2026 UCLA Festival of Preservation
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The 22nd UCLA Festival of Preservation presents 11 feature films, four television programs and 30 short works, cartoons and newsreels on the big screen, newly preserved and restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and its partners and funders. Ranging from silent films to mid-century television rarities to 1990s independent productions, the Festival presents celebrated classics alongside more obscure works ready for rediscovery.
We are proud to open the Festival with the Los Angeles restoration premiere of Black Girl (1972), directed by Ossie Davis and adapted by J. E. Franklin from her play, a landmark of Black theater. Also screening on opening night is the groundbreaking music-variety special …& Beautiful (1969), a primetime television showcase for Black talent hosted by comedian Redd Foxx.
Other highlights include the restoration world premieres of Maurice Tourneur’s painterly silent drama Lorna Doone (1922), the Constance Bennett screwball comedy Merrily We Live (1938), André de Toth’s L.A. noir Pitfall (1948) and the Barbara Stanwyck melodrama The Other Love (1947), which revives the film’s original ending, unseen by audiences since the 1940s. Also making its theatrical debut is a new restoration of Budd Boetticher’s The Magnificent Matador (1955), filmed in Mexico in vibrant Eastmancolor — a project that required scanning and digitally compositing three sets of color film (red, green and blue). From Argentina, Si muero antes de despertar (If I Should Die Before I Wake, 1952) is a Grimm’s fairy-tale-like noir that was restored from materials nearly lost to decomposition. The work of prolific and pioneering director Lela Swift will be a focus of the Festival’s television offerings, preserved from rare kinescopes.
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a division of UCLA Library, and presents its public programs in the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer, among other venues. For more information about the Archive, visit cinema.ucla.edu.
ATTENDING THIS PROGRAM?
Ticketing: Admission to Archive screenings at the Hammer is free. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis, limit one per visitor. Box office opens one hour before the event. Questions should be directed to the Archive at programming@cinema.ucla.edu or 310-206-8013.
Member Benefit: Subject to availability, Hammer Members can choose their preferred seats and pick up tickets for one additional guest. Members receive priority ticketing until 15 minutes before the program. Learn more about membership.
Parking: Self-parking is available under the museum. Rates are $8 for the first three hours with museum validation, and $3 for each additional 20 minutes, with a $22 daily maximum. There is an $8 flat rate after 5 p.m. on weekdays, and all day on weekends.
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