Houston theaters to satisfy your art house fix

By Arman Saxena     9/2/25 8:51pm

Houston theaters to satisfy your art house fix

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

MFAH is Houston’s repertory anchor: restorations, festival sleepers, artist docs and the occasional 35mm jewel. Two venues (Brown Auditorium, Lynn Wyatt) keep the calendar packed, and student pricing helps. It’s the rare spot where you can catch a centennial silent one week, then an experimental live-cinema piece the next. 

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Highlights: Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush” (Sept. 6-7), Straub and Huillet’s “These Encounters of Theirs (Quei Loro Incontri)” on 35mm (Sept. 12), and art-world docs “Paint Me a Road Out of Here” (Faith Ringgold, Sept. 13-14) and “Maintenance Artist” (Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Sept 19-20). “Manhattan Short Film Festival 2025” runs Sept. 25-28. October highlights: Jodorowsky’s “The Holy Mountain” (Oct. 11) and LGBTQ and labor classic “Pride” (Oct. 23). 

The River Oaks Theatre

Houston’s art-deco movie palace is back to doing what it does best: cult midnights, classics with care and filmmaker Q&As under a neon marquee. Inside, the curation swings from Hong Kong gun opera to silent futurism without losing the thread. It’s the venue where midnight actually feels mythic and a Sunday matinee still gets a hush. 

Highlights: Don Hertzfeldt’s “Animation Mixtape” (hand-drawn, existential, very funny); Hong Kong Cinema Classics with “A Better Tomorrow” (1986) and “Hard Boiled” (1992); Lang’s “The Complete Metropolis” with live score by David DiDonato; “Old School” pick “Shock Corridor” (1963); “The Nasties” entries “The Devil’s Backbone” (2001) and “Crimson Peak” (2005). Indie spotlights include “The Baltimorons” and “The American Southwest” with filmmaker Q&As. Expect a few comfort watches on the side, but the sweet spot is classic, cult and animated oddities.

The DeLUXE Theater

A beautifully restored Fifth Ward landmark, DeLUXE centers community — screenings with talkbacks; local artist spotlights; and programs that blur lines between film, theater and neighborhood storytelling. It’s where the post-show conversation matters as much as the credits. Expect welcoming crowds and context that sticks with you longer than the popcorn. 

Highlights: This month’s slate leans local and lively: “Act III: Brown Sugar” screens Sept. 15; “Re-Storying The Story of 5th Ward” (Sept. 18) gathers oral histories onstage; “The Crimson Vagabond Roadshow” (Sept. 19-20) brings vaudeville-meets-variety chaos to the main stage; and Sept. 21 hosts the indie premiere of “Don’t Bury Me In A Dress.” 

If you want independent work rooted in place — and the chance to hear directly from the people making it — DeLUXE is your house.

Aurora Picture Show

Aurora is Houston’s microcinema for experimental film and video art — intimate room, big ideas and programs that often travel off-site. Expect artist talks, hybrid performances and screenings that feel like a seminar without the homework. Seats go fast and the venue can change, so reading the fine print is part of the ritual. 

Highlights: September features “Miguel Calderón: Spitting Upwards” (Sept. 12-13), two programs of the Mexican multidisciplinary artist’s genre-bending shorts, music videos and doc experiments, with Calderón in attendance. 

On Sept. 28, Aurora and HTX MADE PRESENTS will screen Heiny Srour’s rarely seen 1984 landmark “Leila and the Wolves,” a feminist excavation of Palestinian and Lebanese histories. 

Oct. 11 brings “Sindhu Thirumalaisamy: Concrete Stories” — an immersive, sound-rich response to hyperdevelopment across the U.S. Gulf Coast and South India. Three very different nights, one through line: cinema that expands what film can be.

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