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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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Big Bear’s famous bald eagles, Jackie and Shadow, are getting another chance at parenthood after welcoming a fourth egg this season, about a month after the first two eggs were breached by ravens.
Why now: Jackie welcomed the newest egg a little before 6 p.m. Friday, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit that runs a popular YouTube livestream centered on the nest overlooking Big Bear Lake.
Why it matters: Bald eagles generally lay one clutch, which refers to the group of eggs laid in each nesting attempt, per season. But a replacement clutch is possible if the eggs don’t make it through the early incubation process, as seen with Jackie and Shadow this year and in 2021.
The backstory: The duo laid the first two eggs of the season in late January as thousands of eager fans watched online. But within a week, Friends of Big Bear Valley confirmed one of the eggs was cracked, and a raven breached both eggs in the nest later the same day.
What's next: Jackie has laid up to three eggs in a clutch, including in each of the past two seasons, so it’s possible another egg could arrive in the coming days. In February 2021, Jackie laid two eggs in a replacement clutch.
Friends of Big Bear Valley often reminds fans — nature is in charge, and only time will tell what the season brings.
Chick watch: Once egg-laying is over, the chick countdown is on. Jackie and Shadow's usual egg incubation time is around 35 to 39 days, starting when the eagles begin to fully incubate their clutch, according to the nonprofit.
Last season, the first egg hatched at around 40 days old, the second egg hatched around 38 days old and the third egg around 39 days old.
Go deeper: Environmental groups launch $10M fundraiser to buy land near Big Bear’s famous bald eagle nest
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Facing a multi-million-dollar budget shortfall for the upcoming school year, Pasadena Unified School District board voted unanimously this week to finalize a plan to send layoff notices to more than 160 staff members as part of an effort to balance its budget that began last fall.
About the board meeting: During the Thursday meeting, parents, teachers, union leaders and staff spoke against approving layoff notices, saying that they would harm the classroom experience and potentially lead to more families and teachers leaving the district.
What the board says: Pasadena Unified board members said that the cuts were necessary, especially amid warnings from regulators that they could be out of compliance with regulators that have warned the district of its responsibility to balance its budget.
What happens next: The reduction in force notices letting staff know that their positions may be cut will go out by halfway through March. The district will then have until the summer to finalize the list of staff being laid off.
Facing a multi-million-dollar budget shortfall for the upcoming school year, Pasadena Unified's school board voted unanimously this week to finalize a plan to send layoff notices to more than 160 staff members as part of an effort to balance its budget that began last fall.
The district has maintained that the job reductions are necessary because of a $30 million budget deficit, part of a financial crisis made worse by the Eaton Fire.
California schools must notify employees about potential layoffs for the following school year by March 15. The number of current employees who will be out of a job next year is still unclear, in part, because people may be reassigned to vacant positions. In the past, PUSD has also rescinded some layoff notices before they took effect.
Parents, teachers and union leaders at the Thursday meeting criticized the district for targeting teachers and school staff for layoffs instead of administrative positions.
“ Teaching for PUSD means anxiety every March as it approaches, because we don't know if we're going to get to keep our job or not,” said Genevieve Miller, a PUSD teacher who said her children also graduated from the district. “ There's a different way forward.”
Board members acknowledged the decision they made was difficult.
“ I just want to be very clear that this is not the outcome that anybody prefers,” Board member Yarma Velázquez said. “Workforce reductions and the continuous, year after year position of being in this place where we have to reduce positions is draining and it is painful.
“I am very aware of what the implications are for all of the people that work here at PUSD.”
At the meeting, which started at 4 p.m. and nearly lasted until midnight, parents highlighted the potential of families and teachers choosing to leave the district because of the layoffs.
“ Right now, the [PUSD] community is in fight mode, as you can see from the turnout and other comments being made here tonight,” said parent Neil Tyler. “But if you approve these resolutions as proposed tonight, a large chunk of the community will quickly shift to flight mode and the death spiral of this district will begin.”
