Taking place in the heart of Hollywood, Cinecon is a five-day celebration of
film featuring screenings,
celebrity guests, and one of the best
movie memorabilia shows in the country. Over Labor Day weekend, beginning Thursday night and continuing through Monday afternoon film fans attending the show will be treated to nearly fifty rare features and shorts, special shows, celebrity guests and have an opportunity to purchase rare stills, posters and other collectibles.
For over fifty years, Cinephiles from across the nation and around the
world have come together over Labor Day weekend to celebrate the movies.
Beginnings
The Society for Cinephiles, Ltd, as our group was first known, was established in 1965 by Tom Seller, an avid reader of The 8mm Collector magazine, and Cinecon 1 was sponsored by Samuel K. Rubin, publisher of The 8mm Collector, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. It was a small affair with only a handful of die hard film fans. They gathered in a small room at the local Holiday Inn and showed each other 8mm silent films from their personal collections. This was 1965 before videos and DVDs, a time when, if you wanted to see your favorite old film, you had to wait until it turned up on TV or else you had to buy a projector and start your own film collection in 8mm or 16mm.
The following year another cinephile, Clark Wilkinson, hosted the show in Baraboo WI and Cinecon officially became an annual event. For the next several years the Cinecon moved from city to city as a sort of moveable cinematic feast. Today, the fanzine 8mm Collector is known as the respected Classic Images magazine, and since 1990 Cinecon has made its home in the Los Angeles area.
Cinecon Today
(Again, the information here is pre-covid-19. We don't know if the future will bring venue changes)
Cinecon screenings take place at the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian located at 6712 Hollywood Blvd. The historic Egyptian theater was renovated and
restored in 1998 by the American
Cinematheque group. They managed to maintain the historic integrity of the theater while installing state of the art projection and sound equipment making it the optimum venue for all formats of film.
Our Memorabilia show and book signings take place a few blocks down the street at the Loews Hollywood Hotel at 1755 North Highland Avenue. The Loews Hollywood Hotel is the cornerstone of the Hollywood and Highland Entertainment complex which features retail stores, fast food eateries, movie theaters, restaurants and also houses the Dolby Theater which is the home of the Academy Awards. Cinecon attendees receive a special discount when booking their accommodations at the Loews. Our registration table, Memorabilia show and book signings will be located in the third floor meeting area of the hotel.
The festival begins Thursday afternoon with
pre-registration packets available at noon at the hotel registration table and walk-up registration will begin shortly after that. The packets contain the Cinecon program, film schedule, and Cinecon badge.
The Memorabilia show (and book signing event) will run Thursday through Sunday (click here for hours).
The Cinecon Classic Film Festival is open to the public and you can attend by buying a full festival pass or single day passes. No admissions to individual films are sold. Passes also include free entrance to our memorabilia dealers' rooms but for those who only want to shop we do offer a separate dealers-room-only admission. More information on admission prices is available once registration opens for the upcoming show, usually at least 6 months before the show.
One of the best parts of Cinecon is the opportunity to meet like-minded film enthusiasts. Film historians, preservationists, film distributors and interested industry professionals, as well as collectors and film buffs all come to celebrate the movies at Cinecon over Labor Day weekend.
Won’t you join us?
