With Edgar Wright's new spin on the Stephen King story due later this year, we're flashing back to this peak Schwarzenegger classic.

Our latest $7 wildcard series reimagines our popular OVA Extreme events with an expanded purview... join us as we dig deep into the wide, wild world of anime with ANIME EXTREME!

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.)

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!

Our year-long David Lynch memorial retrospective continues with this 1986 psychosexual stunner, which saw Lynch rebound from the personal career nadir of DUNE straight into the single best encapsulation of the themes, tones and obsessions that define his peerless body of work. 

Adam Cesare's Bram Stoker Award-winning slasher novel hits the big screen in an adaptation from TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL writer/director Eli Craig and the producers of SMILE. (Fan of the book? Don't miss Cesare at FrankenCon 2025 May 9 & 10, including a special visit to Central Cinema to host Saturday night's screening!)

Adam Cesare’s Bram Stoker Award-winning slasher novel hits the big screen in an adaptation from TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL writer/director Eli Craig and the producers of SMILE... and we'll have Cesare himself in the house for Saturday night's screening, courtesy of FrankenCon (May 9 & 10)!

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

In his controversial masterpiece, Charlie Chaplin offers both a cutting caricature of Adolf Hitler and a sly tweaking of his own comic persona. Chaplin, in his first pure talkie, brings his sublime physicality to two roles: the cruel yet clownish “Tomainian” dictator and the kindly Jewish barber who is mistaken for him. Featuring Jack Oakie and Paulette Goddard in stellar supporting turns, THE GREAT DICTATOR is an audacious amalgam of politics and slapstick that culminates in Chaplin’s famously impassioned speech.

Our Dead Nazi Summer series continues with one of the cornerstones of the genre. (A real face-melter, if you will.)

Highlander Center's "Off The Hill" screening series – featuring free admission and non-alcoholic concessions! – resumes with this essential portrait of writer and activist Alice Walker.

Join Americans United for Separation of Church and State for a FREE screening of this urgent documentary exploring the dangerous rise of Christian Nationalism in the United States.

Released the same year as PULP FICTION, Kevin Smith's debut deserves equal credit within the indie film boom: Tarantino took the world by storm with a flashy, star-studded classic, but Smith showed that you could also just mess around with buddies (and Visa cards) and still end up with your name in lights. Crude in every sense of the word, CLERKS is an unpretentious, laugh-out-loud funny tribute to jaded working class Gen X'ers, and we hope you'll join us in revisiting it.

Join us as we celebrate 50 years of Steven Spielberg's 1975 gamechanger, which singlehandedly ushered in the era of the Hollywood blockbuster.

Genre film lifer Mick Strawn is one of Central Cinema’s favorite guests, having joined us to discuss his various behind-the-scenes roles on films like BLADE, MORTAL KOMBAT and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4. But until now we’ve never got around to the most intriguing credit in Mick’s wild filmography: his work as Production Designer and minatures coordinator on 1994’s infamously unreleased Roger Corman production of Marvel’s FANTASTIC FOUR. Join us and Nirvana Comics as we welcome Mick back to walk us through this unique film and its production… plus a special guest appearance from Justin Mason, the artist behind Marvel’s newly-revived The Thing standalone title.

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.

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.

Central Cinema is pleased to present Alex Ross Perry's appropriately convention-flouting tribute to one of indie rock's defining outfits, kicking off with a special guest Q&A screening with Pavement's Bob Nastanovich on Sunday, June 1. (The film will return for a limited run starting Friday June 6.)

Join us as we host a one-night-only premiere of this locally-produced documentary about Knoxville skate culture... two showings only!