Coming Soon
The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Live Shadow Cast
- Today, Oct 23
Director: Jim Sharman Run Time: 100 min. Release Year: 1975
Starring: Barry Bostwick, Patricia Quinn, Richard O'Brien, Susan Sarandon, Tim Curry
A different set of jaws.
Get Out
- Tue, Oct 27
Director: Jordan Peele Run Time: 104 min. Release Year: 2017
Starring: Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Catherine Keener, Daniel Kaluuya
Just because you're invited, doesn't mean you're welcome.
Night of the Creeps w/ The Fright Zone Podcast
- Thu, Oct 29
Director: Fred Dekker Run Time: 88 min. Release Year: 1986
Starring: Jason Lively, Jill Whitlow, Steve Marshall, Tom Atkins, Wally Taylor
The good news is your date is here. The bad news is...He's dead.
Fjord
Director: Cristian Mungiu Run Time: 146 min. Release Year: 2026 Language: Romanian
Starring: Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Lisa Carlehed, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Renate Reinsve, Sebastian Stan
When does protection become control?
American Doctor with post screening discussion
- Sun, Nov 1
Sun, Nov 1 @ 4:00 pm: with discussion
Director: Poh Si Teng Run Time: 91 min. Release Year: 2026
Starring: Dana Bash, Feroze Sidhwa, Hasan Piker, Mark Perlmutter, Thaer Ahmad
Do no harm.
10 Things I Hate About You
- Tue, Nov 3
Director: Gil Junger Run Time: 97 min. Release Year: 1999
Starring: David Krumholtz, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Julia Stiles, Larisa Oleynik
How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways.
Dr. No
Director: Terence Young Run Time: 110 min. Release Year: 1962
Starring: Anthony Dawson, Jack Lord, Joseph Wiseman, Sean Connery, Ursula Andress
Now meet the most extraordinary gentleman spy in all fiction!
Wicker
Director: Alex Huston Fischer, Eleanor Wilson Run Time: 105 min. Release Year: 2026
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Elizabeth Debicki, Marli Siu, Olivia Colman, Peter Dinklage
Marriage material.
A Place in the Sun with Karina Longworth of You Must Remember This podcast
- Sun, Nov 8
Sun, Nov 8 @ 7:00 pm: Plus Q&A with Karina Longworth. Read More ›
Director: George Stevens Run Time: 122 min. Release Year: 1951
Starring: Anne Revere, Elizabeth Taylor, Keefe Brasselle, Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters
Young people asking so much of life... taking so much of love!
Hopper: An American Love Story with Des Moines Art Center
- Wed, Nov 11
Wed, Nov 11 @ 7:00 pm: with intro by Des Moines Art Center
Director: Phil Grabsky Run Time: 94 min. Release Year: 2022
Starring: Christine Baranski, J.K. Simmons, Josephine Hopper
Join us before the film as a curator from Des Moines Art Center discusses Hopper’s work, including the...
To All the Books
- Thu, Nov 12
Thu, Nov 12 @ 7:00 pm: Author/Filmmaker Q&A and book signing
Director: Josh Malerman Run Time: 91 min. Release Year: 2025
Starring: Allison Laakko, Josh Malerman
Author, filmmaker and musician Josh Malerman will join us in person for this special event screening, featuring a...
Fatherland
Director: Paweł Pawlikowski Run Time: 82 min. Release Year: 2026 Language: Polish
Starring: Anna Madeley, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Hanns Zischler, Sandra Hüller
In 1949, German writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika embark on a road trip across a Germany in ruins, from US-dominated Frankfurt to Soviet-controlled...
Being Heumann
- Fri, Nov 13
- Sat, Nov 14
Director: Sian Heder Run Time: 127 min. Release Year: 2026
Starring: Dylan O'Brien, Madeline Delp, Mark Ruffalo, Rob Delaney, Ruth Madeley
Based on a true revolution.
National Theatre Live: Golden Boy
Director: Sam Yates Run Time: 180 min. Release Year: 2026
Starring: David Ganly, Jason Barnett, Josh O'Connor, Patrick Martins, Richard Fleeshman
I'm out for fame and fortune, not to be different or artistic! I don't intend to be ashamed of my life!
Des Moines Underground Film Festival
- Sun, Nov 15
Run Time: 122 min. Release Year: 2026
Des Moines Underground Film Festival returns to Varsity Cinema in 2026. Money (Music Video) by Odd Pets, Serena...
The Work in Progress
- Tue, Nov 17
Director: Ian Cheney Run Time: 106 min. Release Year: 2026
Starring: Robert Reich
A team of filmmakers, inspired by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, invited 30 and 80-year-olds to gather...
The Last Waltz
Director: Martin Scorsese Run Time: 117 min. Release Year: 1978
Starring: Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson
It Started as a Concert. It Became a Celebration.
Bitter Christmas
Director: Pedro Almodóvar Run Time: 111 min. Release Year: 2026 Language: Spanish
Starring: Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Patrick Criado, Victoria Luengo
You’re confusing fiction with reality.
Elsinore
Director: Simon Stone Run Time: 111 min. Release Year: 2026
Starring: Andrew Scott, Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Luke Thompson, Olivia Colman
Live. Gloriously.
The Metropolitan Opera 2026/27: Samson et Dalila – Presented with Des Moines Metro Opera
- Sat, Dec 5
Run Time: 234 min. Release Year: 2026 Language: French
Sacred, scandalous, and irresistibly alluring, Saint-Saëns’s spectacular take on the biblical hero of legendary strength and the seductive...
Dune: Part Three
Director: Denis Villeneuve Run Time: 140 min. Release Year: 2026
Starring: Florence Pugh, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya
The epic conclusion.
The Metropolitan Opera: La Fanciulla del West – Presented with Des Moines Metro Opera
- Sat, Jan 23
Director: Gary Halvorson Run Time: 195 min. Release Year: 2027 Language: Italian
Starring: Eva-Maria Westbroek, Jonas Kaufmann, Matthew Rose, Richard Bernstein, Željko Lučić
Puccini’s exhilarating drama of the Wild West returns in a new staging by celebrated British director Richard Jones,...
The Metropolitan Opera 2026/27: Silent Night – Presented with Des Moines Metro Opera
- Sat, Mar 20
Run Time: 180 min. Release Year: 2027
Following his smash-hit company debut with The Hours, composer Kevin Puts returns to the Met with his Pulitzer...
The Metropolitan Opera 2026/27: Manon – Presented with Des Moines Metro Opera
- Sat, Apr 3
Run Time: 264 min. Release Year: 2027 Language: French
Following her radiant performance in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette—which garnered raves for “high notes that spun like liquid...
The Metropolitan Opera 2026/27: Otello – Presented with Des Moines Metro Opera
- Sat, Apr 24
Run Time: 201 min. Release Year: 2027 Language: Italian
One of today’s leading dramatic tenors, Brian Jagde takes on the tour-de-force title role of what many consider...
The Metropolitan Opera 2026/27: Parsifal – Presented with Des Moines Metro Opera
- Sat, Jun 5
Run Time: 365 min. Release Year: 2027 Language: German
A profound philosophical meditation on compassion and reconciliation, this transcendent rendering of a medieval knight’s heroic quest for...