Film & Television Archive

2026 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema Please note: Registration does not guarantee entry if the event reaches capacity. Admission is granted on a first come, first served basis. Patrons who have registered will need to obtain their free tickets at the box office, where seating will be assigned. Any seats remaining 15 minutes before showtime will be released to standby patrons. Year: 2025 Country: Iran/U.S./France/Canada Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 107 min. Digital. Color. Family secrets and betrayals explode in the most riveting video call you’ve ever seen. Writer-director Homayoun Ghanizadeh transforms the familiar stacked boxes of talking heads we all live with these days into a dazzling, high-wire act of storytelling and performance when three generations of an Iranian family are confronted by the son of a former family servant over the fate of the stately family home back in Iran. Ghanizadeh’s riveting, all-star ensemble — Golshifteh Farahani, Payman Maadi, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Ali Nasirian, Shirin Neshat — delivers an acting tour de force that deliberately transcends the bounds of the film’s form. DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Homayoun Ghanizadeh. With: Golshifteh Farahani, Shirin Neshat, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Ali Nasirian, Payman Maadi.

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2026 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema lease note: Registration does not guarantee entry if the event reaches capacity. Admission is granted on a first come, first served basis. Patrons who have registered will need to obtain their free tickets at the box office, where seating will be assigned. Any seats remaining 15 minutes before showtime will be released to standby patrons. Screening 1 of 2 The Granny and Fishes Year: 2025 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 27 min. Digital. Color. Farhang Short Film Festival 1st prize winner After ill-conceived irrigation projects and drought rendered Lake Hamun on the Iran-Afghanistan border a dust bowl, hundreds of villagers migrated away, except for an old woman whose solitary routine of gathering up dead fish is the subject of this quietly compelling documentary. DCP. PDirectors/Screenwriters: Maria Mavati, Ehsan Farokhi Fard. Screening 2 of 2 Woman and Child Year: 2025 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English subtitles Runtime: 131 min. Digital. Color. After the powerhouse family drama Leila’s Brothers (2023 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema) led to a jail sentence in Iran, writer-director Saeed Roustaee returned to Cannes last year with this more diffuse but still devastating story about a woman seemingly under siege from all sides. Parinaz Izadyar stars as Mahnaz, a nurse and widow with two children, including a rebellious teenage son, looking forward to starting over with new partner Hamid (Payman Maadi) until a sudden tragedy and a shocking betrayal sets Mahnaz on a desperate course of revenge against the school system, the courts and her own family. DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Saeed Roustaee. With: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi, Soha Niasti.

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In person: chef and restaurateur Alice Waters. Director Alfonso Arua’s Like Water for Chocolate was an arthouse sensation when first released and still defines the evocative power of food in film. Based on Laura Esquivel’s novel, its sensuous tale of forbidden love unfolds in early 20th-century Mexico when Tita is bound by family tradition to remain unmarried to care for her mother. Prevented from acting on her love for the handsome Pedro, she pours her passion and heartbreak into her cooking which has a magical, intoxicating effect on those who consume it. The intimacy of the heart and the intimacy of the kitchen transform culinary preparation into a powerful expression of desire, rebellion and yearning.—Senior Public Programmer Paul Malcolm Director: Alfonso Arau. Screenwriter: Laura Esquivel. With: Lumi Cavazos, Marco Leonardi, Regina Torné. 35mm print courtesy of the Sundance Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

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In person: Q&A with actor David Selby and historian Jim Pierson, editor of Dark Shadows Noir: Classic Black and White Photography From the Dan Curtis Productions Archive. Book signing with Pierson before the screening. Guest speaker Made possible by the John H. Mitchell Television Programming Endowment. Premiering on June 27, 1966, on ABC-TV, Dark Shadows (1966–71) represented an outré experiment in daytime television that became an unexpected breakout hit and evergreen cult classic. Created by horror-maestro Dan Curtis (The Night Stalker, Trilogy of Terror), the innovative soap opera, which initially struggled in the ratings, expanded greatly in popularity in its second year with the addition of a 175-year-old charismatic vampire character named Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid). As the eerily atmospheric series evolved to fuse gothic supernatural elements and romance into complex storylines, it developed a passionate youth following and became a pop culture phenomenon. In the process, the videotaped series earned the distinction of being the first soap to spawn a theatrical motion picture spin-off, House of Dark Shadows (1970), and several additional feature films and reboots. The beloved original series ran for over 1,200 episodes before its abrupt cancellation in 1971. In the ensuing decades, the aura surrounding Dark Shadows has only intensified, with the influential program enjoying nearly constant reruns in syndication, luring an influx of new viewers into the mysterious, shadow-drenched world of the wealthy Collins family of fictional Collinsport, Maine. Join us for a celebration of Dark Shadows, exactly 60 years to the day of its premiere, including the debut episode and rare archival footage. Before the screening, historian Jim Pierson will sign copies of Dark Shadows Noir: Classic Black and White Photography from the Dan Curtis Productions Archive. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with Dark Shadows star, actor David Selby, and Jim Pierson. Programmed and note written by John H. Mitchell Television Curator Mark Quigley.

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Presented by UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hammer Museum. The Billy Wilder Theater opens 15 minutes before each Family Flicks program.

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In person: director Karen Arthur; editor Carol Littleton; Paula Chambers, daughter of screenwriter and actor Joan Hotchkis; Eric Morris, acting teacher and director of the theatrical production of Legacy. Guest speaker Legacy is the story of Bissie Hapgood, a woman unraveling under the pressures of a vapid and materialistic society consumed with dinner-plate settings, soap operas and sexual frustration. The material originated as a one-woman show in 1973, written and performed by Joan Hotchkis, a versatile talent celebrated for her roles on television series including The Odd Couple and The Life and Times of Eddie Roberts. Karen Arthur, a first-time filmmaker, saw Hotchkis on stage and convinced the actor to adapt the screenplay and star in the film. Independently produced and financed, Legacy, like its peers Wanda (1970) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974), confounds 1970s Hollywood’s expectations with the introduction of a new kind of cinematic woman. Bissie stuns audiences with her honesty that is confrontational, yet heartfelt and a vulnerability that is never sentimental and always surprising. Legacy features an exceptional crew at the start of what would become a set of accomplished careers. Arthur, who would go on to direct The Mafu Cage (1978) and become a prolific television director, winning an Emmy Award for Cagney & Lacey, collaborated with cinematographer John Bailey (Ordinary People, 1980, In the Line of Fire, 1993) and editor Carol Littleton (E.T., 1982, The Manchurian Candidate, 2004). Note written by Archive Research and Study Center Officer Maya Montañez Smukler.

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Presented by UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hammer Museum. The Billy Wilder Theater opens 15 minutes before each Family Flicks program.

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