NEWSLETTER
Summer festival runs July 31–August 30, with 2001: A Space Odyssey, Amadeus, Hamlet, Lawrence of Arabia, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and The Untouchables
Astoria, New York, June 10, 2026 — Museum of the Moving Image’s annual summer tradition See It Big: 70mm, now in its eleventh year, returns with a thrilling selection of films screening in 70mm prints showing in its grand Sumner M. Redstone Theater. Running July 31–August 30 and presented by MUBI, the series opens with the longstanding centerpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, and there’s nowhere better in New York to watch Stanley Kubrick’s monolithic masterpiece than in the Sumner M. Redstone Theater, which was designed with an eye towards its space-age aesthetic. The other five titles are David Lean’s glorious Lawrence of Arabia and Kenneth Branagh’s dazzling, full-text adaptation of Hamlet; the world's only true epic comedy, Stanley Kramer’s Hollywood slapstick symphony It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; Brian De Palma's Depression-era gangster thriller The Untouchables; and, for the first time at MoMI, a recently struck 70mm print of Milos Forman’s brilliant Best Picture winner Amadeus.
At a time when digital projection is the norm, the analog 70mm format (“70mm” refers to the width of the large-format film strip) delivers a remarkably crisp, luminous image and great color fidelity. With a higher resolution and more light hitting the frame, 70mm film offers a bigger, brighter image, compared to 35mm. It is the ideal film format for ambitious cinematic spectacles and panoramic vistas, while also offering incredible intimacy. Recently, Ryan Coogler and DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw embraced IMAX 70mm for Sinners (2025), which won an Oscar for Best Cinematography for Arkapaw, and this summer, Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated epic The Odyssey will be the first movie to be fully filmed in the large format IMAX 70mm and to be released in theaters in IMAX 70mm.
Tickets for each 70mm film are $25 with discounts for MoMI members. Advance tickets are available at movingimage.org/seeitbig-70mm-2026.
SCHEDULE FOR ‘SEE IT BIG: 70MM,’ JULY 31–AUGUST 30, 2026
All screenings take place in the Sumner M. Redstone Theater at Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Ave, Astoria, NY 11106. Advance tickets are available at movingimage.org.
‘See It Big: 70mm’ Presenting Sponsor: MUBI
2001: A Space Odyssey
July 31–August 30 (8 shows)
Dir. Stanley Kubrick. 1968, 149 mins (plus intermission). U.S. 70mm. With Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood. As brilliantly engineered as the space program itself, Stanley Kubrick’s mysterious and profound sci-fi epic—“the ultimate trip”—is about nothing less than the beauty and the banality of civilization, blending cool satire, an elaborate vision of the future, and passages of avant-garde cinematic inventiveness. Set in a future that is already the past, 2001 envisions space travel as both hilariously routine and mind-bending, a journey to the infinite and beyond that forever changed the way we see the universe and cinema itself. As experienced on 70mm in MoMI’s Redstone Theater, Kubrick’s surreal masterwork still has the ability to conduct viewers to untold, unknowable realms of artistry and daring.
Amadeus
Friday, August 7, 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, August 9, 3:00 p.m. with producer Paul Zaentz in person
Dir. Milos Forman. 1984, 160 mins. U.S./France. 70mm. With F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Jeffrey Jones, Christine Ebersole, Simon Callow, Cynthia Nixon. Milos Forman’s thrilling, Best Picture–winning adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s play may be, without parallel, the greatest cinematic evocation of artistic jealousy, centering on the mythic rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri in 18th-century Vienna. Court composer for Emperor Joseph II, Salieri grows increasingly resentful of the ease with which the crass, childlike musician writes his works of astonishing beauty, leading to tragedy. Personifying the timeless, fruitless struggle between genius and mediocrity, Amadeus is a film of operatic force and keen wit, featuring brilliant performances by both Tom Hulce as Mozart and especially an Oscar-winning F. Murray Abraham as his envious competitor.
The Untouchables
Friday, August 14, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, August 29, 3:30 p.m.
