Upcoming Events
Outside the Box [Office]: Summer 2018
January 1, 2018 - August 16, 2018, Times Vary
USC School of Cinematic Arts
Outside the Box [Office] is SCA's ongoing weekly showcase for upcoming international, documentary and independent cinema. The series draws from around the globe to present movies that may challenge, inspire or simply entertain and often features recent award-winning films from Sundance, Cannes, Berlin, SXSW and Venice Film Festivals. All screenings are free of charge and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. All screenings will be OVERBOOKED to ensure capacity.
On-Campus SCA Information Session
January 7, 2018 - August 31, 2018, 11:00 AM
USC School of Cinematic Arts
This information session is available for prospective applicants interested in the undergraduate and/or graduate programs at the USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA). The session begins with a presentation discussing the SCA programs, admissions processes and available facilities at the school -- an opportunity for Q & A will also be given.
Festival & Distribution: General Strategy Sessions
May 14, 2018 - May 14, 2028, Varies
School of Cinematic Arts, SCA 255
School of Cinematic Arts Industry Relations presents monthly Festival & Distribution General Strategy Group Sessions. Learn how the first steps in preparing to submit to film festivals, strategic ways to apply to festivals, and get your general festival questions answered.
KING OF PEKING
July 24, 2018, 7:00 PM
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108, George Lucas Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts Complex, 900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
When video home entertainment enters the market in 90s Beijing, a former projectionist ropes his young son into starting their own pirate movie company, but easy money comes with its own price tag. Nominated for Best International Feature at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, King of Peking is a comedic drama that explores father and son relationships, morality, and what it means to be an example to others.
A SYRIAN LOVE STORY
July 25, 2018, 7:00 P.M.
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108, George Lucas Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts Complex, 900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
Amer met Ragda, when both were locked up in a Syrian jail for speaking out against an oppressive regime. Twenty years and four sons later, filmmaker Sean McAllister comes into their lives, as Amer is waiting for Ragda, who has once again been imprisoned. When she is unexpectedly released, the family is overjoyed - they need her, particularly three year-old Bob. McAllister and his subjects' lives become irrevocably intertwined when McAllister himself is jailed, and footage of the family is confiscated. Amer and Ragda must flee overnight to Lebanon, with nothing but their children. McAllister follows their story over five turbulent years, as they struggle to find their feet as refugees; Ragda in particular can't bear to be away from Syria in its hour of greatest need. As they watch Syria descend into chaos, they struggle to repair their troubled relationship. A powerful, moving story of family and exile from one of the UK's most talented independent filmmakers.
THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE
July 26, 2018, 7:00 P.M.
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108, George Lucas Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts Complex, 900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
This wry, melancholic comedy from Aki Kaurismäki, a clear-eyed response to the current refugee crisis, follows two people searching for a place to call home. Displaced Syrian Khaled (Sherwan Haji) lands in Helsinki as a stowaway; meanwhile, middle-aged salesman Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen) leaves behind his wife and job and buys a conspicuously unprofitable seafood restaurant. After Khaled is denied asylum, he decides not to return to Aleppo—and the paths of the two men cross fortuitously. As deadpan as the best of the director’s work, and with a deep well of empathy for its down-but-not-out characters (many of them played by members of Kaurismäki's ever-reliable stock company), The Other Side of Hope is a bittersweet tale of human kindness in the face of official indifference.
NEVER GOIN' BACK
July 31, 2018, 7:00 P.M.
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108, George Lucas Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts Complex, 900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
Never Goin’ Back is a fresh and funny look at female friendship, following Angela (Maia Mitchell) and Jessie (Camila Morrone), who dream of escaping their waitressing jobs ata low-rent Texas diner, even if it's only to Galveston. Taking place over just a few days, the film follows their hilarious and unpredictable misadventures on the streets of suburban Dallas as they attempt increasingly madcap and wild schemes to try and raise some cash.
NICO, 1988
August 1, 2018, 7:00 P.M.
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108, George Lucas Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts Complex, 900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
Nico, 1988 follows the singer-songwriter, approaching 50, leading a solitary existence in Manchester, far from her 60s glam days as a Warhol superstar and celebrated vocalist for cult band The Velvet Underground. Her life and career on the fringes, Nico’s new manager Richard convinces her to hit the road again and tour Europe to promote her latest album. Struggling with her demons and the consequences of a muddled life, she longs to rebuild a relationship with her son, whose custody she lost long ago. A brave and uncompromising musician, Nico’s story is the story of a rebirth: of an artist, a mother, and the woman behind the icon.
MADELINE'S MADELINE
August 2, 2018, 7:00 P.M.
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108, George Lucas Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts Complex, 900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
Madeline (newcomer Helena Howard) has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director (Molly Parker) pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother (Miranda July) into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women’s lives.
A PRAYER BEFORE DAWN
August 6, 2018, 7:00 P.M.
