The BSR January 2026 Philadelphia repertory movie roundup

The highlights

Mississippi Masala
Friday, January 9, 7pm
Monday, January 19, 7pm

Monsoon Wedding
Friday, January 9, 9:30pm
Film Society Center, 1412 Chestnut Street

The Film Society is running a series this winter celebrating New York films called “New York: A Character in Itself,” featuring everything from Annie Hall to Moonstruck to The Muppets Take Manhattan. Joining that are two films that are not set in that city, but both of them were directed by Mira Nair, who happens to be the mother of New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

Mississippi Masala came out in the year of the new mayor’s birth, 1991, and it tells the story of a romance between a Black man (Denzel Washington) and an Indian-American woman (Sarita Choudhary). Monsoon Wedding, from 2001, is another romance, set during a wedding in India.

Eraserhead
Sunday, January 18, 1pm

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Sunday, January 18, 3pm

Lost Highway
Sunday, January 18, 6:40pm
The Colonial Theatre, 223 Bridge Street, Phoenixville

Twin Peaks: Pilot/Traces to Nowhere
Saturday, January 10, 9:45pm
The Hiway Theater, 212 York Road, Jenkintown

Eraserhead
Thursday, January 15, 7pm
PhilaMOCA, 531 North 12th Street

The Film Society just finished its three-month David Lynch retrospective, but that doesn’t mean the tributes to Lynch are over, as the first anniversary of his death last January approaches.

The Colonial will host a more than eight-hour Lynch marathon on the January 18, titled Dreams & Nightmares: A David Lynch Marathon, which will feature those three films, in addition to a pair of Lynch-inspiring shorts, Suzan Pitt’s Asparagus and Luis Buñuel’s Un Chien Andalou.

The week before that, The Hiway will present a rare big-screen showing of the first two episodes of the original Twin Peaks TV series from 1990.

And on January 15, to mark the actual anniversary of Lynch’s passing, PhilaMOCA will bring Eraserhead back to the Eraserhood. It is, somewhat shockingly, the first time in the venue’s 15-year history that it has ever shown the film.

The Princess Bride
Monday, January 5, 7pm
Bok Auditorium, 1901 South 9th Street

And speaking of much-beloved, recently deceased directors, one of the late Rob Reiner’s most loved films, 1987’s The Princess Bride, is getting a free screening on Monday night, as part of the Bok Movie Club’s screening series.

The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Friday, January 16-Sunday, January 26

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Saturday, January 17-Sunday, January 26

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Sunday, January 18- Sunday, January 26
Various theaters (Fathom Events)

Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy of Tolkien adaptations, which launched 25 years ago this December, is getting a big-screen re-release at Fathom Events venues throughout January.

More cinema screenings

Perfect Days
Tuesday, January 6
Woodmere Art Museum

Moonstruck
Wednesday, January 7
Saturday, January 10
Wednesday, January 14
Film Society Center

The Sweet Smell of Success
Wednesday, January 7
Sunday, January 11
Wednesday, January 21
Film Society Center

A Clockwork Orange
Wednesday, January 7
Ritz Five

The Red Spectacles
Wednesday, January 7
Lightbox Film Center

Ghostbusters (1984)
Thursday, January 8
Film Society Center

Frankenstein: The True Story (1973)
Thursday, January 8
The Rotunda

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Friday, January 9
Thursday, January 15
Saturday, January 31

The Muppets Take Manhattan
Saturday, January 10
Saturday, January 17
Sunday, January 18
Film Society Center

Bubba Ho-Tep
Saturday, January 10
Parkway Central Library

Inside Llewyn Davis
Saturday, January 10
Sunday, January 11
Wednesday, January 14
Tuesday, January 27

Margaret (Extended cut)
Saturday, January 10
Saturday, January 24
Film Society Center

What’s Up, Doc?
Sunday, January 11
The Hiway Theater

Paris is Burning
Friday, January 16
Film Society East

The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Friday, January 16
Ritz Five

Coming to America
Saturday, January 17
Thursday, January 29
Film Society East

Follow That Bird
Saturday, January 17
The Hiway Theater

Paddington 2
Saturday, January 17
Saturday, January 31
Bryn Mawr Film Institute

Frances Ha
Sunday, January 18
Sunday, January 25

Army of Darkness
Wednesday, January 21
Ritz Five

Dildo Heaven
Wednesday, January 21
Lightbox Film Center

Annie Hall
Thursday, January 22
Sunday, January 25

Twelve Monkeys
Friday, January 23
The Colonial Theatre

American Psycho
Friday, January 23
Monday, January 26

Black Girl
Tuesday, January 27
Bryn Mawr Film Institute

The Philadelphia Story
Wednesday, January 28
The Ambler Theater

The Awful Truth (Cinema Classics Seminar)
Wednesday, January 28
Bryn Mawr Film Institute

At top: Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy plays this month. (Image courtesy of Fathom Events.)

Description: Poster with title in large text over a landscape with castles, fiery mountain, a tower in the distance, and a mass of people.

Editor’s note: Before you go, did you know that BSR is celebrating 20 years at our Party with the Critics event on January 15? All are welcome! Get your tickets now.