The Loft Cinema’s annual film fest is back, bigger than ever, and features the debut of its new outdoor screen.
The Loft Cinema's new open-air film screen and outdoor area, which opens to the public Nov. 5, 2025.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the festival, and The Loft is celebrating with its largest film lineup to date, special programming and conversations with filmmakers.
“It's a big milestone for us,” said Program Director Jeff Yanc. “So we have the most films showing at this film festival that we've ever had before. We kind of upped the ante in terms of the programming as a nod to the milestone anniversary, but also because now we have our open-air screen that we're going to be using, so we just have more physical space to show films.”
The festival started Nov. 5 and runs through Nov. 13 at The Loft, 3233 E. Speedway.
The new open-air theater and “overlook” deck space is part of the second phase of The Loft’s ongoing expansion.
Customers head to a theater after buying a drink in the new lobby and concession stand at The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway.
The project is designed by Vint & Associates Architects, and is being built by Barker Contracting. Future phases of the remodel include renovations of theater two, as well as other updates to the existing building.
The Loft opened its new lobby and concession area to the public in August.
Yanc and Peggy Johnson, the executive director of The Loft, said they’d been wanting to add a permanent outdoor space to the cinema for some time. The idea grew out of COVID-era adaptations, Yanc said.
“When we were shut down in 2020, that kind of threw everybody for a loop,” Yanc said. “That led to the idea of us building a screen in our parking lot. We attached the screen to our back wall of our parking lot, and blocked off the parking, and then we just put chairs out in the lot.”
The community response was extremely positive.
“Every screening was just selling out because people were kind of desperate for things to do, and to leave the house,” he said. “We decided, when we were looking to renovate the space and start this construction project, it would be great to try and replicate that, but more permanently.”
The new outdoor screening space is a nod to old drive-ins, Yanc said, where viewers will be able to enjoy a night under the stars in the perfect Tucson weather.
“It's kind of a mix of Adirondack chairs and then some cafe patio seating with some tables in the back,” he said. “And then the front of it is going to be left without seats, so that if you want, you can bring a blanket and lay on the artificial turf.”
One of the major considerations the team faced in creating an outdoor cinema experience was noise. To block out the sound from the nearby road, and to avoid having to play films at top volume, The Loft will have viewers listen to the movie through individual headphones, similar to a retro drive-in experience.
“That sound will be so good, and you won't hear the sirens and the motorcycles and the traffic on Speedway,” Johnson said.
The plan for outdoor programming going forward, Yanc said, is to show new, first-run movies in addition to special event films.
The outdoor area will also function as a community space.
The new theater based upon a room in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks,” inside The Loft Cinema.
“During the day, that space is going to be not utilized to show movies,” he said. “The idea is to rent it out to people, if they just want a space to, you know, host a birthday party or a seminar of some kind. You have the space that has 72 chairs and it's outside, and it's kind of a nice, cool, interesting space.”
As for the “overlook” — The Loft's new deck space, complete with a painted mural of the twins from The Shining — Yanc envisions it as a space where people can hang out and talk about movies.
“We can have filmmakers up there and local guests, talking to people after screenings or before screenings,” he said.
“It's just amazing, and we're really excited,” Johnson said.
From Nov. 5-13, The Loft Cinema will be showing a total of 52 films and programs during festival, with “V for Vendetta” kicking off opening night on the open-air screen as a nod to Guy Fawkes day.
Yanc and Johnson said they expect to see high turnout at this year's film fest, and they have already sold out of all 150 all-access badges.
A test run of The Loft Cinema's new outdoor screen. The new outdoor screening space is "a mix of Adirondack chairs and then some cafe patio seating with some tables in the back,” said Program Director Jeff Yanc. “And then the front of it is going to be left without seats, so that if you want, you can bring a blanket and lay on the artificial turf.”
“We sold out of our badges this year before we announced a single film, which means people trust our judgment and trust our choices,” Johnson said. “It's really becoming an important cultural event in Tucson. I know people plan vacations around it, and get their friends from out of town to come to it. We have people coming from all over.”
This year, the lineup includes beloved repertory films and new, award-winning films, as well as Oscar contenders including Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein" and Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another."
“We always try to get as many of the official Oscar submission films from different countries as we can,” Yanc said. “Those always seem to be very appealing to our audience, because they're vetted in a certain way by the fact that their countries chose to submit them for the Oscars. So this year we have the most Oscar submission films we’ve had from countries.”
Yanc said one of the films he personally is looking forward to showing is “No Other Choice,” which won the International Audience Award at Toronto International Film Festival.
“That's our opening night film, and it's by Park Chan-wook, who also did 'Old Boy,' and a lot of films that people know and really like,” Yanc said. “It's kind of a dark comedy, a little violent, but he makes very unique films, and we had a lot of faith in this one. That's why we put it as our opening night film, and it seems to be selling a lot of advanced tickets.”
The festival lineup this year includes Oscar contender "One Battle After Another."
Another film Yanc said he was particularly excited about is “Tina,” a story about a Samoan woman from New Zealand who ends up as a substitute teacher at an elite high school after a tragedy in her family.
“She ends up starting a school choir,” Yanc said. “You use the term crowd pleaser sometimes, sort of haphazardly, but this is a very crowd-pleasing movie."
Yanc said Tucson High Choir will be performing before the movie.
This image released by Netflix shows director Guillermo del Toro, left, and Oscar Isaac on the set of “Frankenstein," one of the movies being screened this week at The Loft's film fest.
“We're showing this movie called 'Prime Minister' with the filmmaker Lindsay Utz,” Yanc said. “She's a University of Arizona graduate of the school of film and radio and television, and this won the Audience Award at Sundance this year.”
Johnson separately praised films including “Sentimental Value” and “The Balconettes,” which will also be part of the film festival.
“Calle Málaga is one of my favorite films,” Johnson said. “It's a Moroccan film about an older woman who finds her strength and her voice and love and everything as an older woman. It's a great film.”
Other notable films, Johnson said, are “Paddle Out,” a documentary about surfing and cystic fibrosis, and “Whistle,” a documentary about competitive whistling.
“There's just so many films that are so good,” Johnson said.
And there’s more than movies to look forward to. The week’s programming includes Q&A discussions with well-known filmmakers behind some of the featured movies, including director and Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister, who is well known for his work on “Inception.”
“Wally Pfister is certainly the big name, but there are a lot of other filmmakers,” Yanc said. “We're showing this movie called 'The Donn of Tiki,' which is about the creation of Tiki culture in the U.S. in the '50s. The two filmmakers, Alex Lamb and Max Well, are coming with that.”
The Loft will also be showing “Stepping Into the Unknown: Films from the Bob Dylan Center,” a one-hour program of short films and videos from the Bob Dylan Archive, for the avid Bob Dylan fans in Tucson.
Another unique event the festival offers is a live Foley demonstration with veteran Foley artist Susan Fitz-Simon and Jahne Zachery.
“Foley is sound art. Creating sounds for films, the sound design, and it's kind of a relatively unknown and kind of under-appreciated aspect of filmmaking,” Yanc said. “So getting to celebrate somebody who does this very integral work on films, but maybe people don't know about it, it's a good chance to educate people. It's really entertaining to watch.”
“I couldn't have wished for a better lineup,” Johnson said.
Johnson also expressed her gratitude for the community support the cinema has received during its renovations.
“We really, really, really love our community, and love our Loft audiences.”
For more information on the film festival, see loftcinema.org.
