Topline:
The David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum is a modern movie palace with a wide range of programming, where tickets are always just $10.
Why it matters: With the rise of streaming, and the continued effects of the pandemic, many have closed — including, just last month, the nearly 100-year-old Highland Theatre in Los Angeles.
Why now: The Academy Museum has been screening more contemporary films like Nope or even Twister, and Gen Z is responding.
Go deeper:
It’s no secret that movie theaters have been hit hard in recent years. First, pandemic shutdowns in 2020 and then a dearth of product during the dual SAG/WGA strikes of 2023.
Approximately 2,000 screens across the nation have closed. That includes independent movie houses and chain multiplexes like Regal Cinemas. In the last few weeks, theaters in Cincinnati, Dover, Denver, and Boise, have joined L.A.’s Highland Theatre in saying goodbye.
But as we’ve been sharing in recent weeks, there are theaters that have found renewed life, especially around Los Angeles. Whether it's because of celebrity intervention or a serious dose of blood, sweat and occasional tears, one thing unites a lot of these places: repertory films.
The David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum is a red velvet marvel of a space. The walls, the ceiling, the seats envelop you in a red-carpet-red dome. While it doesn’t have the classic 100-year-old architecture of a place like the Egyptian or the Chinese, it’s a modern movie palace that might be showing anything from 2 Fast 2 Furious to Showgirls to Soy Cuba or Spellbound.
From the street on Wilshire, in the Miracle Mile neighborhood near LACMA and the La Brea Tar Pits, the suspended spherical structure looks more like the Death Star than a 952-seat movie theater. And despite its location, you don’t have to purchase entry to the museum to catch a movie here, and tickets to screenings are just $10, regardless of the movie or guest speaker. (Christopher Nolan on-stage? $10.)
Underground is the Geffen’s sister cinema, the Ted Mann. (The theaters are named after the entertainment magnates and museum’s major donors.)
“Saying that the cinema is in the basement is not doing it justice,” says Academy Museum director of programming, K.J. Relth-Miller. It’s a 277-seat theater that is a visual counter to the Geffen’s overwhelming red — instead, draped in a cool green. Relth-Miller shares: “When the experimental filmmaker Mike Kuchar came into the space, he walked in and said, ‘I'm going to get lost in the cinema forest.’”
Both theaters are truly state of the art — equipped with multi-format projection (that’s the full range of 16mm, 35mm, 70mm, and digital) with Dolby vision and sound.
The screenings at the David Geffen and Ted Mann theaters will always nod to the Academy’s history, with programs like Oscar Sundays, celebrating films that have been honored at the awards. Or, the Branch Selects series, chosen in partnership with the 18 branches of the Academy, each representing a different craft or discipline in filmmaking.
But that doesn’t mean the only films they program are Academy Award winners or nominees. Relth-Miller notes that “the ceremony is one marker of cultural excellence, but we're really interested in moving beyond that.”
Programming at these theaters also explores counter-cultural trends and movements that may not have been recognized by the Academy, like screenings of cult classics by John Waters or talks with filmmakers like punk icon Penelope Spheeris.
And there’s an appetite for this kind of film programming among audiences.
Relth-Miller had been programming films in Los Angeles at UCLA for about six years, screening in the Billy Wilder Theater. There, she had been working with an audience that was skewing 50 and older before the pandemic shut their doors in 2020.
Now at the Academy Museum, which opened its doors in 2021, Relth-Miller is seeing the majority of audience members at screenings are under the age of 40.
(It should be noted that the New Beverly Cinema, just north of the Academy Museum in the Fairfax District, also reported younger audiences coming to the theater post pandemic).
“That's actually a different demographic than what we were seeing citywide in the repertory scene before the pandemic,” says Relth-Miller.
But it was not an easy road getting here.
Architectural plans for the museum’s building were first presented in 2008, shortly before the housing market crash. The initial land purchased for the museum site was sold and plans were put on hold.
