Love & Friendship: Hollywood Home Movies from the Academy Film Archive

Introduction by Tim Greiving, author of John Williams: A Composer’s Life

In person: filmmakers Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein; Irwin Rappaport, chair, board of directors, The Foundation for the AIDS Monument; producer Howard Rosenman; activist Cleve Jones; and Karl Schmid, broadcaster and co-founder of Plus Life Media

In the late 1970s, visionary director Francis Ford Coppola set out with his family, cast, and crew to the Philippines to bring Apocalypse Now to life. What began as an ambitious film soon became one of the most infamous and tumultuous productions in movie history—a journey through chaos, creativity, and obsession. Amid the turmoil, Eleanor Coppola, Francis’s wife and creative partner, patiently documented it all—capturing raw, intimate 16mm footage and recording candid audio interviews that revealed the human cost and artistic passion behind the masterpiece. Years later, Eleanor entrusted her archive to filmmakers George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr, who wove her material together with new interviews from stars Martin Sheen, Dennis Hopper, and other key voices. The result is a deeply personal and revelatory documentary that premiered to acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival before its theatrical debut at Film Forum in New York.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse is screening on the occasion of Eleanor Coppola’s last memoir, Two of Me, which is available to purchase before the film.

In person: actor Macaulay Culkin and director Chris Columbus

Added to the National Film Registry in 2023, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s directorial debut feature, Love & Basketball, has reached cult-classic status since its 2000 release. Her nuanced depiction of balancing success and romance is beloved by many audiences, including a loyal following of millennials who believe in the power of love and of basketball.  

Set in Los Angeles, the film follows two young people, Monica and Quincy, from childhood to adulthood as they fight to achieve their basketball dreams without losing each other. Furnished with a celebrated soundtrack including tunes by Al Green and Chaka Khan, the story pays homage to the renowned history of LA basketball and its dynamic culture—complete with shoutouts to the Lakers, Clippers, and Crenshaw High and USC teams.

In person: rabbi and scholar Michael Berenbaum

In person: director Regina King and writer/producer Kemp Powers

A delight for audiences of all ages, Ponyo focuses on the friendship between 5-year-old Sosuke and a magical goldfish named Brunhilde, the young daughter of a sorcerer father and a sea-goddess mother. After wandering away from her father’s four-flippered submarine, Brunhilde washes ashore and is discovered by curious Sosuke. Now renamed Ponyo, she yearns to be a real girl and join Sosuke’s family. Touching on classic Hayao Miyazaki themes about balance in nature and how friendships can blossom anywhere—even in the ocean’s depths―Ponyo is one of the director’s most charming features.

This screening celebrates the opening of Studio Ghibli’s PONYO, a new Academy Museum exhibition highlighting the film’s traditional, hand-drawn animation. We invite audiences to dive into the world of Ponyo on the big screen before embarking on a voyage through the Level 2 Wanda Gallery.

Love is in the air and on the big screen, courtesy of the world’s largest collection of movie trailers at the Academy Film Archive. This vintage compendium of coming attractions explores the agony and the ecstasy of art-house amour, from red-blooded lust and lovelorn lotharios to feverish melodramas and tortured obsessions. Presented entirely on 35mm film, these preshow entertainments of the last several decades function as miniature films in their own right—many of which haven’t been seen since they originally screened in theaters.

Program and note by Academy Film Archive film preservationists Cassie Blake and Tessa Idlewine. Trailers courtesy of the Packard Humanities Institute Collection. Courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

Total program runtime: 70 min.

In celebration of the opening of LACMA’s exhibition SUEÑO PERRO: Film Installation by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, marking the 25th anniversary of Amores Perros (2000), Iñárritu’s landmark Academy Award–nominated film, please join us for a screening and conversation with Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Michael Govan, LACMA Director.

The feature directorial debut of Alejandro González Iñárritu—winner of back-to-back Oscars for directing Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) and The Revenant (2015)—Amores Perros tells three unsettling tales linked by a car accident, involving dog fighting, an injured model, and a hired killer. Experience the anniversary celebration with a meticulously restored 4K version, sponsored by Criterion and supervised by director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, and sound designer Martín Hernández.

As he revisits the film through this new installation, Iñárritu notes: “Over a million feet of film was left on the cutting room floor during the editing of Amores Perros. These intensely charged images, 16 million still frames, were buried in the UNAM film archive for 25 years.” SUEÑO PERRO brings to light never-before-seen footage that speaks to the film’s enduring themes of love, betrayal, and violence. It’s a sensorial and analog installation that, through 35mm projectors and non-narrative fragments, becomes a true statement on lost cinema.

This program is a co-presentation of LACMA and the Academy Museum, and is presented in conjunction with LACMA’s SUEÑO PERRO: Film Installation by Alejandro G. Iñárritu.