Boulder for Film Buffs

Chautauqua Auditorium opens and is the first Boulder venue to show moving images through a kinetoscope, an early motion picture device invented by Thomas Edison.

“Hooligans of the Far West” is shown at the Temple Theatre for 25 cents.

The Curran Opera House (built in 1906 and later becoming the Boulder Theater) shifts from live performances to movie screenings, becoming what is likely the first dedicated cinema in Boulder. A neighboring theater, called The Isis, also began showing films regularly around this time.

Trumbo goes on to become a world-famous screenwriter, composing “Roman Holiday,” “Exodus,” “Spartacus” and other films.

The Curran and Isis theaters add sound equipment to be able to show movies with sound.

"Dinky" was the first in a long line of movie and show writing credits by the Boulder author John Fante, who has been cited as a precursor to Beat writers. Fante also cowrote "The Golden Fleecing" (1940) and "Wait Until Spring, Bandini" (1989), which was inspired by Boulder and executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola.

CU professor James Sandoe creates the University Film Series (today called the International Film Series). He also staged the first play at CU’s Mary Rippon Theater in 1944, which led to the founding of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in 1958.

The Moterena Drive-In opens on Boulder’s eastern outskirts. The Holiday Drive-in Theater opened in 1953. Its old marquee can still be seen at the site of its second location.

Anthony Mann’s film “The Glenn Miller Story,” about the famous American musician and conductor who was a student at CU in 1923, wins an Oscar.

Robert Redford works as a janitor at The Sink while attending CU Boulder. He goes on to become one of America’s best-known actors and filmmakers and helps establish the Sundance Film Festival.

The Conference on World Affairs (CWA) welcomes the film critic Roger Ebert. He becomes a fixture of CWA, showing and discussing a film each year in his now-famous “cinema interuptus” style. CWA's Ebertus Interuptus tradition is carried on to this day. 

The production shoots scenes at Boulder’s National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and other locations.

Boulder native James William Guercio (who owned the nearby Caribou Ranch recording studio and produced stars including Elton John, John Lennon and The Beach Boys) directs “Electra Glide In Blue,” which premieres at Cannes.

Opening shows included short films, and the state-of-the-art planetarium continues to show films "under the dome" today.

Boulder becomes the fictional backdrop for the TV show “Mork and Mindy,” starring Robin Williams and Pam Dawber. The couple's fictional home can be seen today at 1619 Pine Street (please stay on the sidewalk and respect the privacy of the current residents).

Stanley Kubricks’ film adaptation of Stephen King’s book has become a horror classic. King was inspired by The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, about an hour from Boulder, and a few shots of Boulder are included in the film.

Considered one of the great pioneers of experimental filmmaking and cinematography, Brakhage created nearly 400 films in his lifetime and influenced many other filmmakers including Martin Scorsese. He taught in the University of Colorado's film department from 1981 to 2003, retiring as a distinguished professor. Brakhage created a highly personal, poetic style of film and was famous for holding weekly Sunday salons in which he viewed films and held discussions. Today at CU, the Celebrating Stan film series honors his legacy with monthly film screenings followed by discussions.

The 1985 cycling movie “American Flyers” features Boulder’s now-famous Morgul Bismark bike race.

Boulder high school student Sheryl Lee becomes an icon as the dead Laura Palmer in the television series “Twin Peaks.”

They make the film “Cannibal! The Musical” and later develop the hit animated sitcom “South Park.”

Longtime Boulderite and Arapaho filmmaker Ava Hamilton produced and directed the award-winning “Everything Has a Spirit,” which debuted at Sundance in 1994. She also wrote, produced and directed “Indians for Indians” for PBS and has been instrumental in establishing Indigenous Peoples Day in Boulder, which takes place every October. 

Local filmmaker Jerry Aronson’s “The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg” is nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Ginsberg lived in Boulder and cofounded the still-operating Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Boulder’s Naropa University.

The Boulder-raised actress was honored for one of her first film roles at 15 in the critically acclaimed “Ulee’s Gold.”

CU’s International Film Series (IFS) is recognized among a dozen programs as part of Sundance Art House Project.

Boulder filmmakers Kathy and Robin Beeck found the Boulder International Film Festival, which brings high-caliber films and stars from around the world to Boulder each winter.

The city of Boulder plays a leading role in the feature film "Catch and Release," which also stars Jennifer Garner, Kevin Smith and Timothy Olyphant.

Made by Boulder documentary filmmaker Louie Psihoyos, this film about dolphin hunting in Japan wins the 2009 Audience Award at Sundance.

The Boedecker Cinema (or "The Boe") shows art house films and has ongoing series like Friday Night Weird. It's inside the beautiful Dairy Arts Center, Boulder's hub for performing and visual arts.

Produced by Boulderite Paula DuPré Pesmen, this multi-year documentary about the planet's rapidly melting glaciers wins an Emmy Award for Outstanding Nature Programming.

The documentary about the perils of social media was written and directed by Boulder-based Jeff Orlowski-Yang.

Boulder’s Pocket Outdoor Media purchases Outside Integrated Media, the publisher of Outside magazine, making Boulder the headquarters for the adventure media and streaming company. Along with it comes Warren Miller Entertainment, pioneers of the ski film.

Porcelain War follows Ukranian artists who have chosen to stay behind and defend their homeland after Russian invasion. Boulderite Paula DuPré Pesmen worked on this film, which was notably nominated for an Academy Award, among 45+ other wins and nominations.