A Matter of Life and Death

Posted on May 15, 2026

Neither Heaven nor Earth could keep them apart!

Our Art House for Families series concludes with Powell & Pressburger’s astonishing Technicolor fantasia A Matter of Life and Death!

After miraculously surviving a plane crash during World War II, British pilot Peter Carter finds himself caught between worlds when celestial authorities realize he was never meant to live. As heavenly forces attempt to correct the error, Peter fights for the right to remain on Earth alongside the woman he has fallen in love with.

Few filmmakers ever have possessed sheer cinematic imagination quite like Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Moving effortlessly between the everyday and the cosmic, A Matter of Life and Death excels at both dazzling visual invention and genuine emotional sweep. The film stands as one of the great achievements of postwar cinema, making it a perfect finale for a series dedicated to the wonder of experiencing movies together on the big screen.

Our Art House for Families series celebrates the magic of moviegoing across generations all summer long. From silent comedy and international classics to science fiction and fantasy adventures, the series invites longtime cinephiles and first-time art house audiences of all ages to discover some of cinema’s most enduring films together on the big screen. This event is sponsored in part by the City of Santa Ana.

The Red Balloon + White Mane

Posted on May 15, 2026

Two of the most beloved family films ever made are up next for our Art House for Families series as we’re presenting a special double feature presentation celebrating the poetic, adventurous world of filmmaker Albert Lamorisse. It’s The Red Balloon and White Mane!

Winner of the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film and an Academy Award for its screenplay, The Red Balloon follows a young Parisian boy who discovers a mysterious balloon with a personality all its own. Drifting through the streets of Paris with almost no dialogue, the film transforms ordinary city life into something quietly magical.

And then after a ten minute intermission, it’s time for White Mane, Lamorisse’s breathtaking adventure set in the marshlands of southern France, where a young boy forms an unforgettable bond with a wild horse pursued by local ranchers. Shot with extraordinary natural beauty and a sense of freedom that still feels exhilarating today, the film captures childhood adventure in an almost-mythic way.

These films will be presented in their original French language, with English subtitles. Although, it should be noted the films are essentially wordless, with the exception of some sparse dialogue.

Jason and the Argonauts

Posted on May 15, 2026

Our Art House for Families series is headed to Ancient Greece (pretty timely, no?) for Jason and the Argonauts! Before CGI armies and digital creatures, movie monsters were crafted by hand, and few artists ever did it better than Ray Harryhausen.

Jason, a fearless sailor and explorer, returns to his home land of Thessaly after a long voyage to claim his rightful throne. He learns, however, that he must first find the magical Golden Fleece. To do so, he must embark on an epic quest fraught with fantastic monsters and terrible perils.

More than sixty years later, Jason and the Argonauts still delivers the kind of tactile cinematic wonder that inspired generations of filmmakers, from blockbuster directors to lifelong fantasy fans discovering these creatures for the very first time.

La Belle et la Bête

Posted on May 15, 2026

We’re keeping French with the next installment in our Art House for Families series as we present Jean Cocteau’s sublime adaptation of Mme. Leprince de Beaumont’s fairy-tale masterpiece: La Belle et la Bête!

Drawing from the classic French fable, the film follows Belle as she enters the mysterious castle of a cursed Beast whose world seems governed by living statues and other impossible acts of magic. You probably know the rest of the story, but you’ve never seen it told quite like this.

The spectacular visions of enchantment, desire, and death in Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) have become timeless icons of cinematic wonder. It remains one of the great achievements of fantasy cinema, blending handmade visual effects and poetic imagination into something genuinely timeless.

This film will be presented in its original French language, with English subtitles.

The Fabulous Baron Munchausen

Posted on May 15, 2026

The Fabulous Baron Munchausen is up next in our Art House for Families series!

Director Karel Zeman conjures a story that follows the adventures of the legendary, boastful baron, whose whirlwind exploits take him from the moon to eighteenth-century Turkey to the belly of a whale and beyond.

A rainbow-esque marvel that blends live action with techniques including stop-motion, cutout collage, puppetry, painted backdrops, and antique tinting, Zeman’s film is an exhilarating visual delight and a warmhearted whirl through a bygone age too entrancing to have existed.

This film is presented in its original Czech language, with English subtitles.

Allegro Non Troppo

Posted on April 22, 2026

Our friends at GKIDS are presenting a brand new 4K restoration of the fantastic Italian sendup of Fantastia, Allegro Non Troppo!

