Film Forum

Coordinates: 40°43′42″N 74°00′15″W / 40.728436°N 74.004266°W / 40.728436; -74.004266

Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater at 209 West Houston Street in Manhattan. It began in 1970 as an alternative screening space for independent films, with 50 folding chairs, one projector and a US$19,000 annual budget. Karen Cooper became director in 1972 and under her leadership, Film Forum has grown dramatically. Its current Greenwich Village cinema (on Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue) was built in 1990. Film Forum is a 3-screen cinema open 365 days a year, with 280,000 annual admissions, nearly 500 seats, 60 employees, 4500 members and an operating budget of US$5 million. Film Forum is the only autonomous nonprofit cinema in New York City and one of the few in the United States of America.

Film Forum presents two distinct, complementary film programs - NYC theatrical premieres of American independents and foreign art films, programmed by Karen Cooper and Mike Maggiore; and, since 1987, repertory selections including foreign and American classics, genre works, festivals and directors' retrospectives, programmed by Bruce Goldstein. Their third screen is dedicated to extended runs of popular selections from both programs, as well as new films for longer engagements.