Harvard Film Archive

Harvard Film Archive Since 1979, Harvard's renown arthouse cinema and archive. The 188-seat theater accommodates DCP, 35mm, 16mm, Super 8 and all variety of video formats.

Located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, the HFA is devoted to film preservation, exhibition and engagement. A division of Harvard Library, the Harvard Film Archive is dedicated to the collection, preservation and exhibition of film. It maintains an extensive archive of over 40,000 motion picture prints, audiovisual elements and ephemera from around the world and from almost every peri

od in film history. Located in the historic Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts on the Harvard University campus, the HFA cinematheque is renowned for its diverse programming of films which—due to age, rarity, challenging content or format—are not screened regularly or often even available for viewing at all. With a focus on deep engagement, the HFA frequently invites film directors and artists to discuss their work with the vibrant community of students, professors, artists and cinephiles. Recent visitors include legends of cinema Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders, Kazuo Hara, Godfrey Reggio and Frederick Wiseman; younger and mid-career artists such as Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kelly Reichart, Mati Diop, Alice Rohrwacher, Anocha Suwichakornpong, Alex Ross Perry, Angela Schanelec, Lav Diaz, Christian Petzold, Wang Bing, Valeska Grisebach, Dieudo Hamadi and Dominga Sotomayor; avant-garde filmmakers Jodie Mack, Laura Huertas Millán, Nathaniel Dorsky, Sky Hopinka and Kevin Jerome Everson; as well as special guests such as actress Pam Grier and Japanese benshi Ichiro Kataoka. Some of the HFA's recent programs include retrospectives of the work of Luchino Visconti, Tony Conrad, Chantal Akerman, Robert Flaherty, Howard Hawks, Moustapha Alassane, Jerome Hiler, Jiri Trnka and Lucrecia Martel, as well as surveys such as The B-Film. Low-Budget Hollywood Cinema 1935-1959; Make My Day. The Cinematic Imagination of the Reagan Era; Say It Loud! The Black Cinema Revolution; Moon Movies: Apollo 11 at 50; Romanian Cinema Now; New Thai Cinema and Amour Fou. Ongoing series include our annual all-night movie marathons and the monthly Cinema of Resistance screenings and family-friendly Weekend Matinee shows. The HFA's collection of film and audiovisual material, as well as its many posters, documents, and ephemera are accessible to faculty and students at Harvard and outside researchers through our academic research services.

Due to Carpenter Center restoration planning, the HFA cinema will be closed until late August! See you on the other side...
05/19/2026

Due to Carpenter Center restoration planning, the HFA cinema will be closed until late August! See you on the other side!

Check out Cambridge Day's cinema highlights which include Spielberg's epilogue to our Kubrick series and the 8-hour SATA...
04/23/2026

Check out Cambridge Day's cinema highlights which include Spielberg's epilogue to our Kubrick series and the 8-hour SATANTANGO experience on Sunday!

On tap: Independent Film Festival Boston, plus David Lowery, “Lunachicks” and giallo.

Peter Keough digs into the Tarr-y Krasznahorkai-ian mud in a review in the The Arts Fuse of our mini-retrospective that ...
04/16/2026

Peter Keough digs into the Tarr-y Krasznahorkai-ian mud in a review in the The Arts Fuse of our mini-retrospective that continues this weekend!

A retrospective of four films by those two Hungarian artists unfolds as a monochromatic monolith of mud, misery, human folly, and inexorable corruption.

Our former projectionist gets fifteen minutes in the spotlight!
04/03/2026

Our former projectionist gets fifteen minutes in the spotlight!

The AFVS projectionist sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss Super 8, movie theaters, Instagram, and the other John Quackenbush.

Address

24 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA
02138

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 6pm
7pm - 11pm
Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm
7pm - 11pm
Saturday 5pm - 11pm
Sunday 5pm - 11pm

Telephone

+16174963211

Website

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