Movies

$3 movies are great. But films are free at these airports

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Saturday, September 3 has been declared National Cinema Day. And movie theaters around the country are celebrating by selling $3 tickets for all movies, all formats, all day.

Moviegoers will need to pay taxes and any ticketing service fee extras. But they won’t pay any upcharges for movies screened in IMAX, RPX, 4DX, or other special formats.

3,000 theaters with more than 30,000 screens will be participating in National Cinema Day on September 3, including many of the major chains.

If you haven’t been in a ‘real’ movie theater since, say, before the pandemic, this is a chance to see the latest blockbuster films on the large screen for cheap. Many theaters are also promising exclusive previews and special in-theater promotions.

$3 is a great movie price. Free is better.

$3 is a great price for a movie, but if you’re traveling this weekend, the Stuck at The Airport film reviewer reminds you that films are free, anytime, at a handful of airports in the United States.

Portland International Airport (PDX)

Portland’s non-profit Hollywood Theatre hosts a free 22-seat microcinema, the aptly-named Hollywood Theatre at PDX, at Portland International Airport on Concourse C. The theater showcases about an hour’s worth of films by Oregon filmmakers. And the run-down changes quarterly.

The Summer 2022 offerings include this short film about the world’s only Contact Lens Museum, located in Forest Grove, OR.

San Francisco International Airport (SFO)

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) has a free video art gallery located pre-security on the departures level of the International Terminal. Four new films are presented each month. And each film is 20 minutes or less in duration.

August 2022 was emerging filmmakers month and the videos are by filmmakers from the School of Cinema at San Francisco State. You can watch excerpts of those films here.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP)

The see18 Film Screening room at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport shows free film shorts around the clock. The current content is drawn from Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) and TED.

The screening room is also used for art exhibitions, live performances, and special event programming.

What other airports have free movies?

Singapore’s Changi Airport shows free full-length films in movie theaters located in Terminals 2 and 3.

Let us know of other airports offering free movies.

Video Arts Screening Gallery Open at SFO

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After a 20-month hiatus, the video arts screening room at SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is open.

The gallery screens short-form documentaries, experimental films, and all forms of animation. It is located pre-security on the departures level of the International Terminal. Hours: daily, 5:00am to 10:00pm.

With a nod to COVID-19, this month, the gallery is showing the work of four filmmakers from around the world whose work reflects how the pandemic impacts our lives and our interactions.

You can see the films next time you go to SFO. Or you can see them here.

In Sorry for the Inconvenience, by Jane Chow, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker from Hong Kong, a lonely teenager tries to help her parents keep their restaurant afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic in Los Angeles Chinatown.

In Air, Canadian filmmaker David Findlay presents an exploration of the critical importance of physical contact in our interpersonal communication.

Turkish illustrator and animation director Tuna Bora collaborates with London-based animator Jonathan Djob Nkondo in this excerpt from Solipsism.

The film tells the story of a young girl who, amidst self-isolation, becomes lost inside the world that surrounds her.

And in Dancers in the Loop, French filmmaker Julie Rohart identifies inspiration found in the isolation of Paris’ lockdown in the winter of 2020.

Short films, courtesy the SFO Museum

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While travelers are returning to airports, not all amenities are back up and running quite yet.

That includes SFO Museum’s Video Arts screening room at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

But that doesn’t mean you can watch some great short films. The SFO Museum is curating themed programming from its archives that anyone can watch online – in the airport or not.

For the month of July, the short films are all about the importance of family. The four films in the series are below,

SFO Museum also has a great archive of its current and past exhibitions online, Flight Patterns – Airline Uniforms from the 1960s – 70s, Surf’s Up! Instrumental Rock ‘n’ Roll, and Early American Motorcycles.

SFO Museum Aviation Exhibition Alisa Eagleston, Conservator

More chances to watch drive-in movies at airports

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This summer several airports, including Ontario International Airport (ONT) in Southern California, turned their empty parking lots into drive-in movie theaters.

We’re pleased this temporary airport amenity sticking around into the fall. We see at least two airports will be hosting drive-in movie nights in advance of Halloween.

Nebraska’s Lincoln Airport (LNK) will show Disney’s ‘Hocus Pocus’ for free during a drive-in movie night on October 16. They’ll also be hosting a kid’s Halloween costume contest.

And on October 17, Akron-Canton Airport (CAK) will host a drive-in movie night in the airport Economy parking lot. ‘Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone’ will be shown.

Drive-in movies at Ontario Int’l Airport

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Here’s an airport trend we’re thoroughly enjoying.

Ontario International Airport (ONT) in California is partnering with the City of Ontario and Street Food Cinema for a series of free drive-in movies.

The films are going to be shown on two 50-foot screens over four different nights on the northeast corner of the airport property.

And movie-goers will be able to tune into the film audio on their car radios.