In 2012, new plans were presented by architect Renzo Piano for a new location in the former May Company building, a historic Streamline Moderne structure on the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard. The estimated opening date was 2017, but amid fundraising slowdowns, budget increases, and leadership changes, the museum’s launch was pushed to December 2020. That was announced before COVID shutdowns began. Then the museum’s opening was eventually set for September 2021.
”We have had to build an audience from a post pandemic reality,” Relth-Miller says.
The shifting age demos and trends around repertory screenings have opened doors to what is considered a “revival” film.
A successful screening of Twister (1996) took Relth-Miller by surprise. When she first started programming theaters in L.A., less than a decade ago, she recalls, “I felt like it was hard to get folks out for a film from the 90s because the films still felt fresh to the majority of the people who were going out to see repertory screenings, right?”
But younger generations who didn’t have a chance to see those films in theaters, and who are developing a cinephilia on platforms like Letterboxd, are clamoring for an experience.
“Gen Z did not have a chance to see something like Twister in the theater, and so they're gonna show up and see it on 35mm, and sometimes in their first ever opportunity to have a communal experience with it," Relth-Miller says.
In reporting out this series, every cinema operator or programmer I’ve spoken with has talked about movie theaters as a source of memory. Maybe you don’t even remember the movie itself, but you remember the company, the seats, the popcorn. And screening films can be an act of recall too.
“We're like activating ghosts, right?” says Relth-Miller. “We're watching people come to life. We're bringing Katharine Hepburn back to life when we show something like Christopher Strong, and when we screen Spellbound, we're bringing Gregory Peck back to life, before our very eyes.”
The David Geffen and Ted Mann theaters are only three years old — most of their history is yet to come.
“We can feel a sense of history the older a place becomes,” says Relth-Miller. “I think what's the most exciting thing to think about is what this theater will feel like in 20 years…because of the people who have come through it.”
Upcoming film programs include The Sewing Circle: Sapphic Icons of Early Hollywood, In the Midnight Hour: A History of Late-Night Movies and Forever a Contender: A Centennial Tribute to Marlon Brando. You can find a full calendar of screenings here.
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The National Weather Service is now forecasting major rainfall for the week of Christmas in L.A. and Ventura counties.
Storm duration: The heaviest rain is expected to arrive late Tuesday night into Wednesday day. Less intense rain is expected to stick around through Christmas until Saturday, according to the weather service.
How much rain? In all, about 4 to 6 inches of rain is expected for the coast and valleys in L.A. and Ventura counties from the storm, and between 6 to 12 inches for the foothills and mountains.
Impact: "We could see significant and damaging mudslides and rock slides. We could see flooded freeways and closures," said David Gomberg, lead forecaster at NOAA in a weather briefing on Saturday.
Winds: Damaging winds are also in the forecast, particularly between Tuesday night and Wednesday in the mountains and foothills, Gomberg said, potentially resulting in downed trees and power outages.
Topline:
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development cannot impose dramatically different conditions for homelessness programs for now, according to an oral ruling Friday by U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island.
Why it matters: McElroy granted a preliminary injunction to a group of states, cities and nonprofits who said a last minute overhaul of how to spend $4 billion on homelessness programs was unlawful. She also agreed with their argument that it likely would push many people back onto the streets in the middle of winter, causing irreparable harm.
The backstory: HUD has sought to dramatically slash funding for permanent housing and encourage more transitional housing that mandates work and treatment for addiction or mental illness. The overhaul – announced last month — also would allow the agency to deny money to local groups that don't comply with the Trump administration's agenda on things like DEI, the restriction of transgender rights and immigration enforcement.
Read on ... for more on the legal battle over HUD changes.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development cannot impose dramatically different conditions for homelessness programs for now, according to an oral ruling Friday by U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island.
McElroy granted a preliminary injunction to a group of states, cities and nonprofits who said a last minute overhaul of how to spend $4 billion on homelessness programs was unlawful. She also agreed with their argument that it likely would push many people back onto the streets in the middle of winter, causing irreparable harm.
