Upcoming Movie Nights
Film Fanatics Movie Nights transforms local venues in Champaign-Urbana into a screening room where film lovers gather to experience artistic, unusual, and visually striking cinema together on the big screen. Expect a stimulating evening of conversation, and community in a lounge atmopshere — the kind of shared experience that reminds us why we fell in love with movies in the first place.
Coming Soon
You told us what you want to see and we listened. Based on the results of our first survey, we’re excited to present the following films over the coming months.
As always, club members receive discounted admission to all screenings, along with reserved seating in our premium section. Join today and help shape what we show next.
The Iron Giant (USA 1999)
USA 1999 • 86 min (2.39:1) • Rated PG
Directed by: Brad Bird
Starring: Eli Marienthal, Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, Christopher McDonald, John Mahoney
Screening date: September 25, 2026 at 7:30pm
Venue: Crystal Lake Park (Anita Purvis Nature Center)
Presented by Chuck Koplinski
A towering achievement in animated storytelling, The Iron Giant transforms a simple science-fiction premise into one of cinema's most moving tales of friendship, identity, and heroism. Set against the backdrop of Cold War America, the film follows a young boy who discovers and befriends a mysterious giant robot from outer space. As government forces close in and fear threatens to overwhelm reason, the pair forge a bond that challenges assumptions about destiny, violence, and what it means to be human. Directed by Brad Bird in his feature debut, the film combines breathtaking animation, sharp humor, and genuine emotional depth. Beneath its family-friendly exterior lies a profound meditation on free will and moral choice, culminating in one of the most powerful finales in modern animation. Initially overlooked at the box office, The Iron Giant has since become a beloved classic and is widely regarded as one of the greatest animated films ever made. Heartfelt, intelligent, and timeless, this is family entertainment at its absolute best.
Content Warnings: Peril involving children, military violence, weapons, explosions, themes of war and paranoia, emotional scenes involving loss and sacrifice.
#Animation #AnimatedClassic #FamilyFilm #CultCinema #SciFiCinema #ClassicCinema
Santa Sangre
Mexico/Italy 1989 • 123 min (1.85:1)
Directed by: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Starring: Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell
Presented by: Paul Young
Screening date: TBD
A hallucinatory descent into madness and memory, this masterwork stands as one of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s most ferocious and personal visions—equal parts surrealist nightmare, operatic melodrama, and cult initiation rite. Emerging after years of myth-making around the director’s unrealized projects, the film marked a triumphant return that reaffirmed Jodorowsky’s status as cinema’s high priest of the subconscious. Drenched in ritual, symbolism, and Grand Guignol intensity, it plays less like a conventional narrative than a waking dream engineered to unnerve and mesmerize a roomful of viewers at once. Decades later, its power remains undiminished: shocking, hypnotic, and unmistakably the work of a singular auteur whose influence continues to ripple through cult and midnight cinema.
#AlejandroJodorowsky #CultCinema #MidnightMovie #SurrealCinema #ArtHouseHorror #VisionaryDirector #CultClassic #BigScreenExperience
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
(Ukraine 1965 • 97 min • 1.37:1)
Directed by: Sergei Parajanov
Presented by: Sam Veremchuk
Screening date: TBA
A cinematic fever dream steeped in folklore, ritual, and ecstatic color, this Romeo-and-Juliet-esque tale set in the Carpathian Mountains is considered one of the most internationally heralded Ukrainian film in history. More than a film, it’s a sensory incantation—an explosion of camera movement, mythic symbolism, and visual experimentation that helped redefine what Soviet-era filmmaking could dare to be. Decades later, its hypnotic imagery and rebellious creative spirit still feel startlingly modern, earning it a permanent place as a classic example of Ukrainian magical realist cinema. Unfortunately for Parajanov, the KGB surveilled him for his love of Ukrainian culture and for his sexuality, leading to his arrest for “sodomy” by the Soviet authorities.
#1960sFilm #Arthouse #BigScreenExperience #ClassicFilm #ComingSoon #WorldCinema #UkrainianCinema #SovietCinema
Once Upon a Time in the West
Italy/USA 1968 • 165 min (2.35:1)
Directed by: Sergio Leone
Starring: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale
Music by: Ennio Morricone
Presented by: Sascha Hilgenfeldt
Screening date: TBD
A monumental reinvention of the American Western, this operatic epic captures Sergio Leone at the height of his formal power and mythmaking ambition that must be seen on the big screen. Shot in expansive widescreen, the film transforms silence, gesture, and landscape into pure cinematic ritual, with towering performances by Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, and Jason Robards anchoring its mythic scale. Ennio Morricone’s iconic score operates as a driving emotional force, inseparable from Leone’s meticulous compositions and visual authority. Considered by many as an iconic classic, this grand, austere, and endlessly influential film stands as one of the definitive Westerns and a landmark in the evolution of modern cinema.
#SergioLeone #SpaghettiWestern #EnnioMorricone #WesternCinema #EpicCinema #CultCinema #VisuallyStunning #BigScreenExperience #ModernClassic
