Central Cinema's year-long tribute to David Lynch takes a suitably elegiac detour as we present this new feature documentary about his friend and career-long collaborator Catherine E. Coulson. (Screening in an optional double feature Tuesday April 15 with Lynch's debut ERASERHEAD, on which Coulson filled a range of key behind-the-scenes roles.)

Join us for our new KHFF Arcana $7 grab bag series, featuring a special monthly treat curated by the Knoxville Horror Film Fest!

April's installment of our year-long tribute to David Lynch flashes back to his long-gestating 1977 debut, a midnight movie essential and one of the most avant-garde American feature films to ever achieve mainstream notoriety. 

Our latest 16mm "Film On Film" screening (from the collection of new series coordinator Josh Mays) presents this pre-code mystery/comedy gem, the popular success of which made it one of the earliest features to kick off a bona fide film franchise.

Chicago’s Deadly Prey Gallery has carved out an essential niche in the world of movie poster art, working with Ghanaian artists to commission, collect and distribute (with all profits returned to the artists) spectacular hand-painted interpretations of everything from THE GODFATHER to AIR BUD. Central Cinema is thrilled to welcome Deadly Prey as they take over our space on Thursday, April 17 for a pop-up gallery exhibition including a merch table with hundreds of poster print options plus an optional screening of 1987’s DEADLY PREY, the cult actioner from which the project gets its name.

Central Cinema is pleased to team up with the Knox County Public Library's Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound for a free monthly screening event, alternating between regionally-relevant feature films and dispatches from their extensive archive of audiovisual treasures.

To celebrate Central Cinema being a stop on Deadly Prey Gallery's latest exhibition tour, we're presenting the outrageous Most Dangerous Game riff from which the project takes its name. Come enjoy the art, grab some prints for your own collection, then join us for this special $10 screening, preceded by an hourlong "reception" of DPG-adjacent movie trailers.

Join us on Good Friday & Easter Sunday for Martin Scorsese's incisive, challenging and ultimately devout meditation on the tribulations of Jesus Christ.

Retired detective Nick Charles (William Powell), now spending much of his time managing the considerable fortune of his wife Nora (Myrna Loy) and consuming quantities of alcohol, is asked to follow the trail of a missing inventor. Though reluctant to interrupt his holiday in Manhattan, he is persuaded to investigate by his wife's craving for adventure, and together they embark upon a case that leads to the disclosure of deception and murder.

This year's 4/20 selection is Richard Linklater's weed, beer & hormone-soaked Americana masterpiece, featuring breakout performances from actors like Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey and Ben Affleck. (See it, as the film's original tagline suggests, with a bud.)

Our Dead Nazi Summer series kicks off in with Jeremy Saulnier's unforgettably vicious siege thriller.

Nothing else has ever looked or felt like director René Laloux’s animated marvel Fantastic Planet, a politically minded and visually inventive work of science fiction. The film is set on a distant planet called Ygam, where enslaved humans (Oms) are the playthings of giant blue native inhabitants (Draags). After Terr, kept as a pet since infancy, escapes from his gigantic child captor, he is swept up by a band of radical fellow Oms who are resisting the Draags’ oppression and violence. With its eerie, coolly surreal cutout animation by Roland Topor; brilliant psychedelic jazz score by Alain Goraguer; and wondrous creatures and landscapes, this Cannes-awarded 1973 counterculture classic is a perennially compelling statement against conformity and violence. (Janus Films)

Get ready for Comedy Debate League, where two hilarious comedians go head-to-head to settle the ultimate showdowns of our time! From board games vs. video games to the great pineapple pizza debate, each show promises comical arguments and side-splitting punchlines that will keep you rolling in your seat. But here’s the twist: YOU, the audience, hold the power to decide the ultimate champion!

We're pleased to present the newest film from David Cronenberg, a striking and paranoiac meditation on matters of life and death.

Central Cinema is pleased to be teaming up with Jewish Voice for Peace Knoxville to present this stirring, Oscar-winning documentary about life under occuptation and apartheid in Palestine's West Bank. (The film's run will kick off with a special event screening Sunday April 27 featuring a panel discussion from JVP and free snacks courtesy of the Highlander Center; additional screenings will follow into the week.)

Our Skate Video Night series presents a monthly program of top-shelf skate videos, presented on VHS and DVD curated by our friend Chris Albiston.

The second entry in our Dead Nazi Summer series celebrates the 80th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's death with this painstakingly researched portrait of his final days.

Join us for a special event screening of this independent sci-fi romance, featuring a live music preshow and a post-screening Q&A with director Jordan Noel, writer/producer Hudson Phillips, and Knoxville-based score composer William Wright. (Along with standard $12 admission, the filmmakers are also offering VIP tickets that include an enamel pin and hand-numbered screenprinted poster.)

Join us for our FREE monthly live standup engagement, showcasing the best comics from Knoxville and elsewhere, courtesy of our friends at Tiny Stage Comedy!

Joe Pickett (The Onion) and Nick Prueher (Late Show) have over 14,000 VHS tapes in their collection and have been taking viewers on a guided tour through their latest and greatest finds since 2004. To celebrate two decades of this VHS nonsense, Joe & Nick will serve up their all-time greatest finds including the dumbest exercise videos, the craziest public access shows and updates with the most wonderful weirdos they’ve met along the way.

Childhood friends turned professional comedians Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett book their gag-strongman routine on unsuspecting morning news shows. When their pranks go viral, they land in federal court with a vengeful media conglomerate. The stress of the lawsuit and pressure to continue their pranks threaten their livelihood and tests their lifelong friendship.