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108, George Lucas Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts Complex, 900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
A Prayer Before Dawn is the remarkable true story of Billy Moore, a young English boxer incarcerated in two of Thailand’s most notorious prisons. He is quickly thrown into a terrifying world of drugs and gang violence, but when the prison authorities allow him to take part in the Muay Thai boxing tournaments, he realizes this might be his chance to get out. Billy embarks on a relentless, action-packed journey from one savage fight to the next, stopping at nothing to do whatever he must to preserve his life and regain his freedom. Shot in an actual Thai prison with a cast of primarily real inmates, A Prayer Before Dawn is a visceral, thrilling journey through an unforgettable hell on earth.
THE WIFE
August 8, 2018, 7:00 P.M.
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108, George Lucas Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts Complex, 900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
After nearly forty years of marriage, Joan and Joe Castleman (Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce) are complements. Where Joe is casual, Joan is elegant. Where Joe is vain, Joan is self-effacing. And where Joe enjoys his very public role as Great American Novelist, Joan pours her considerable intellect, grace, charm, and diplomacy into the private role of Great Man’s Wife. Joe is about to be awarded the Nobel Prize for his acclaimed and prolific body of work. Joe’s literary star has blazed since he and Joan first met in the late 1950. The Wife interweaves the story of the couple’s youthful passion and ambition with a portrait of a marriage, thirty-plus years later—a lifetime’s shared compromises, secrets, betrayals, and mutual love.
WE THE ANIMALS
August 9, 2018, 7:00 P.M.
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108, George Lucas Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts Complex, 900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
Us three. Us brothers. Us kings, inseparable. Three boys tear through their childhood, in the midst of their young parents’ volatile love that makes and unmakes the family many times over. While Manny and Joel grow into versions of their loving and unpredictable father, Ma seeks to shelter her youngest, Jonah, in the cocoon of home. More sensitive and conscious than his older siblings, Jonah increasingly embraces an imagined world all his own.
CRIME + PUNISHMENT
August 13, 2018, 7:00 P.M.
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108, George Lucas Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts Complex, 900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
Amidst a landmark class action lawsuit over illegal policing quotas, Crime + Punishment chronicles the real lives and struggles of a group of black and Latino whistleblower cops and the young minorities they are pressured to arrest and summons in New York City. A highly intimate and cinematic experience with unprecedented access, Crime + Punishment examines the United States' most powerful police department through the brave efforts of a group of active duty officers and one unforgettable private investigator who risk their careers and safety to bring light to harmful policing practices which have plagued the precincts and streets of New York City for decades.
MINDING THE GAP
August 14, 2018, 7:00 P.M.
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108, George Lucas Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts Complex, 900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
Compiling over 12 years of footage shot in his hometown of Rockford, IL, in Minding the Gap, Bing Liu searches for correlations between his skateboarder friends' turbulent upbringings and the complexities of modern-day masculinity. As the film unfolds, Bing captures 23-year-old Zack’s tumultuous relationship with his girlfriend deteriorate after the birth of their son and 17-year-old Keire struggling with his racial identity as he faces new responsibilities following the death of his father. While navigating a difficult relationship between his camera, his friends, and his own past, Bing ultimately weaves a story of generational forgiveness while exploring the precarious gap between childhood and adulthood.
CRAZY RICH ASIANS
August 15, 2018, 7:00 P.M.
The Frank Sinatra Hall at the Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Complex, 3507 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90007
The story follows New Yorker Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) as she accompanies her longtime boyfriend, Nick Young (Henry Golding), to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore. Excited about visiting Asia for the first time but nervous about meeting Nick’s family, Rachel is unprepared to learn that Nick has neglected to mention a few key details about his life. It turns out that he is not only the scion of one of the country’s wealthiest families but also one of its most sought-after bachelors. Being on Nick’s arm puts a target on Rachel’s back, with jealous socialites and, worse, Nick’s own disapproving mother (Michelle Yeoh) taking aim. And it soon becomes clear that while money can’t buy love, it can definitely complicate things.
PLANET OF THE APES: VISIONARIES -- Graphic Novel Release Event
August 22, 2018, 7:00 P.M.
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108, George Lucas Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts Complex, 900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
We all know that the first Planet of The Apes (1968) film is an adaptation of the French novel La Planète des singes. On the road to making the landmark science-fiction classic, 20th Century Fox commissioned Rod Serling to adapt the source material. Serling’s first draft, which was drastically revised before filming, is a radically different vision of the franchise than the one the world has come to know and love. But now, BOOM! Studios and 20th Century Fox Consumer Products present PLANET OF THE APES: VISIONARIES, a new Original Graphic Novel, releasing in August 2018 as part of the 20th Century Fox Uncovered collection.
CTCS-466: Theatrical Film Symposium
August 23, 2018 - December 6, 2018, 6:00 P.M. - 10:00 P.M.
The Frank Sinatra Hall at the Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Complex, 3507 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90007
This Fall 2018 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. Each week, students watch sneak previews of upcoming Hollywood movies, followed by an exclusive Q&A with the creative team behind the film. The class is taught by film critic LEONARD MALTIN and meets every Thursday night from 6:00 - 10:00 p.m. in the Frank Sinatra Hall at the Norris Cinema Theatre Complex.