies began. It's where the language of cinema was invented.

At this year's Los Angeles Silent Film Festival, you'll discover why these extraordinary films continue to inspire audiences around the world, not as relics of the past, but as vibrant works of art that remain every bit as entertaining, imaginative, and emotionally powerful today.

At the American Cinematheque at the Los Feliz 3 Theatre, September 11–13, 2026. Tickets & Complete Festival Schedule:
👉 https://www.americancinematheque.com/series/los-angeles-silent-film-festival-2026/

08/19/2026

A great film festival is more than a series of screenings. It's a gathering of the people who preserve, study, perform, and celebrate the art of cinema.

This September, the Los Angeles Silent Film Festival brings together an extraordinary community of film historians, archivists, preservationists, musicians, authors, and special guests dedicated to keeping silent cinema alive for new generations. We're especially honored to present this year's LASFF Silent Film Advocacy Award to acclaimed film historian, critic, and author Leonard Maltin, whose lifelong enthusiasm has inspired countless movie lovers to discover classic cinema.

Whether you're attending your first silent film or your hundredth, you'll experience more than remarkable movies. You'll become part of a community that believes these films still have the power to entertain, inspire, and amaze audiences today.

At the American Cinematheque at the Los Feliz 3 Theatre, September 11–13, 2026. Tickets & Complete Festival Schedule: https://www.americancinematheque.com/series/los-angeles-silent-film-festival-2026/

08/19/2026

The wait is over!

The 2026 Los Angeles Silent Film Festival returns to the American Cinematheque's Los Feliz 3 Theatre September 11–13 with our most ambitious program yet.

Join us for three unforgettable days celebrating silent cinema with:

* Eight centennial celebrations from the extraordinary cinematic year 1926

* U.S. and World Premiere restorations

* Rare 35mm archival presentations

* Live musical accompaniment by LASFF Musical Director Cliff Retallick and acclaimed silent film accompanist Dean Mora

* Live 1920s sound effects performed by Nicholas White

* Presentation of the LASFF Silent Film Advocacy Award to legendary film historian Leonard Maltin

Whether you're a lifelong silent film enthusiast or discovering these remarkable films for the first time, we invite you to experience silent cinema as it was meant to be seen: on the big screen, with live accompaniment. We can't wait to welcome you this September.

Tickets & Complete Festival Schedule: 👉 https://www.americancinematheque.com/series/los-angeles-silent-film-festival-2026/

08/14/2026

On Sunday, August 16 at 6:30 p.m., Los Angeles Silent Film Festival Musical Director Cliff Retallick returns to Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema to accompany 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916). Cliff's music will unfold live alongside one of the silent era's most ambitious productions.

The images may have been photographed 110 years ago, but the musical performance belongs entirely to the audience experiencing it that evening. That's one of the great pleasures of seeing silent film with a gifted accompanist.

Don't miss this rare opportunity to experience a landmark of early cinema as a live theatrical event.

🎟️ Tickets: https://thenewbev.com/program/august-16-20000-leagues-under-the-sea/

08/12/2026

How did filmmakers shoot beneath the ocean in 1916? The answer is almost as ingenious as something Jules Verne might have imagined.

For 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916), John Ernest Williamson and the Submarine Film Corporation photographed remarkable underwater scenes in the clear waters of the Bahamas. Their technology included the Photosphere, a submerged steel observation chamber connected to the surface by a watertight tube, allowing a cameraman to photograph the world beneath the sea. The results gave 1916 moviegoers sights few could ever have witnessed for themselves and helped make Universal's enormously ambitious production a milestone in motion-picture history.

See those images on the big screen Sunday, August 16 at 6:30 p.m. at Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema, accompanied live by Los Angeles Silent Film Festival Musical Director Cliff Retallick. Cliff's score will add another live dimension to a film created around the thrill of discovering something audiences had never seen before.

🎟️ Tickets: https://thenewbev.com/program/august-16-20000-leagues-under-the-sea/

08/10/2026

In 1916, the movies went underwater. Imagine seeing the ocean floor on a movie screen for the first time 110 years ago: tropical fish, sharks, divers, shipwrecks, and the mysterious world beneath the sea.

On Sunday, August 16 at 6:30 p.m., Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema presents Stuart Paton's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916), Universal's spectacular adaptation of 2 Jules Verne novels, incorporating elements of both Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and The Mysterious Island.

The film's pioneering underwater photography helped make it a landmark of early cinema. In 2016, the Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry.
And it won't be silent at the New Beverly. Los Angeles Silent Film Festival Musical Director Cliff Retallick will accompany the film live, bringing his own musical interpretation to Captain Nemo, the Nautilus, and this extraordinary voyage beneath the sea.

🎟️ Tickets: https://thenewbev.com/program/august-16-20000-leagues-under-the-sea/

New Beverly Theater