"Continuity of housing and stability for vulnerable populations is clearly in the public interest," said McElroy, ordering HUD to maintain its previous funding formula.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement the order "means that more than 170,000 people – families, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities — have respite from the government's assault."
HUD has sought to dramatically slash funding for permanent housing and encourage more transitional housing that mandates work and treatment for addiction or mental illness. The overhaul — announced last month — also would allow the agency to deny money to local groups that don't comply with the Trump administration's agenda on things like DEI, the restriction of transgender rights and immigration enforcement.
"HUD will continue working to provide homelessness assistance funding to grantees nationwide," said HUD spokeswoman Kasey Lovett in a statement to NPR. "The Department remains committed to program reforms intended to assist our nation's most vulnerable citizens and will continue to do so in accordance with the law."
McElroy expressed frustration with a series of HUD actions in recent weeks. Just hours before a Dec. 8 hearing, the agency withdrew its new funding notice, saying it would make changes to address critics' concerns. But on Friday, HUD's attorney said the new version would not be ready until the end of the day.
"The timing seems to be strategic," McElroy said, asserting there was no reason the document could not have been ready before the hearing. "The constant churn and chaos seems to be the point."
In defending the agency, attorney John Bailey said HUD was simply trying to change its policies to reflect President Donald Trump's executive orders, which he called "legal directives." The judge interjected repeatedly to explain that he was conflating things, noting Congress — not the president — makes laws.
HUD's changes were announced in November with little notice and only weeks before local homeless service providers must apply for new funding.
"Our agencies are just scrambling right now to try to respond," said Pam Johnson with Minnesota Community Action Partnership, whose members provide housing and other services for homeless people. "It also just reverses 40 years of bipartisan work on proven solutions to homelessness. So it's really, it's kind of shocking."
For decades, U.S. policy favored permanent housing with optional treatment for addiction or mental illness Years of research has found the strategy is effective at keeping people off the streets.
But many conservatives argue it's failed to stop record rates of homelessness.
"What is the root cause of homelessness? Mental illness, drug addiction, drug abuse," HUD Secretary Scottt Turner said recently on Fox Business Network. "During the Biden administration, it was just warehousing. It was a homeless industrial complex."
Turner and others who support the changes say the goal is to push people towards self-sufficiency.
But local advocates say mental health and substance abuse are not the main factors driving homelessness.
"It's poverty. Poverty, low income and significant lack of affordable housing," says Julie Embree, who heads the Toledo Lucas County Homelessness Board in Ohio.
Many in permanent housing have disabilities that make it hard to work full time, she said. Embree agrees with Trump administration goals like efficiency and saving money, but says pushing people back into homelessness, where they're more likely to land in jail, the courts or a hospital, is not cost-effective.
"One emergency room visit is just as expensive as a month of sustaining this [permanent housing] program," she said.
In Los Angeles, Stephanie Klasky-Gamer with LA Family Housing said there is a need for more transitional housing, but not at the expense of long-term housing. And the idea that programs could simply switch from one to the other is not only unrealistic, it's illegal.
"You cannot take a building that has a 75-year deed restriction and just — ding! — call it interim housing," she said.
Those challenging HUD say providers who own such properties – or states who've invested millions of dollars in permanent housing projects — face "significant financial jeopardy" if their funding is not renewed.
In addition to the legal challenges, members of Congress from both parties have questioned HUD's sudden shift on homelessness. Advocates have lobbied lawmakers to step in and, at the least, push for more time to prepare for such a massive overhaul.
Topline:
President Donald Trump said the administration has reached agreements with nine more drugmakers to bring their U.S. drug prices more in line with what other wealthy countries pay.
Why it matters: Fourteen companies in total have now reached what the administration calls most-favored-nation pricing deals. They agreed to charge the U.S. government no more for new drugs than the prices paid by other well-off countries. The agreements will allow state Medicaid programs to access lower prices from the nine new companies.