The first movie on the schedule is “Ford v. Ferrari,” on June 19.

This is a perfect choice because many scenes in the film are shot at ONT.

The other movies to be shown at ONT Airport will be “The Sandlot” on July 3, “Princess Bride” on July 17, and “Napoleon Dynamite” on July 31.

Showtime for all four nights is 8:30 p.m.

The free movie series hopes to bring people together at a safe social distance (in their cars). The series will also support local food banks by encouraging movie-goers to bring donations of boxed food.

And it turns out the City of Ontario and Ontario International Airport (ONT) have a rich film tradition.

Movies such as “Argo,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “A League of Their Own” and “Up In The Air” are among the dozens of features shot in town over the years.

This is definitely a nomination for “Airport Amenity of the Week.”

Drive-in movie at the airport

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Courtesy Vilnius Airport

Airports around the world are not very busy these days. And many movie theaters are closed.

So it is refreshing to see Vilnius Airport in Lithuania being creative and hosting a drive-in movie theater on the airport apron.

The ‘Aerocinema – The Journey Begins’ project is part of the Vilnius International Film Festival, which runs through the end of May.

The line-up for the drive-in movie series at the airport includes a dozen films. The first film shown: Parasite.

Tickets are being sold online only. There is room for 200 in the screening area where films are being projected on a screen that is about the size of a five-story building.

To hear the soundtrack, moviegoers just turn on their car radios.

For safety during this time of coronavirus, only two passengers are allowed in each car. (No hiding in the trunk or under a blanket).

All passengers must stay inside their vehicles during the screenings. And face masks are required for anyone who plans to roll down their windows.

To make the aerocinema work, “we had to remake the airport apron, which is a restricted area, into a space open to film lovers,” said Dainius Čiuplys, the head of Vilnius Airport.

“It is a nice opportunity to be a part of the whole process and at the same time to show that airports perfectly combine aviation activities with events and projects of various formats,” Čiuplys added, “I believe that after the drive-in cinema events, there will be even more lovers not only of good cinema but also of aviation,”

We think this is a great idea and declare it “Airport Amenity of the Month.”

Heathrow’s charming bears are back for Christmas

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Heathrow Airport’s heartwarming story of the bears named, appropriately enough, the Bairs, are back for another season.

We first met the Bairs in 2016. They were so popular that they were featured again last year, in astory that showed how Doris and Edward Bair meet and fall in love on a flight out of Heathrow Airport in 1967.

 

This year’s installment shows the next chapter in the Bair’s lives.

They are now retired in the United States; in Florida. But as the holiday season rolls around, the couple realizes that Christmas just isn’t the same without their loved ones in the UK.

So, they head home to London, arriving in the exact spot where their love story began 50 years ago – at Heathrow Airport.

Charming!

See what’s showing at the movie theater inside Portland Int’l Airport

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One of the many delightful amenities at Oregon’s Portland International Airport is the 17-seat, post-security microcinema showing short films by Oregon filmmakers.

A branch of the historic Hollywood Theatre, the Hollywood Theatre at Portland International Airport microcinema’s program offerings are changed quarterly. On tap for summer: shorts about everything from the Oregon Trail, the Rajneeshees, urban swimming, armadillos and more.

You can watch the films when you’re at the airport, see one of them below, or see the full list here.

https://youtu.be/XXRBLyQQ78A

 

American Airlines rolls out Avengers: Infinity War livery

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Photo by Araya Diaz/Getty Images for Stand Up To Cancer

Cancer sucks.

American Airlines and Marvel Studios agree. So they have joined forces in the Stand Up to Cancer campaign to create a special airplane livery showing heroes from the Marvel Studios’ film Avengers: Infinity War alongside the Stand Up To Cancer logo and images of cancer researchers and American Airlines employees who are cancer survivors.

 

Photo: Araya Diaz/Getty Images for Stand Up To Cancer

The aircraft was revealed at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday and will fly between New York and Los Angeles as part of the PSA campaign designed to raise funds and awareness for cancer research and treatments.

Want to help? Donate at least $25 to the campaign and you’ll get 10 American Airlines AAdvantage Miles for every mile donated. Details here.

https://youtu.be/djlTUsXkCuQ

Got popcorn? Here are the films you can see at SFO Airport

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Here’s hoping you favorite actor or film won an Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony.

And here’s to being able to see films not just on airplanes, but in airports.

Portland International and Minneapolis-St. Paul International have post-security spaces where passengers can watch short films and at San Francisco International Airport there’s a pre-security Video Arts screening room in the International Terminal departures lobby.

Presented by the SFO Museum, SFO’s screening room features a rotating exhibition of several short films, with a new film introduced weekly.

In case you aren’t passing through SFO soon, here are the short films being shown now.

In a Heartbeat (excerpt below) just rotated out of the line-up.