California Film Institute

05/28/2026

Everybody has one hidden talent.

Watch the first official trailer for starring Leo Woodall, Havana Rose Liu, and Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman, directed by Academy Award winner Daniel Roher.

🎬 Opens FRI at the Smith Rafael Film Center
🎟 bit.ly/3RCxF6o

05/28/2026

An all-star lineup.

Brendan Fraser and Andrew Scott discuss working with a stacked ensemble that included Kerry Condon and Chris Messina.

PRESSURE official opens today! THU, MAY 28 | Sequoia Cinema (Mill Valley)
🎟 bit.ly/3R8wk7h

05/27/2026

🌊 The ocean has a forest too—and it’s disappearing.

SEQUOIAS OF THE SEA is a powerful new documentary that dives deep into the crisis facing Northern California's kelp forests. The film shares the stories of those on the front lines in Fort Bragg, from fishermen and tribal communities to scientists, as they grapple with the consequences of a warming climate and fight for the future of this vital habitat.

🎙️ With filmmaker Natasha Benjamin and Ana Blanco in celebration of International Ocean Day
Co-presented with the International Ocean Film Festival
SAT, JUN 6 • 7PM | Smith Rafael Film Center
🎟️: bit.ly/498U8hq

05/27/2026

🎬 What sort of films are you in the mood for this week?

The Rafael has four very different worlds on screen right now—from satire and chaos to paranoia, classic Western grit, and a breathtaking new documentary.

I LOVE BOOSTERS
TUNER
DECISION AT SUNDOWN (May 30 • 11AM • Western Gems)
TIME AND WATER (Opens June 4, Film + Convo June 18)

Find more films + showtimes: rafaelfilm.org

05/27/2026

KEKE & DEMI on Corvette & Christie

I LOVE BOOSTERS opens this FRIDAYYYY
Smith Rafael Film Center
🎟 bit.ly/4vdB4a7

05/27/2026

In the brand-new crime comedy I Love Boosters, director Boots Riley presents a vision of rebellion against the capitalist scheme that’s not only highly principled in its ex*****on, but dripping with fantastically fashionable, faux-fur-trimmed, Technicolor glamour, too.

OPENING FRI at the Rafael!
rafaelfilm.org

“It’s about who you’re valuing, and I think at the heart of it, capital doesn’t value people,” says Liu of the message driving her new film “I Love Boosters.”

05/27/2026

Step into the strange, beautiful, and unforgettable world of David Lynch!

CAFILM presents a four-part retrospective celebrating one of cinema’s most visionary filmmakers. Experience Lynch’s iconic films on the big screen, followed by post-screening conversations led by Karen Davis, MVFF Senior Programmer Emerita.

ERASERHEAD | SAT, 6/6
MULHOLLAND DRIVE | SAT, 6/13
THE ELEPHANT MAN | SAT, 6/20
BLUE VELVET | SAT, 6/27

Saturdays @ 11AM | Smith Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
🎟️ $5 Admission: bit.ly/4us6p8E

05/24/2026

🎬 The time has come for the final showdown. Our 'HIDDEN WESTERN GEMS OF THE 50s' series closes out with director Budd Boetticher and legend Randolph Scott's DECISION AT SUNDOWN—a tense and morally charged Western where vengeance and regret collide in a small frontier town.

📅 SAT, MAY 30 | 11AM
📍 Smith Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
🎟️ $5: bit.ly/49704XY

🌵 With community partner California Gold & Pixels Arcade

05/22/2026

🎉 Two years ago this week, CAFILM reopened the Sequoia Cinema.

Since then, it’s become so much more than a movie theater — a neighborhood hangout, a post-dinner stop, a place to make new memories & experience movies together.

Thanks for making the Sequoia feel like home. 💛🍿

PS -Did you know the theater first opened back in 1929? That was 97 years ago.
Find more history fun facts: bit.ly/4f2venw

Photo 1: Courtesy of the Anne T. Kent CA Room, Marin County Free Library (1953), 2. Gary Ferber Photography

05/22/2026

🌀 Thanks, Marin Independent Journal !

Beginning this June, join us for four films by one of cinema’s most visionary and influential directors, each paired with a post-screening conversation with MVFF Senior Programmer Emerita Karen Davis.

Step into the strange, beautiful, and unforgettable world of David Lynch on the big screen.

📖 Read the Marin IJ article: bit.ly/438j2dL
🎟️ Series details + get $5 tickets: bit.ly/4uuYF6o

The Smith Rafael Film Center will screen four films by David Lynch next month in tribute to the influential director, who died last year. “Eraserhead,” Lynch’s nightmarish and surrealistic black-and-white debut from 1977, will be shown o…