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CTCS-466: Theatrical Film Symposium
This Fall 2026 semester, the School of Cinematic Arts will offer a very special course called CTCS-466: Theatrical Film Symposium, a four-unit elective class open for enrollment to ALL USC STUDENTS OF ANY MAJOR that brings you face-to-face with leading film directors, writers, producers, and actors working today. Throughout the semester, students will watch a wide selection of new film releases, followed by exclusive Q&As with the creative teams behind them.
INFIRMARY
Recovered bodycam footage reveals a security guard’s first night inside an abandoned hospital, where an intruder and a series of inexplicable disturbances turn a routine shift into a desperate fight for survival.
ROBERT RICHARDSON: THE WHITE DEVIL
Czech-American documentary Robert Richardson: The White Devil offers an intimate portrait of legendary cinematographer Robert Richardson, the three-time Oscar-winner behind films including Platoon, JFK, Kill Bill and The Aviator. Drawing on hundreds of hours of personal home videos and conversations with longtime collaborators including Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone, the film explores Richardson’s life and career, as well as the personal sacrifices that came with his pursuit of his art.
AMERICAN HISTORY X
Edward Norton delivers a searing performance as a former neo-Nazi skinhead whose life was almost destroyed by his own hatred--and who now struggles to prevent his younger brother from following in his footsteps. Seeking retribution for his father's murder and burning with rage, Derek Vinyard (Norton) becomes the charismatic leader of a local White Power movement. Despite his intelligence, Derek's incendiary actions culminate in a brutal murder and three years in prison. Now on parole, Derek returns home to find his brother, Danny (Edward Furlong), being seduced by the same anger, bigotry and violence that almost destroyed his life.
Boots Riley and Nina Yang Bongiovi on Impact Storytelling
Join the SCA Community Impact Council for A Conversation with Boots Riley and Nina Yang Bongiovi to kickoff the Impact Weekend Festival at the USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA).
Political Activist and director Boots Riley is known for the films Sorry to Bother You and I Love Boosters, and the comedy series I Am Virgo. Nina Yang Bongiovi’s credits include Fruitvale Station, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, Roxanne Roxanne and Sorry to Bother You. She co-founded significant films with Forest Whitaker and is the Associate Chair of the Peter Stark Producing Program at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Friday November 6, 3pm to 4:30pm
Ray Stark Theatre, SCA 108
RSVP Required
SCA Impact Weekend Festival
Join us for SCA Impact Weekend, November 6–8, a three-day festival where media and storytelling meet social and environmental impact! RSVP here!
Drop in throughout the weekend for screenings, panels, workshops, immersive media installations, an impact-driven hackathon, conversations with industry professionals, and free food!
We're kicking off the festival on Friday, November 6, at 3 PM, with activist and director Boots Riley in conversation with producer Nina Yang Bongiovi.
Our student producers have worked with the SCA Community Impact Council, USC Arts & Climate Collective, SCA Media Institute for Social Change, and Immersive Experience Alliance to bring this exciting weekend of programming to life.
All are welcome! Come for one event or spend the whole weekend with us.
Check out the flyer below and visit uscimpact.org for the full schedule and event details.
We hope to see you there!
BITTER CHRISTMAS
Bitter Christmas tells two alternating stories, one starring Elsa, an advertising director, in 2004, during a long weekend in December. The second takes place in 2026 and stars Raúl, a screenwriter and director who is writing a script that we soon discover is the story of Elsa, her boyfriend Bonifacio, and her friends Patricia and Natalia. Mixed with fiction, Elsa is, in a way, Raúl's alter ego, who, like him, resorts to autofiction as a solution to a long period of creative drought. He looks inside himself, and he can't help but also look at the people who make up his most intimate universe: his partner and his assistant. The film narrates the close relationship between reality and fiction, between inspiration and life, exploring the limits of autofiction and stories within stories.
AGFA Movie Hooky Club IMAX Matinee Screening: DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES (1988)
Winner of the International Critics' Prize at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, Terence Davies' feature debut heralded one of Britain's finest filmmaking talents. Loosely based on the director's own family and upbringing, Distant Voices, Still Lives presents an evocative account of working-class life in Liverpool, England during the 1940s and 50s. Births, marriages and deaths - and an expressive use of music - provide the underpinning for a film that is beautiful, heartbreaking, resonant but never sentimental. Now regarded as a masterpiece of British cinema, and boasting a startling performance from Pete Postlethwaite (Romeo + Juliet, Inception) as the head of the family, Distant Voices, Still Lives has been treated to a glorious 4K restoration by the British Film Institute.
