The 18th Annual SLIFF will be held Nov. 12-22, 2009. The festival annually features the St. Louis premieres of more than 250 films from nearly 40 countries. Please click (here) for ticket and venue information.

Click here for a PDF of the official program (6 MB download).

Tickets are now on sale (except for Saint Louis Art Museum shows, which go on sale Oct. 30). The special-event screening of "Up in the Air" on Saturday, Nov. 14, is SOLD OUT.

Free daytime screenings for children and teens from participating St. Louis-area schools. Click here for a letter to educators about Cinema for Students. Click here for a full list of films, synopses and grade-level suggestions. Click here for a reservation form.

Cinema St. Louis introduces a new membership benefit: a special screening series, available only to CSL members at the Producer level ($100) or above, that offers free sneak previews of the Global Lens films that will be featured in the 18th annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF).

This year, we'll be previewing the 9 Global Lens films in a weekly series for CSL members at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand Blvd. The free screenings will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, beginning Aug. 17 and continuing through Oct. 26. Click here for details on the films and how to make reservations. Click here for info on membership.

Cinema St. Louis, the presenter of the St. Louis International Film Festival, has announced the five finalists in its annual CinemaSpoke screenplay competition and workshop. The five screenplays will receive partial readings, one a month from April through August, with the winning script receiving a full reading during the St. Louis International Film Festival in November.
Continue reading...

The inaugural Cinema St. Louis French Film Festival will be held August 28-30, 2009. Cinema St. Louis is pleased to celebrate the city's Gallic heritage and France's continuing cinematic vitality with its first annual French Film Festival, which includes a trio of recent French films and a pair of highly anticipated revivals by two film masters, Max Ophuls and Jean-Luc Godard. The French Film Festival is co-presented by Washington University's Program in Film and Media Studies and sponsored by Culturesfrance. Please click (here) for more information

QFest is a cooperative project founded by members of Metropolis St. Louis' Out & Urban Committee, Cinema St. Louis, and the Lesbian Gay Bi Transgender Community Center of Metropolitan St. Louis. The primary mission of the film festival is to use the art of contemporary gay cinema to spotlight the diversity and inherent complexities of living an alternative lifestyle in today's society. The second annual edition of QFest was held March 15-18, 2009, at the Tivoli Theatre. The event featured a slate of 22 films - 11 feature films (8 narrative and 3 documentaries) and 11 short subjects - from eight countries.
Click (here) for festival award winners, complete schedule, film synopses and ticket information.

Cinema St. Louis hosts an annual I Love Movies Trivia Night each May, at the Centene Center for Arts and Education, 3547 Olive Street (1/2 block east of Grand Blvd.). All rounds and questions are movie-themed. Tickets will go on sale in March, 2010 and the cost is tax-deductible.

Cinema St. Louis annually hosts the Oscar Night® America fundraiser, St. Louis' only Oscar® party officially sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The 2010 event will be held from 6-10:30 p.m. Sunday, March 7, at the Crowne Plaza Clayton, Plaza Grill and Restaurant, 7750 Carondelet Avenue. Further details and ticket information will be available in January, 2010.

Cinema St. Louis' The Lens is a multi-contributor blog aimed primarily - but by no means exclusively - at local cinephiles. The Lens has a specifically St. Louis perspective when relevant - and previews Cinema St. Louis events - but because film encompasses the world, the blog offers material on every aspect of movie culture, with no ties to a particular place. Lens contributors - critics, academics, journalists, novelists, poets, essayists and filmmakers - write, at any length and in any form, about all film-related topics, allowing for a wide array of approaches: simple reviews, stray thoughts, essays, reported articles, cartoons, photos, even audio clips and videos. The Lens is co-hosted by the St. Louis Beacon, the metro area's online news source.

The Ninth Annual SLFS was held July 18-23, 2009. This event focuses exclusively on the work of local directors and filmmakers, as well as expatriates with strong local connections who have gone on to use their creative talents in other cities. Please click (here) for the list of the official selections of the 2009 SLFS and the list of films that were invited to SLIFF in November, plus a full list of awards presented by the St. Louis Film Critics Association.

Click (here) for the official schedule and synopses of film selections for the 2009 Showcase.