Jonathan Gardner, president of United Teachers of Pasadena, told the board that the cuts meant the district would lose dozens of middle and high school teachers and child development staff.
“ The best thing for kids and staff is always stability and making sure that we have full staff,” Gardner said. “The priorities should be working from the student experience out. Instead, what we see is millions and millions of dollars being spent on contracted services and millions and millions being spent on extra staffing at the central office.”
Speakers also noted that Pasadena Unified had endured years of budget cuts, which affected teachers, librarians and office staff.
Others said PUSD was failing to meet its requirement under California law to commit at least 55% of the district’s education expenses to teacher salaries.
LAist reached out to the district for comment on this but has not yet received a response.
Pasadena Unified board members said the cuts were necessary, especially after warnings from regulators that they could be out of compliance with requirements to balance the budget.
“For the sake of the district's solvency, I feel like it would be irresponsible if I took an action that put this district in jeopardy,” board member Michelle Bailey said Thursday night. “I can't in good conscience take that kind of action.”
Concerns over declining enrollment numbers, which are tied to funding, have been growing since the Eaton Fire.
A report commissioned by a state agency recommended that the state increase its funding for the school system to help with fire recovery.
Some observers said Pasadena Unified’s budget issues date back much longer than that.
“Over the past 30 years, Pasadena Unified has faced a mounting fiscal calamity, one that you can no longer ignore or postpone,” Octavio Castelo, director of business advisory services for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, told Pasadena Unified’s board in November. “Despite your best efforts and intentions, the district has not been able to live within its means."
Cutting staff will likely mean losing some school programs, including language and music.
“ You have Mary Jackson [Elementary in Altadena] — it's a science magnet school, and they're cutting the science teacher,” Gardner, the teacher’s union president, told LAist. “That's the heart of the school.”
Oct. 15, 22, 29 at 4:30- 6:30 p.m.
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The layoff notices are expected to be sent to affected staff members by mid-March.
The district will have until summer to finalize the list.
K-12 education reporter Mariana Dale contributed reporting.
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The Los Angeles Unified School Board voted unanimously Friday to place Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation. The board appointed longtime administrator and current Chief of School Operations Andres Chait as interim superintendent.
The backstory: The reason for the searches is unknown, although it has been the subject of widespread speculation. A DOJ spokesperson said the agency had a court-authorized warrant but declined to provide additional details. The FBI told LAist media partner CBS LA that the underlying affidavit remained under court-ordered seal.
About the superintendent: Carvalho has been superintendent of LAUSD since 2022, and the board unanimously renewed his contract in 2025. Prior to coming to L.A., Carvalho had worked for the Miami-Dade County school district for decades, 30 years as a teacher and the last 14 years as the district's supervisor.
A potential connection to AI: A spokesperson for the FBI in Miami confirmed Wednesday’s L.A. searches are linked to a search of a South Florida home the same day. That property, identified by local media outlets, belongs to a woman associated with the company LAUSD contracted with to create a short-lived AI tool.
The Los Angeles Unified School Board voted unanimously Friday to place Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.
The FBI searched Carvalho’s home and district offices Wednesday. A DOJ spokesperson said the agency had a court-authorized warrant but declined to provide additional details. The FBI told LAist media partner CBS LA that the underlying affidavit remained under court-ordered seal.
The board also appointed current Chief of School Operations Andres Chait as acting superintendent after the seven-hour closed meeting Thursday and Friday.
“I know that this is a very challenging time,” said Board President Scott Schmerelson in a brief public statement after the decision was announced. “I want you to know that the board believes in you, supports you and knows that you will continue to do your very best to support the students and families of the district.”
Schmerelson clarified in an email to LAist that he was referring to Chait. The seven-member board exited the meeting room without taking questions. Carvalho was not present and has not made a public statement since the searches Wednesday.