Read on ... for more on the administration's work to bring down prescription drug prices.
President Donald Trump said the administration has reached agreements with nine more drugmakers to bring their U.S. drug prices more in line with what other wealthy countries pay.
Fourteen companies in total have now reached what the administration calls most-favored-nation pricing deals. The companies that took part in Friday's announcement were: Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck, Novartis and Sanofi.
They agreed to charge the U.S. government no more for new drugs than the prices paid by other well-off countries. The agreements will allow state Medicaid programs to access lower prices from the nine companies. In a statement, the White House said the change will result "in billions of dollars in savings."
The drugmakers also agreed to invest at least $150 billion in manufacturing operations in the U.S. The president is seeking to increase domestic production of pharmaceuticals.
In addition, the companies agreed to make some of their most popular drugs available at lower prices to consumers who pay out of pocket through a government website called TrumpRx.com. The TrumpRx website is expected to launch in early 2026, and would take consumers to pharmaceutical companies' direct-to-consumer websites to fulfill orders.
For example, Merck will reduce the price of Januvia, a medication for Type 2 diabetes, from $330 to $100 for patients purchasing directly through TrumpRx, the White House said. Amgen will reduce the price of Repatha, a cholesterol-lowering drug, from $573 to $239 when purchased through TrumpRx.
In exchange for these concessions, the companies will be exempt from possible administration tariffs for three years.
The extent of savings for consumers under the agreements is unclear. Medicaid and its beneficiaries already pay some of the lowest prices for drugs. And people with health insurance could spend less on copays for their medicines than paying cash for them through the drugmakers.
Separately, Trump said during the press event that he would like to get health insurers to lower their prices, too.
"I'm going to call a meeting of the insurance companies," he said. "I'm going to see if they [will] get their price down, to put it very bluntly."
America's new top health diplomat is Bethany Kozma. The job she took on this week — leading the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Global Affairs — does not have a high profile. And Kozma herself is not a familiar name in the world of public health.
What is the job? The office is sometimes referred to as the "diplomatic voice" of HHS. As director, Kozma will have considerable influence over how the U.S. shapes health policy in other countries in the wake of the Trump administration's foreign aid cuts and withdrawal from the World Health Organization.
Read on ... for more on Kozma's position on a number of controversial issues.
America's new top health diplomat is Bethany Kozma.
The job she took on this week — leading the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Global Affairs — does not have a high profile. And Kozma herself is not a familiar name in the world of public health.
But it is a position with power — and Kozma has a record of public statements and activism on health issues, equating abortion with "murder" and campaigning against gender-affirming care.
The office sometimes is referred to as the "diplomatic voice" of HHS. As director, Kozma will have considerable influence over how the U.S. shapes health policy in other countries in the wake of the Trump administration's foreign aid cuts and withdrawal from the World Health Organization.
Kozma declined to be interviewed for this story. She doesn't appear to have a background in global health based on publicly available information online. The HHS website offers few details about her professional profile. In response to questions about her qualifications and vision for the role, HHS responded with this statement.
"The Office of Global Affairs (OGA) advances the Trump administration's agenda and priorities by bringing common sense, transparency and gold-standard science to global partners. Under Secretary Kennedy's leadership, OGA is committed to strengthening the United States' position as the global gold-standard for public health and ensuring Americans are protected at home and abroad."
Kozma began her career in public service during the George W. Bush administration, working at the White House Homeland Security Council. During the Obama years, she re-entered public life as an activist.
In a 2016 commentary for The Daily Signal, a conservative news website founded by the Heritage Foundation, she argued against the Obama administration's guidance that public schools should allow children to use the bathroom that comports with their identity.
"This radical agenda of subjective 'gender fluidity' and unrestricted shower and bathroom access actually endangers all," she stated, noting that "predators" could abuse the policy.