Dir. Brian De Palma. 1987, 119 mins. U.S. 70mm. With Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Charles Martin Smith, Andy García, Robert De Niro. Master craftsman De Palma collaborated with playwright David Mamet to adapt the 1950s ABC television series—itself an adaptation of Elliot Ness’s autobiography—into one of the great cinematic achievements of the 1980s. In the performance that helped launch him to stardom, Costner plays Ness, a lawman in Prohibition-era Chicago tracking notorious criminal kingpin Al Capone (De Niro), whose net of influence over the city extends to officers in Ness’s own department. He teams with a fearless veteran Irish cop (Connery, in an Oscar-winning performance) and principled Italian American rookie (Garcia) to pursue justice in the face of overwhelming criminality and corruption. Never one to shy away from a challenge, De Palma shoots the hell out of The Untouchables, assisting universally strong performances with majestic framing, virtuosic movement, and undaunted violence. And yes, during an elaborate showdown in Chicago’s Union Station, he directly apes Eisenstein’s Odessa Steps sequence from Potemkin—one of the best-known scenes in the history of cinema—not as a winking homage, but with the confidence that he can exceed it. Presented in conjunction with the Museum’s De Palma: Summer of Suspense series, running June 12–August 29.
Lawrence of Arabia
Saturday, August 15, 1:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 23, 3:00 p.m.
Dir. David Lean. 1962, 227 mins. (plus intermission). U.S. 70mm. With Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn. The apex of David Lean’s magnificent career was this unparalleled spectacle which won seven Oscars, including Best Picture. Lawrence of Arabia rocketed Peter O’Toole to stardom as real-life adventurer T. E. Lawrence, a former British officer whose expedition to Cairo in 1916 leads him to side with the Arabs against the Turks, eventually organizing his own guerrilla army. With its overwhelming widescreen desert vistas, this is one of cinema’s most transporting experiences, a film that all but demands the big-screen treatment.
Hamlet
Saturday, August 22, 3:30 p.m.
Dir. Kenneth Branagh. 1996, 238 mins. 70mm with intermission. With Kenneth Branagh, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, Michael Maloney, Derek Jacobi, Richard Briers, Judi Dench, Gérard Depardieu, Richard Attenborough, Brian Blessed, Billy Crystal, Robin Wiliams, John Gielgud, Rufus Sewell, Timothy Spall, Charlton Heston. Though it's one of the most frequently adapted works in the history of cinema, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet had never been filmed in its complete unabridged version—until Kenneth Branagh went about the task for this lavish, star-studded 1996 production. Set within the vast, cold interiors of a vaguely 19th-century manor, this magnificent adaptation stars Branagh as the melancholy son of the Danish court, along with a Who’s Who of late 20th-century master thespians, including Christie, Jacobi, Dench, Depardieu, Gielgud, and a young Winslet as the aggrieved Ophelia, all captured in sumptuous 70mm.
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Sunday, August 30, 12:00 p.m.
Dir. Stanley Kramer. 1963, 180 mins. plus intermission. 70mm. With Spencer Tracy, Edie Adams, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman. This beloved, epic Hollywood comedy is a three-hour-plus extravaganza of slapstick excess that lets loose an unparalleled cast of legends—including Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Spencer Tracy, and Jonathan Winters (just for starters)—in a wild plot about a hunt for buried treasure. With its super-wide frame, jam-packed with gags big and small, Stanley Kramer’s classic is endless juvenile fun that has retained an intense fan following. Please note that the film will be shown with a 20-minute intermission that will include police-call audio.
About Museum of the Moving Image
MoMI celebrates the history, art, technology, and future of the moving image in all of its forms. Located in Astoria, New York, the Museum presents exhibitions; screenings; discussion programs featuring actors, directors, and creative leaders; and education programs. It houses the nation’s most comprehensive collection of moving image artifacts and screens over 500 films annually. Its exhibitions—including the core exhibition Behind the Screen and The Jim Henson Exhibition—are noted for their integration of material objects, interactive experiences, and audiovisual presentations. For more information about MoMI, visit movingimage.org.
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Museum of the Moving Image is housed in a building owned by the City of New York and has received significant support from the following public agencies: New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; New York City Council; New York City Economic Development Corporation; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services; the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York; and the Regional Economic Development Council. For more information, please visit movingimage.org.