The district posted a statement online later in which Schmerelson wrote that “today’s action is aimed at fulfilling our promise to students and families to provide an excellent public education without distraction.”
The board’s decision provided clarity about district leadership but did not shed light on the reason for the searches, which have been the subject of widespread speculation.
“While we understand the need for information, we cannot discuss the specifics of this matter pending investigation,” read the district’s statement.
Chait has worked for the district for nearly three decades. The chief of school operations’ responsibilities are varied and include athletics, the district’s office of emergency management and staff investigations. Chait has presented to the board on everything from school safety to the cell phone ban and the district’s calendar.
“I am humbled by the board’s confidence in appointing me to serve as acting superintendent during this critical time," Chait said in the district’s statement. "Our focus remains clear: to ensure stability, continuity and strong leadership for our students, families and employees."
A spokesperson for the FBI in Miami confirmed Wednesday’s L.A. searches are linked to a search of a South Florida home the same day. That property, identified by local media outlets, belongs to Debra Kerr, who was associated with the company LAUSD contracted to create a short-lived AI tool called AllHere.
Federal authorities have not connected AllHere to this week’s investigation.
Los Angeles Unified approved a $6.2 million contract with AllHere in June 2023 to develop a tool that would create an “individual acceleration plan,” using district data and featuring an artificial intelligence chatbot.
LAUSD debuted “Ed” the following March as a "personal assistant" to students that would point them toward mental health resources and nudge students who were falling behind.
Within three months of its debut, the company behind Ed, AllHere, furloughed the bulk of its staff; its CEO was later charged with fraud. The district defended the process it used to debut that chatbot, which cost $3 million.
Parents and educators demanded transparency after the district shut down the chatbot.
The federal investigation comes at a time when LAUSD is financially strained, cutting hundreds of jobs and facing pressure from the district’s largest labor unions to settle new contracts.
SEIU Local 99, which represents school support staff and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) have issued statements calling on the district to clearly communicate about the status of the superintendent and the investigation.
"UTLA educators and our school communities have long raised concerns about LAUSD rapidly increasing spending on education tech and outside contractors, while investment in classrooms and educators has declined,” UTLA wrote in a statement provided to LAist.
Carvalho has been superintendent of LAUSD since 2022, and the board unanimously renewed his contract in 2025. Prior to coming to L.A., Carvalho had worked for the Miami-Dade County school district for decades, 30 years as a teacher and the last 14 years as the district's supervisor.
Carvalho's time at LAUSD has included a number of wins for the district, including gains in test scores and participation in AP classes.
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After threatening to sever ties with Scouting America and kick the youth group off military bases worldwide, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday gave a six-month reprieve to the organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America.
An ultimatum: Hegseth made the announcement in a video posted to X, framing it as an ultimatum to Scouting to conform to the Trump administration's anti-DEI agenda. He detailed his many criticisms of the group, saying Scouts had "lost their way" by changing the organization's name and "watering down" what he called "the focus on God as the ruler of the universe." He accused the Scouts of promoting "an insidious, radical, woke ideology that is anti-America and anti-American."
The backstory: Today's announcement came after word of Hegseth's plans to shun Scouting sparked weeks of backlash. In a meeting with Scouting officials in January, Hegseth had demanded that the organization change its name back to Boy Scouts and remove some 200,000 young girls from its membership. A week after the Pentagon meeting, Scouting officials sent a letter to Hegseth outlining proposed concessions.
After threatening to sever ties with Scouting America and kick the youth group off military bases worldwide, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday gave a six-month reprieve to the organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America.
Hegseth made the announcement in a video posted to X, framing it as an ultimatum to Scouting to conform to the Trump administration's anti-DEI agenda. He detailed his many criticisms of the group, saying Scouts had "lost their way" by changing the organization's name and "watering down" what he called "the focus on God as the ruler of the universe."
He accused the Scouts of promoting "an insidious, radical, woke ideology that is anti-America and anti-American."