Awards-Qualified Short Film Showcase
Eight short films in consideration for Awards.
THE FISH DON'T CARE WHEN IT RAINS
The Fish Don’t Care When It Rains tells the story of Jennifer Msumba, an autistic artist and filmmaker who spent seven years at the Judge Rotenberg Center, an institution that used painful electric shocks as behavioral treatment. Through Jennifer’s own perspective, the documentary explores her experiences, her journey toward healing, and how she reclaimed her voice through music and filmmaking. It’s a story of resilience, creativity, and the power of finding freedom after years of institutional trauma.
A GIRL UNKNOWN
Passed among three families from ages six to eighteen—and given a new name and identity by each—a young Chinese girl searches for belonging, love, and a life of her own in A Girl Unknown. Director Zou Jing’s deeply moving debut premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week, where it received the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution.
HUMPTY DUMPTY X
The story of Tony Kaye and American History X is Hollywood folklore: a fiercely original debut filmmaker, a studio battle over final cut and a director who famously asked for the credit "Humpty Dumpty" rather than compromise his vision. What few people knew was that Kaye kept a camera running throughout. Thirty years later, he has finally assembled that footage into Humpty Dumpty X, a documentary built from phone calls with executives, candid conversations with friends, and the rantings, paintings, photographs, and notebooks that filled his life during that singular period.
A Conversation with Bing Gordon: Video Game Visionary and Strategist
A conversation with Bing Gordon: Video Game Visionary and Strategist followed by Book Signing of Everybody Wins
TONY
A young Anthony Bourdain stumbles into the chaotic world of a restaurant kitchen, in a summer that becomes the origin story of a legend.
AGFA Movie Hooky Club IMAX Matinee Screening: THE BOYS NEXT DOOR (1985)
This is the moment when 1980s teen movies went rogue. Maxwell Caulfield (GREASE 2) and Charlie Sheen (WALL STREET) star as high-school outcasts who head to Los Angeles for an unhinged spree of crime, violence, and savage murder. Directed by the mighty Penelope Spheeris (WAYNE’S WORLD, THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION) and written by Glen Morgan and James Wong (the creators of THE X-FILES and the FINAL DESTINATION franchise), THE BOYS NEXT DOOR is the very definition of “hidden gem.” Featuring music by Iggy Pop and The Cramps, this nihilistic, serial killer rampager has been newly restored in 4K from the original negative.
ALL OF A SUDDEN
Director of a care facility for the elderly, Marie-Lou strives to introduce an innovative care philosophy based on listening and respecting residents’ dignity, despite resistance from part of her staff. Her encounter with Mari, a Japanese theater director battling cancer, will profoundly reshape her path. By forming a deep, supportive friendship, the two women join forces in a shared struggle to make the impossible possible.
THIS TEMPTING MADNESS
Inspired by a true story. Mia awakens from a coma, her memory fractured, and the man she loves missing. As she puts the pieces of her past together, she starts to question her own actions, and her perception of reality.
AGFA Movie Hooky Club IMAX Matinee Screening: XX: BEAUTIFUL HUNTER (1994)
Assassin and femme fatale Shion rebels against the fanatical religious order who prepared her from birth to be the perfect killer in XX: Beautiful Hunter, a whirlwind of romance and violence from legendary Roman Porno director Masaru Konuma.
SCA Staff & Faculty Holiday Party!
You're invited to the staff & faculty holiday party at the Gallery.
AGFA Movie Hooky Club IMAX Matinee Screening: DOUBLE AGENT 73 (1974)
No one will ever make movies like Doris Wishman made movies. One of the most prolific women filmmakers in the history of American cinema, writer-director-editor Wishman created DIY collisions between surrealism and exploitation that feel like they materialized from an alternate universe. DOUBLE AGENT 73—Wishman's most infamous, crowd-pleasing movie and her final collaboration with the iconic Chesty Morgan—finds secret agent Jane (Morgan) taking down a heroin ring with the help of her otherworldly bust . . . which is implanted with a secret camera and bombs. Filled with outrageous violence, high camp, and breathtaking fashions courtesy of Morgan, DOUBLE AGENT 73 has been newly restored in 2K from its original 35mm camera negative.
The Actor's Director Workshop
There is that rare breed of Director that just “knows” how to get the best out of the actor -- giving them a sense of freedom, inspiring courage, and bringing clarity. The opportunity in collaborative storytelling is finding ways to bring out the best in each other. Discover the most important aspect of filmmaking and performance -- the communication between directors and actors.