Buddhist Film Foundation

10/09/2026

BAY AREA: an astonishing film that must be seen on the big screen! opens 10.14 for one week only… don’t miss it!

tix, times, info: https://cinema.cafilm.org/film/tenzing

https://youtu.be/nNjFIz5qlUM?is=nc65q7g3gfB5GL_N

Starring Genden Phuntsok, Tom Hiddleston, and Willem Dafoe, Tenzing...

10/01/2026

in connection with the new series streaming on Criterion Channel, "Films of Khyentse Norbu," executive director Gaetano Kazuo Maida interviewed director Norbu (a/k/a Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche) for the online magazine Current:

The Bhutanese director and leading Tibetan Buddhist teacher talks about his wide range of aesthetic influences, his experience working with Bernardo Bertolucci, and film’s connection to meditation.

09/18/2026

a full and enthusiastic house last night for Pawo Choyning Dorji’s new A SONG FOR THE SNOW LION with Yo-Yo Ma, in its theatrical premiere at the Smith Rafael Film Center, together with his Academy Award-nominated LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM, both filmed on location among the glaciers in remote Bhutan. a lively conversation with BFF executive director Gaetano Kazuo Maida followed. see the new film there for the next week or at the Hamptons Film Festival or the Woodstock Film Festival.

09/15/2026

Bay Area—friends, please join us this Thursday for a very special one-time only event with director Pawo Choyning Dorji in person, and two films from Bhutan: the exclusive theatrical premiere of his A SONG FOR THE SNOW LION, featuring Yo-Yo Ma, and the Academy Award-nominated LUNANA—A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM. Sept. 17, 6:30pm at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. Tix and info: https://cinema.cafilm.org/film/a-song-for-the-snow-lion-theatrical-premiere

09/10/2026

Bay Area—friends, please join us for this very special one-time only event with director Pawo Choyning Dorji in person, and two films from the glacial highlands of Himalayan Bhutan: the exclusive theatrical premiere of his A SONG FOR THE SNOW LION, featuring Yo-Yo Ma, and the Academy Award-nominated LUNANA—A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM, next Thursday, Sept. 17, 6:30pm at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. Tix, trailer, and info: https://cinema.cafilm.org/film/a-song-for-the-snow-lion-theatrical-premiere

09/08/2026

Bay Area—friends, please join us for this very special one-time only event with director Pawo Choyning Dorji in person, and two films from Bhutan: the theatrical premiere of his A SONG FOR THE SNOW LION, featuring Yo-Yo Ma, and the Academy Award-nominated LUNANA—A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM, next Thursday, Sept. 17, 6:30pm at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. Tix and info: https://cinema.cafilm.org/film/a-song-for-the-snow-lion-theatrical-premiere

08/29/2026

from our friends and colleagues:

07/03/2026

July 4, 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of a notable event in American Buddhist history: the inauguration of Dai Bosatsu Zendo in Livingston Manor, NY, the largest Zen monastery in North America. the ritual gathering for a group portrait offers a who's who of leading Buddhist teachers active here then (with the notable exception of any women...), among them host Eido Shimano Roshi, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Joshu Sasaki Roshi, Richard Baker Roshi, Taizan Maezumi Roshi, Philip Kapleau Roshi, Robert Aitken Roshi, Bernie Glassman, Soen-sa-nim...

an evocative description of the event and the day appears in Rick Fields' classic HOW THE SWANS CAME TO THE LAKE as Attention: Preface to the Assembly (the book is highly recommended reading!).

photo©gaetano kazuo maida

07/01/2026

our friends at the incomparable Criterion Channel are offering a collection of the films of Khyentse Norbu for a limited time starting today. if you're not a subscriber (and why not?) you can sign up for a free trial: https://www.criterionchannel.com

Desire, Death, and Samsara: The Films of Khyentse Norbu

A Buddhist monk and lama, Bhutanese auteur Khyentse Norbu is a cinematic philosopher whose visually ravishing, spiritually profound films feel at once ancient, radically contemporary, and thrillingly alive. Travellers and Magicians reframes the road movie as a meditation on fantasy and desire, Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait unfolds like a ta***ic masquerade suspended between rave and ritual, and Pig at the Crossing turns absurdist comedy into existential vertigo.

06/18/2026

our long term friend, country house neighbor, and founding Advisory Council member Robert Tenzin Thurman, died on Tuesday at his home in Woodstock, NY. he was 84. he was scheduled to participate in our International Buddhist Film Festival screening of THE DALAI LAMA'S GIFT this Sunday...

here's the newspaper of record's obit:

A former monk who was also Uma Thurman’s father, he made sure Buddhism retained its intellectual and spiritual rigor as it spread through the West.