As the new year eases in, great new films are scarce. With many of 2025’s biggest blockbusters hitting theaters in December, and January being a generally poor time to release a picture for awards consideration, the beginning of the year can be tough for cinephiles. Thankfully, Art House — the two-screen theater based in a historic church and located in downtown Eugene — has you covered.
Art House’s early year schedule is packed with some of the best classic films of all time, which have been neatly divided into series that will show over the course of the year.
Art House’s French New Wave series — which features 27 classic films in the genre — is particularly notable, since it took a year-long Kickstarter campaign to make it a reality. While many of the films are over 60 years old, the cost of screening so many movies while their copyrights are still active is high for a small cinema like Art House.
“Studios charge licensing fees and/or minimum guarantees for each film screening, and these can add up quickly, often making repertory programming a high-risk venture for smaller cinemas,” the cinema said on its Kickstarter page. “We do our best to predict what our audiences want, but when we’re wrong, we can get stuck with an empty auditorium and a big bill.”
For those who are less fond of cigarettes and more fond of weed, “The Green Screen” series is a good place to start. Stoner classics like “Dazed and Confused,” “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle” and the Coen Brothers’ masterpiece “The Big Lebowski” will grace the screens of Art House for multiple days in 2026, as well as a few other films in the beloved genre.
“Art House After Dark,” offers late-night showings of horror and slasher films curated by the theater. The monthly series is currently scheduled to show “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge,” “An American Werewolf in London” and “Possession” in January, February and March, respectively.
Musicals, Noirs, Alfred Hitchcock films and more are also slated to show at the theater in 2026, though their schedule in those series is limited at the moment. Fret not, as there is still much to see. A variety of performers, including William Elliott Whitmore, Stephan Nance’s project “Sparkbird” and David Ramirez will take their tours to Eugene at Art House.
Art House is set for a year of great cinema, and certainly has enough screenings to tide over movie-lovers until the early year drought ends.