An enterprising producer believes he has hit upon a winning concept: a program of original animated shorts set to classical music. Undeterred by warnings that this has already been done by an American named ‘Prisney,’ he rallies an orchestra of geriatric women, a bullish conductor, and an animator that he keeps locked in the dungeon. What could go wrong?

From evolution gone haywire to a lonely cat navigating a decaying world, Allegro Non Troppo swings between absurd comedy and quiet melancholy, all wrapped in inventive, boundary-pushing animation.

The Black Cauldron

Posted on April 15, 2026

Hidden by darkness. Guarded by witches. Discovered by a boy. Stolen by a king. Whoever owns it will rule the world. Or destroy it!

We’ve added an encore of Disney’s rarely-screened gem The Black Cauldron!

Taran is an assistant pigkeeper with boyish dreams of becoming a great warrior. However, he has to put the daydreaming aside when his charge, an oracular pig named Hen Wen, is kidnapped by an evil lord known as the Horned King. The villain hopes Hen will show him the way to The Black Cauldron, which has the power to create a giant army of unstoppable soldiers.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad: Hosted by Arnold Leibovit

Posted on April 13, 2026

From the Land Beyond Beyond…From The World Past Hope and Fear…The Frida Cinema is proud to present a brand new 4K restoration of the most influential fantasy adventures ever made: Ray Harryhausen’s The 7th Voyage of Sinbad! See it the way audiences did in 1958, larger than life on the big screen! This special event includes a rare on-screen video appearance by child star Richard Eyer, along with two additional George Pal Academy Award®-winning Puppetoons, celebrating the golden age of fantasy filmmaking.

In this landmark stop-motion adventure, the legendary sailor Sinbad journeys to the mysterious Island of Colossa to save Princess Parisa, his fiancée, who has been magically shrunken by the evil sorcerer Sokurah. Along the way Sinbad confronts a towering Cyclops, battles a sword-wielding animated skeleton in one of the most famous duels in motion picture history, faces a giant two-headed Roc, and ultimately fights a fire-breathing dragon in a spectacular fantasy climax–adventure, monsters, and magic Featuring groundbreaking Dynamation effects by Ray Harryhausen and a thunderous, unforgettable score by Bernard Herrmann!

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad became one of the top-grossing films of 1958 and helped redefine fantasy filmmaking for generations to come–a giant-screen fantasy experience that launched a thousand filmmakers. Its influence can be seen in the work of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, John Landis, Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, Rick Baker and many others.

Hosted by producer-director Arnold Leibovit, who was inspired by the film as a child, later met and directed Ray Harryhausen in The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal, and stayed in touch with him for over 30 years. Leibovit also had the opportunity to meet George Pal and correspond with him for more than a year, and became a longtime friend of Pal’s widow, Mrs. Zsoka Pal. For decades, he has worked to restore and preserve the Puppetoons and carry forward the legacy of classic fantasy filmmaking. In 2008, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,” and hailed as one of the finest fantasy films ever made, noted for its stunning color photography, imaginative creatures, and Bernard Herrmann’s thrilling score.

Doors open at 6:00PM and the show starts at 7:00PM! Tickets are $20 to this event. Frida Cinema comp passes and member discounts do not apply.

Matador Bolero + Q&A w/ Jonathan Rosado & Nicolette Wilkey

Posted on April 10, 2026

Join us for a special one-off screening of the new film Matador Bolero, starring Kansas Bowling and Yves Tumor (in their acting debut)! And stick around after the screening for a special Q&A with director Jonathan Rosado and producer Nicolette Wilkey!

The story follows a New York nightclub, The Matador, that becomes the site of a high-profile murder that attracts the attention of an obsessive detective, a TV news reporter, and an elusive being living outside the realms of time and space. Their stories converge with that of a new-age cult operating at the command of an ultra-intelligent supercomputer named Bolero.

A love letter to 70s exploitation cinema, Matador Bolero promises a genre-mashing and psychedelic trip to the movies!

Big Trouble in Little China

Posted on March 23, 2026

Jack Burton’s in for some serious trouble…and you’re in for some serious fun.

We’ve added a couple late night 40th anniversary encores of John Carpenter and Kurt Russell’s 1986 cult classic Big Trouble In Little China!

Truck driver Jack Burton gets embroiled in a supernatural battle when his best friend Wang Chi’s green-eyed fiancée is kidnapped by henchmen of the sorcerer Lo Pan, who must marry a girl with green eyes in order to return to the human realm.

This kind of Kung Fu-Western-Sci Fi-Action-Horror genre mashing is common now, but in the 1980s, it was unheard of. Big Trouble In Little China embraced the chaos then, and has become even more beloved as the years have worn on. Come see it on the big screen!