To pass this final exam, you’ll have to survive your classmates! Deemed too controversial for release in 2000, Battle Royale is celebrating its 25th anniversary with three nights of screenings at The Frida! And as an added bonus, stick around for a 10 minute pre-recorded interview with the screenwriter–Director Kinji Fukasaku’s son Kenta–sharing an intimate look at the forces that shaped his father and how they inspired his final film.
In an alternate near-future Japan, the government has passed the Battle Royale Act, a brutal law designed to control unruly youth. Each year, one randomly chosen middle-school class is taken to a remote island, armed with weapons, and forced to fight to the death until only one student remains.
A savage satire on youth, control, and violence that still hits harder than ever, don’t miss your chance to catch it on the big screen, in 4K for the first time, starting October 13th! Get your tickets now!
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Our friends at See It On 16mm are back for their annual unspooling of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead—the black-and-white nightmare that redefined horror and gave birth to the modern zombie movie!
Released in 1968, and unlike anything audiences had ever seen, Night of the Living Dead strands a small group of strangers inside a farmhouse besieged by the ravenous dead. As flesh-hungry ghouls close in outside, tensions boil over inside—fear, mistrust, and violence consuming the survivors faster than the monsters themselves.
Shot on a shoestring budget in Pittsburgh, Romero’s debut is both a relentless siege thriller and a searing social commentary–it shattered taboos with its shocking gore and stark realism. To this very day, it stand nexts to classics like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, and The Blair Witch Project as a game-changing genre masterpiece.
This program is a venue rental engagement. The views and opinions expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of The Frida Cinema or its staff.
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This year’s Orange County Latino International Film Festival (OCLIFF) returns Friday, September 19th – Sunday, September 21st! In anticipation of 2025’s full weekend of films celebrating the unique lens of the contemporary Latinx experience, join us Saturday, September 13th for a special matinee screening of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Amores Perros–celebrating 25 years since its 2001 U.S. release!
Years before making history as only the third filmmaker to win back-to-back Best Director Oscars at the Academy Awards (for 2014’s Birdman and 2015’s The Revenant) – as well as being the first non-U.S.-born filmmaker to do so – Iñárritu’s debut feature Amores Perros took the world by storm, earning three awards at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as over 50 additional international film prizes. A tragic car accident in Mexico City becomes the link between three seemingly separate lives: Octavio (Gael García Bernal), a young man desperate to escape his violent home life; Valeria (Goya Toledo), a glamorous model whose world unravels after an unexpected mishap; and El Chivo (Emilio Echevarría), a disillusioned hitman seeking redemption. A visceral and unflinching portrait of love and loss on the streets of Mexico City, Amores Perros is told through three interwoven stories connected by fate, betrayal, and more than a couple of ill-fated dogs.
Presented in Spanish, with English subtitles.
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Director Lauren Garroni’s new thriller Sugar Baby is coming to The Frida Cinema!
An enterprising Sugar Baby is offered $30,000 to move in with her Sugar Daddy for the week, but soon discovers the sinister secrets trapped within his home.
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We’re bringing back an encore of David Fincher’s murder masterpiece Se7en, celebrating thirty years since its initial release with a brand new 4K restoration courtesy of Warner Brothers!
Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the “seven deadly sins” in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Somerset (Morgan Freeman) researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer’s mind, while his novice partner, Mills (Brad Pitt), scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.
Oft imitated but never replicated, Se7en stands as one of the greatest (and darkest) thrillers of all time.
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When a twenty-something retail clerk encounters a rising pop star, he takes the opportunity to edge his way into the in-crowd. But as the line between friend and fan blurs beyond recognition, access and proximity become a matter of life and death.This is Lurker.
The directorial debut from The Bear and Beef writer-producer Alex Russell, Lurker is an exhilarating cat-and-mouse thriller made for the moment. Online fixation meets reality in this parasocial, paranoid film driven by a brilliant score and star-making performances.
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Volunteer of the Month pick, selected by one of September’s Volunteers of the Month – The Amazing Aaron!
Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Hackers, director Iain Softley’s neon-soaked cyber-thriller that lives on as a 90’s cult classic. Jonny Lee Miller stars as Dade “Zero Cool” Murphy, a teenage hacker banned from computers after crashing Wall Street at age eleven. Now a high school senior, he falls in with a ragtag crew of cyber-rebels led by the brilliant and fearless Kate “Acid Burn” Libby (Angelina Jolie). When the group accidentally uncovers a massive corporate conspiracy, they must outwit the FBI, take on a ruthless security officer (Fisher Stevens), and prove their innocence before they’re taken down by the system.
A cult classic bursting with wild style, pulsing electronica, and gloriously outdated tech lingo, Hackers remains a fast-paced celebration of youthful rebellion, and the anarchic spirit of the early internet age.
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After a painful breakup, small-town Gemma moves to Los Angeles with the hopes of making it big. To get on her feet, she takes a job working the overnight shift at Somnium–a mysterious, experimental sleep clinic where dreams are made real.
Meanwhile, Gemma throws herself into the cutthroat world of Hollywood auditions. But as the pressure to succeed mounts, she begins to experience strange and unsettling phenomena, and soon finds herself trapped in a nightmarish spiral as she discovers a darkness lurking within the clinic walls.
With its gripping storyline and striking cinematography, Somnium drags audiences through the horrifying consequences of tampering with the fabric of reality.
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You asked. You manifested it. Only you are to blame. Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales is coming back for a one-night-only descent into madness, messiah complexes, and post-apocalyptic SoCal chaos as part of our In Defense Of…series courtesy of our founder and Executive Director Logan Crow! And as a fun bonus, we are screening the rarely-seen Cannes Cut of the film!
A delirious, genre-melting fever dream from the director of Donnie Darko, this sci-fi satire is part dystopian epic, part musical, part political prophecy—and 100% unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Set in a fractured near-future America (or was it 2008?), the film stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a paranoid action star with amnesia, Sarah Michelle Gellar as a porn star turned media mogul, and Seann William Scott as…twins?
Infamously booed at Cannes and boasting a cool 41% on Rotten Tomatoes, Southland Tales has since earned a devoted cult following for its audacity, ambition, and total refusal to color inside the lines. Love it, hate it, or leave the theater slightly altered—this is a film that demands to be experienced loud, big, and with other humans asking, “Wait, was that Justin Timberlake lip-syncing The Killers?”
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Join our partners in crime at Cinematic Void for a high-octane night of neo-noir cool with a special screening of The Driver, Walter Hill’s ice-cold crime thriller that helped define the modern getaway film.
The Driver stars Ryan O’Neal as a nameless wheelman—no small talk, no attachments, just precision driving. On his tail is a relentless detective (Bruce Dern) willing to bend every rule to catch him, and in the middle is Isabelle Adjani’s enigmatic “Player,” who may or may not be tipping the game in someone’s favor.
With its minimalist dialogue, brutalist LA cityscapes, and pulse-pounding car chases shot without a hint of CGI, The Driver is all tension, style, and attitude—part existential noir, part stripped-down action poetry. If you’re a fan of Thief, Drive, or To Live and Die in L.A., this is the film that lit the fuse.
Make sure to show up at 7:30PM for the world famous CV Preshow—packed with vintage trailers, lost media, and other grimy goodies from the Celluloid Void. Tickets to this one-off event are $15.
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