Dryden Theatre

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The George Eastman Museum's exhibition space for showcasing its unparalleled collection of motion pictures, as well as new foreign and independent films.
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The Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House is the Museum's largest exhibition space for showcasing its unparalleled collection of motion pictures, selections from archives around the world, as well as new foreign and independent films. With such diverse programming, the Dryden remains an essential part of the Museum experience and continues to be an important institution not only for the Rochester community, but internationally as well. The Dryden Theatre was constructed in 1951 after George Eastman House received a generous donation from George and Ellen Dryden. The first film to be shown at the Dryden was Jean Renoir’s silent film Nana (1924). James Card (1915 – 2000) established the motion picture collection at George Eastman House. Card was a pioneer in the archival world and he single-handedly helped contribute to the appreciation of film as an art form. FILM
The projection booth is equipped with two reel-to-reel 35mm/16mm Kinoton projectors, and two 35mm Century projectors. Both sets of projectors have adaptable lenses for the following aspect ratios:

1.18: 1
Silent 1.33: 1
Academy 1.37: 1
1.66: 1
1.85: 1
Anamorphic 2.39: 1

VIDEO
The Dryden Theatre is equipped with an InFocus SP 777 DLP Projector. Video capabilities include: BetacamSP, Blu-ray, DVD, DigiBeta, U-Matic and VHS. SOUND
The theatre is outfitted with an up-to-date sound system designed to reproduce soundtracks for both contemporary and archival screenings. Designed and installed by Boston Light & Sound, it features a Dolby 7.1 system, able to reproduce the following stereo formats: Mono, Dolby A-Type, Dolby SR, Dolby Digital, and also DTS. NITRATE
The Dryden Theatre projection booth is also customized to handle highly volatile Nitrate film. Discontinued around the mid-20th Century due to its highly flammable nature, nitrate film stock – the combination of a silver nitrate base and orthochromatic or panchromatic emulsion – provided a shimmering, luminous motion picture experience for moviegoers during the entire first half of movie history. One of only a handful of venues in the world that is still safely equipped to show 35mm nitrate prints, the Dryden Theatre is occasionally able to re-introduce audiences to this special kind of cinema magic with classic films from our vaults or other leading archives. Because no nitrate film stock is being produced today, these rare screenings of vintage prints may represent your only opportunity to experience this distinctive aesthetic visual pleasure.

10/25/2026

Here's a look at what's on our screen for the last week of October! 👻 🎃

10/24/2026

Godmother (35mm)
📅 Saturday, October 24, 2 p.m.
🎬 Series: Filmi Fest 2000

Independent film darling Shabana Azmi stars in this crime drama that swept its six National Film Award nominations, including Best Hindi Feature and a fifth award for Azmi. Purportedly inspired by a real-life politician, Godmother follows Rambhi, a pregnant woman from a drought-seized village who moves to the city with her husband, Veeram (Milind Gunaji), who soon becomes embroiled in the underworld of graft and politicians. When Rambhi is forced to step in for her husband, she uncovers a ruthless part of herself that takes the underworld by storm.

35mm print from the George Eastman Museum collection.

10/23/2026

Re-Animator (DCP)
📅 Saturday, October 24, 7:30 p.m.
🎬 Series: Lovecraftian

H.P. Lovecraft’s novelette is adapted by first-time writer-director Stuart Gordon into a lovingly blood-soaked ode to the impermanence of death. Daniel Cain (Bruce Abbott) is a medical student at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts where he hopes to do well while dating Megan (Barbara Crampton), the dean’s daughter. He rents a room to fellow new student Herbert West (a delightfully over-the-top Jeffrey Combs) only to discover that West has turned their basement into a laboratory to test his “re-animating agent” that brings dead things back to life. Starting with animals, the pair soon move to the morgue to test their theories, turning their lives, and the town, into a madhouse of walking corpses. Wonderful practical effects and a go-for-broke attitude propel this cult classic into one of the most memorable horror films of the last fifty years.

DCP from American Genre Film Archive.

10/22/2026

Seeds (DCP)
📅 Friday, October 23, 7:30 p.m.
🎬 Series: Labor Film Series

From Brittany Shyne, a camera operator on Barbara Kopple’s American Factory, comes this examination of a group of people being continually pushed aside: Black farmers. In 1910, there were 16.5 million acres of farmland in the United States owned by Black farmers; now there are only 1.5 million. Consistently broken promises from politicians and increasing pressure from corporate consolidated operations have pushed these farmers to the brink of extinction. In gorgeous black-and-white, Shyne follows these families as they deal with red tape, strike out to protest their treatment, and attempt to make ends meet, not only for their current family, but for the legacy of their family and ancestors.

