LACMA Cancels Weekend Film Program

Fan support was waning for museum’s movie showcase.

After the museum’s weekend film program lost $1 million over the last 10 years, LACMA announced Tuesday it will kill the showcase that features films from the likes of Roman Polanski and Cary Grant.

 

LACMA’s film series showcased art-house films, Hollywood classics and foreign-language films. The museum said it is not abandoning the program altogether, but hopes to find potential donors to underwrite any film project that will be curated. The museum does not know when that new project could launch.

 

"It’s not that people don’t love film here, but it’s hard," Michael Govan, the museum’s director, told the Los Angeles Times. "We are getting diminishing audiences. "

 

He also told the paper that the weekend screenings became less popular as classic films were distributed widely via DVD.

 

As part of the move,  Ian Bernie, who headed LACMA’s film department for the last 13 years, will go from a full-time employee to a part-time consultant.

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