The Department of War has officially put Scouting America on notice.
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) February 27, 2026
It’s time to get back to basics — and DoW is leading the charge. pic.twitter.com/EnY9mvaFLX
Hegseth also made clear he thinks the organization should go back to being exclusively male. " Ideally, I believe the Boy Scouts should go back to being the Boy Scouts as originally founded, a group that develops boys into men," he said. "Maybe someday."
The Pentagon's promise to reevaluate its relationship with Scouting in six months was nonetheless a retreat of sorts for Hegseth. Today's announcement came after word of Hegseth's plans to shun Scouting sparked weeks of backlash, including from some Republicans. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska has said of Hegseth's plans: "I've heard a lot of dumb stuff, but this is up there."
In a meeting with Scouting officials in January, Hegseth had demanded that the organization change its name back to Boy Scouts and remove some 200,000 young girls from its membership.
" I knew in the meeting that my board, my organization, was not gonna make those changes," Scouting America CEO Roger Krone said in an interview with NPR.
Krone explained that the organization considers including girls to be a service to families.
" When I was a youth, we left parts of the family in the parking lot on Friday night when we went camping," Krone said. "Long before I came back to Scouting, our board made several decisions, by a vote of our national council, that we were gonna serve the entire family."
A week after the Pentagon meeting, Scouting officials sent a letter to Hegseth outlining proposed concessions. While they wouldn't change the name or kick out girls, they would drop a Citizenship in Society merit badge that promoted diversity and had been instituted after the killing of George Floyd. They would also add a Military Service merit badge, waive membership fees for military families and offer a public rededication "of duty to God, duty to country, and service."
Even after the concessions, which Scouting officials said they planned to implement regardless, a spokesman told NPR the group expected an announcement from the Pentagon severing ties was imminent. But after NPR reported on the rift, Krone said Scouting's members and alumni started lobbying against breaking the century-old partnership.
Hegseth has for years criticized Scouting for allegedly caving to progressive politics. He repeated the claim Friday. "Scouting became an organization that no longer supported and celebrated boys," Hegseth said. "They even welcomed the destructive myth of gender fluidity and transgenderism to infiltrate their membership."
The Secretary also highlighted another concession. "Scouting America will modify its policy to make clear that membership will be based solely on biological sex at birth and not gender identity," he said. "That means that the application, any application, will have only two sex designations, male and female, and the application must match the applicant's birth certificate."
Krone noted that the Scouting application already has only two sex designations. " Tomorrow it will be the same application that we had yesterday," he said. "We ask for that information so we can operate our units in a way that ensures that our kids are safe and are safeguarded."
In the wake of sexual abuse allegations that resulted in a $2.46 billion victim compensation fund, Krone says Scouting has implemented stringent policies. Along with other practices, he said they ask for gender information " so that we know from a tenting standpoint and from a bathroom standpoint how to run our programs."
Severing ties with Scouts would have meant banning scouts from meeting on military bases, withdrawing military medical and logistical assistance to the quadrennial Scout Jamboree and eliminating the program that allows Eagle Scouts to enlist at advanced rank and pay.
As reported by NPR, the Pentagon had gone so far as to coordinate with the heads of the different branches on what a separation might mean. The Pentagon circulated a draft notification internally meant for the congressional Armed Services Committees, justifying the withdrawal of military support for the Jamboree. The memo, reviewed by NPR, claimed that providing medical and logistical help to the campout, scheduled for July, would threaten national security.
With this six-month trial period, base access for Scout troops will continue and Jamboree assistance is moving forward for now, including recruitment coordination. As Hegseth pointed out on X, many boy Scouts have become high-ranking military officers, or have served the country in other ways.
"Six Boy Scouts have been elected president of the United States," Hegseth said. "Eleven of the 12 Men to walk on the Moon [were] boy Scouts."
Copyright 2026 NPR