DCP from littlebigworld.

10/21/2026

The Haunted Palace (35mm)
📅 Thursday, October 22, 7:30 p.m.
🎬 Series: Lovecraftian

A delightful descent into the macabre, this film that borrows the title of an Edgar Allan Poe poem, but is actually based on H.P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, is one of George Eastman Award recipient Roger Corman’s best-remembered films. Vincent Price stars as Joseph Curwen, who is burned at the stake by the citizens of Arkham, Massachusetts for being a warlock. More than a century later he returns in the form of Ward, Curwen’s descendant, who inherits the infamous castle. While occupying the homestead, Ward falls under the influence of the ghostly Curwen, putting his bride (Debra Paget) at risk. Also starring Lon Chaney, Jr. and Elisha Cook, Jr., this film is a chillingly good time!

35mm print from Park Circus.

10/20/2026

La Strada (35mm)
📅 Wednesday, October 21, 7:30 p.m.
🎬 Series: Latin Cinematic Heritage | Free to All

The cinema of Fellini is marked by a passion for life often revealed in the glowing face of the director’s wife, Giulietta Masina, who stars here in one of his finest films. Masina is Gelsomina, a pantomime artist in the spirit of Chaplin, who, being sold to strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), serves as his dutiful assistant and eventually develops a genuine affection for the brute. While Zampanò overtly rejects Gelsomina’s warm heart, he doesn’t hesitate to confront another circus performer, the Fool (Richard Basehart), whom he sees as an interloper. This important transitional film for both Italian cinema and Fellini’s career (moving away from neorealism) garnered Anthony Quinn long overdue acclaim as an actor of stature and won more than fifty international awards, including the first official Best Foreign Language Film Award at the Academy Awards in 1956.

35mm print from the George Eastman Museum collection.

10/19/2026

The Wildcat (DCP)
📅 Tuesday, October 20, 7:30 p.m.
🎬 Series: Silent Tuesdays | Schweigen! | Polish Film Festival

Years before his iconic “touch” was established, Ernst Lubitsch directed this broad farce about the military-and-marriage complex starring Polish emigré Pola Negri. Rischka (Negri), the daughter of a gang of robbers high in the snowy mountains of Germany, is a real wildcat and runs her father’s gang with ruthlessness. When Lieutenant Alexis (Paul Heidemann) is transferred to the nearby fort, thanks to some romantic complications, Rischka attacks him and steals his clothes. When he finally arrives at the fort, the commander’s daughter takes an interest in him, but he can’t stop thinking about Rischka. Lubitsch injects a ton of style into the film (including an extravagant Deco-Weimar celebration) and uses several mattes to change the shape of the image on the screen, subtly changing the proscenium of the image and influencing its mood.

DCP from Murnau-Stiftung.

Introduction and live piano accompaniment by Philip Carli.

10/18/2026

Here's a look at what we have coming up this week!

10/15/2026

Full Time (DCP)
📅 Friday, October 16, 7:30 p.m.
🎬 Series: Labor Film Series

Julie (Laure Calamy) can’t catch a break. For a single mother raising two children in the suburbs of Paris but working in the city, the commuter train is a lifeline — and it’s suddenly been severed during the latest transit strike. Without the train, Julie can’t get to her job as the head maid at a five-star hotel, or to the interview for a better job she has lined up. Out of desperation, Julie turns to neighbors and her own gutsy resourcefulness to get to work and barely makes it back in time to pick up her kids before bedtime. Worse yet: it’s only Monday. Julie is at her breaking point and soon finds herself bending the rules to stay afloat in a ruthless society as her responsibilities pile up. Anchored by Calamy’s powerful performance, Full Time is an impossible race against time and a kinetic thriller assembled from the everyday obstacles faced by working parents everywhere.

DCP from Music Box Films.

10/14/2026

Join us THIS FRIDAY, October 16 at 7:30 p.m. for the next installment in our Labor Film series, FULL TIME

Address

900 East Avenue
Rochester, NY
14607

Telephone

(585) 327-4800

Website

http://eastman.org/dryden-theatre

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