Fraenkel Film Festival 2025
Following the extraordinary success of last year’s inaugural event, Fraenkel Gallery is proud to announce the return of the Fraenkel Film Festival, a groundbreaking cinema series curated entirely by visual artists. Once again, all of the proceeds from the festival will benefit the Roxie.
The Fraenkel Film Festival takes an unprecedented curatorial approach—the 21 films were selected by Fraenkel Gallery artists who love cinema and are deeply sensitive to its subtleties. Highlighting the artists’ distinct perspectives, the selections present an unexpected look at their range of creative influences and intellectual curiosities.
Each artist’s selection offers insight into their thinking and temperament. Richard Misrach remarks that The Last Picture Show “speaks to the importance of film and the death of small towns all over America,” noting the connection between cinema and community. Artist duo Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller have often explored the power of sound in their work, and chose Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974), a film celebrated for its groundbreaking sound design: “The muffled, distorted conversations, along with the constant presence of surveillance sounds, create such unease and uncertainty,” they note. For Elisheva Biernoff, who makes meticulous paintings recreating found photographs, The Wizard of Oz (1939) represents “a story where the familiar warps into fantasy.” She describes her enduring love for “this complex movie [that] thrills at imagination realized through craft—the unabashed beauty of the film stock, the virtuoso vaudevillian song-and-dance routines, the score, the dazzling sets and matte paintings, the fantastical costumes—it’s lush and luminous and terrifying.” Christian Marclay selected Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria (2021), and writes about the film: “Slow to the point of stillness, this film gives you time to think. It will put you in a meditative state, and its mysterious beauty will free your imagination more than any action film.”
General admission is $16 for all films, except for the opening night screening of The Last Picture Show on July 9, which is $20 and includes a prerecorded conversation between Richard Misrach and Jeff Bridges. All shows are discounted for Roxie members with a promo code. Get your All-films pass to see any and all films included in the festival for $200. Or, get a 6-film pass* and see 6 of the films included in the festival for only $72! If you purchase a 6-film pass or the all-films pass, these will be available for pick up at the box office starting July 9. You will only be able to redeem your tickets at the box office when presenting the pass. Tickets will be held for pass holders for all screenings.
*6-film pass is valid for all screenings except the opening night film, The Last Picture Show.
Wednesday, July 9
OPENING NIGHT
RICHARD MISRACH
6:30p The Last Picture Show
Feat. a recorded chat between Richard Misrach & Jeff Bridges
Thursday, July 10
NAN GOLDIN
6:30p Merrily We Go to Hell
KOTA EZAWA
8:40p Mad Max: Fury Road (35mm)
Friday, July 11
JANET CARDIFF & GEORGE BURES MILLER
6:30p The Conversation
WARDELL MILAN
9:10p Silence of the Lambs
Saturday, July 12
MARTINE GUTIERREZ
1:00p The Little Mermaid
CHRISTIAN MARCLAY
3:10p Memoria (35mm)
LIZ DESCHENES
6:15p The Great Dictator (35mm)
Monday, July 14
NICHOLAS NIXON
6:10p The End of Summer
RICHARD LEAROYD
8:30p Rollerball (35mm)
Tuesday, July 15
ADAM FUSS
6:20p Mirror
KATY GRANNAN
8:40p 3 Women
Wednesday, July 16
SOPHIE CALLE
6:00p Crumb (35mm)
HIROSHI SUGIMOTO
9:10p Tokyo Drifter
Thursday, July 17
MEL BOCHNER
6:30p The Music Room (Jalsaghar)
ROBERT ADAMS
8:40p The 400 Blows (35mm)
Friday, July 18
RICHARD T. WALKER
6:30p Badlands
CARRIE MAE WEEMS
8:50p No Country for Old Men
Saturday, July 19
ELISHEVA BIERNOFF
1:00p The Wizard of Oz (35mm)
LEE FRIEDLANDER
3:25p Rear Window
ALEC SOTH
6:00p Lost In Translation
