Avon Theatre Film Center

Many people view the cinema as a source of entertainment, however the Avon is driven by its mission to enhance this role by showing films that are artistically and/or socially meaningful and to use the cinema as a means of educating, inspiring and/or engaging the greater community. These goals are always top priority when the Avon lays out its programs, only a portion of which are described here. As we are just coming back from the pandemic, this year we saw again, as during the pre-pandemic, several partnerships with local community organizations who collaborated with the Avon to present films highlighting major societal issues including immigration, gun violence, social justice, and climate change. These programs, which all included a special screening followed by a panel discussion, attracted well over 1,000 attendees. Our exhibition on screen series, which presents films focusing on the world's great artists and their works, is only available in select theaters with each feature limited to only two screenings and continues to educate and inspire larger crowds. The Avon's commitment to education continues to grow each year. The Avon continues to provide free memberships to teachers from throughout the region with the goal of encouraging professional educators to use quality cinema as a tool for enhancing classroom learning. Approximately 275 educators took advantage of this offering with many encouraging their students to attend screenings at the Avon that touched on their curricula. The Avon's competitive scholarship program awarded $8,500 this year to 11 high school seniors who submitted essays on why Film matters. The variety of films and the number of the high schools and towns represented grows each year while the quality of the submissions continues to impress our professional judges. The Avon is strongly committed to issues of social justice and continues to build on its professionally curated black lens series highlighting films made by black filmmakers and/or dealing with the black experience in america. This year we presented these features, all well received and followed by presentations/discussions with the filmmakers.