Celebrating 25 years by looking toward the future of the moving image.
In Fall 2026, Block Cinema marks its twenty-fifth anniversary. Founded in 2001 as a student-led film society, Block Cinema has evolved into one of the Midwest's most distinctive university cinema programs, advancing teaching, learning, research, and public engagement through the moving image.
Today, Block Cinema is more than a screening venue. Through public programs, original research, film preservation initiatives, artist collaborations, and student-centered learning opportunities, it serves as a gathering place for the study, presentation, and exploration of cinema in all its forms.
To celebrate this milestone, The Block Museum of Art presents Projecting the Future: Block Cinema at 25, a year-long series of screenings, performances, conversations, and special initiatives throughout the 2026-2027 academic year that explore the evolving possibilities of the moving image. Organized around several core areas of activity, the anniversary year highlights Block Cinema's commitment to research and discovery, innovative forms of cinematic experience, and the next generation of students, artists, and audiences.
Discover Hidden Histories
Explore rediscovered films, archival research, and preservation projects that are expanding our understanding of cinema's past.
Block Cinema has long served as a site for scholarship and discovery. Through archival research, partnerships with libraries and collections, and collaborations with artists, scholars, and preservationists, the cinema helps bring overlooked and underrecognized moving-image histories into public view.
Anniversary programs will feature rediscovered films, conversations with historians and archivists, and presentations that illuminate how new research continues to reshape our understanding of film history. These programs build upon Block Cinema's growing role in film preservation, digitization, and the recovery of works that might otherwise remain unseen.
Experience Film Differently
Experience performances, outdoor projections, and cinematic events that rethink the relationship between audience, image, and place.
Cinema has never been a fixed medium. Throughout its history, artists have continually expanded the possibilities of projection, performance, sound, and audience participation.
Projecting the Future will present a series of events that explore cinema as a live and communal art form. Programs will include performances by artists working at the intersection of film and music, screenings that transform the relationship between audience and screen, and outdoor projections that bring moving images into new public spaces across campus. Together, these events celebrate the enduring power of cinema to create shared experiences and foster meaningful exchange.
Imagine the Future of Cinema
Discover how students are helping shape the future of Block Cinema through new opportunities for programming, research, and public engagement.
The anniversary year also looks forward by investing in the next generation of programmers, scholars, filmmakers, and audiences.
Building upon Block Cinema's origins in the student-led Film and Projection Society, The Block will launch the new Block Cinema Student Committee, a year-long program that provides undergraduate students with hands-on experience in film programming, research, and public engagement. Working alongside Block Cinema staff, students will help shape future programs while developing skills in curation, collaboration, and critical inquiry.
By reconnecting with its student-centered roots, Block Cinema reaffirms its commitment to cinema as a resource for learning, experimentation, and intellectual community.
Interview Series: The Film that Changed my Life.
As part of Block Cinema's 25th anniversary, we invite filmmakers, artists, scholars, alumni, students, and audience members to reflect on a deceptively simple question:What film changed your life?. The answers may come from a celebrated classic, an obscure documentary, a childhood favorite, or a chance encounter with a film seen at exactly the right moment.
This anniversary initiative explores the many ways cinema shapes how we see ourselves and the world around us. Across disciplines, professions, and biographies, films have inspired careers, sparked research, deepened understanding, challenged assumptions, and opened new ways of thinking.
By sharing these stories, participants help illuminate cinema's enduring capacity to connect people, generate ideas, and transform our lives.