In 2017, she joined the Trump administration as senior adviser for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in the United States Agency for International Development, eventually being promoted to deputy chief of staff. In videos obtained and released by ProPublica, Kozma recalls calling the U.S. a "pro-life" country in a closed-door U.N. meeting about women's rights in 2018, when access to abortion still was protected nationally by Roe v. Wade.
In August 2020, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and four other Democratic senators issued a letter labeling Kozma and several other political appointees at USAID as "prejudiced" and called for them to be removed from their posts. Kozma has "spoken extensively and derisively of trans people and trans issues," the senators wrote.
During the Biden administration, she also was involved in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's "blueprint" for a new Republican administration. She played a prominent role in Project 2025 training videos, obtained and published by ProPublica.
In one nearly 50-minute training video focused on left-wing language, she called for a Republican administration to "eradicate 'climate change' references from absolutely everywhere," and said that concerns over climate change are efforts at "population control." She also called gender-affirming care "absolutely infuriating" and said "the idea that gender is fluid is evil." Overall, she argued that changing language around these policies should be a priority for political appointees.
Kozma joined the second Trump administration as a chief adviser at the HHS Office of Global Affairs. In September, she spoke at a U.N. event commemorating the 30th anniversary of the declaration that denying women's rights is a human rights violation.
"While many may celebrate so-called successes gained for women over the last 30 years, one must ask what defines true success for women?" she began, adding that "biological reality is rooted in scientific truth and is confirmed by the universal truths that we are endowed by our creator who made us 'male and female.'"
Those views can be divisive but have garnered some support for Kozma's promotion.
"Bethany is an excellent pick for global affairs at HHS," says Roger Servino, vice president of domestic policy at The Heritage Foundation. "She was an early champion of protecting children from gender ideology back when the medical establishment was able to silence voices of reason and dissent and she is perfectly placed to help push back on global health bodies trying to impose left wing pseudoscience on the American people and the world."
Kozma is taking over as director of the HHS Office of Global Affairs at a time of drastic change for global health.
In previous administrations, a main focus of the office was dealing with the World Health Organization. Typically, the director, who usually has a background in public health, is involved in negotiations on sharing data for pathogen surveillance or developing vaccine policy, for example.
After President Trump withdrew the U.S. from WHO, the administration has started a new strategy: striking deals with individual countries to give health aid in exchange for their meeting certain policy prescriptions. Kozma has been involved in some of those negotiations, but the details aren't quite finalized.
Some reproductive rights advocates believe Kozma will use her new position to insert anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ policies into these agreements.
"[Kozma] is vehemently anti-trans, anti-LGBTQI+, anti-abortion," says Keifer Buckingham, managing director at the Council on Global Equality, a coalition of advocacy organizations that focuses on LGBTQ issues. "For those of us who want to ensure that the provision of U.S. foreign assistance and health doesn't discriminate against people based on who they are, [Kozma's appointment] raises a lot of red flags."
One particular worry is about the Helms Amendment, a U.S. policy that prohibits foreign aid being used to fund abortion services.
"There's been speculation that there's an intention by the U.S. government to expand the Helms Amendment beyond abortion to include LGBTQ's as well," says Musoba Kitui, director of Ipas Africa Alliance, a non-profit that works to provide access to abortion and contraception. He's concerned that health groups that serve those populations could lose funding. That speculation is backed up by reporting from The Daily Signal that the administration is planning to prohibit U.S. aid funding for "gender ideology and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives."
Given LGBTQ people are often at higher risk for diseases like HIV, such policies could make these communities even more vulnerable, says Kitui.
"We could see more marginalization, inequality, spikes of infection," he says. While many African governments signing these deals understand those dynamics, Kitui says they may still agree to more restrictive conditions as aid cuts have "starved health systems to a point of desperation."
Have information you want to share about ongoing changes at federal health and development agencies? Reach out to Jonathan Lambert via encrypted communications on Signal: @jonlambert.12
