LUCAS MUSEUM OF NARRATIVE ART REVEALS INAUGURAL FILM PROGRAM

AT SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON

TWO STATE-OF-THE-ART THEATERS TO OFFER NON-STOP,

DROP-IN EXPERIENCES SPANNING WIDE FACETS OF FILM,

FROM EARLY SILENTS AND AVANT-GARDE EXPERIMENTS TO ANIMATION AND DOCUMENTARY

Image credits:

The Slavko Vorkapich Theater, Lou Caltabiano for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Introducing the Lucas Museum Inaugural Film Program – YouTube

In advance of its opening on September 22, 2026, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art revealed today at San Diego Comic-Con its inaugural Film Program, showcasing cinema as both a powerful vehicle for telling stories and an advanced technology for creating moving visual experiences. The details were shared in a Hall H panel featuring Lucas Museum Senior Curator and Head of Film Programs Ryan Linkof; Stoopid Buddy Stoodios’ Seth Green and Matthew Senreich; DC’s President, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer, Jim Lee; and moderated by actress and producer Keke Palmer.

Each of these sides of cinema will be represented in its own theater, the Robert Flaherty Theater and the Slavko Vorkapich Theater, where curated film selections will be screened on a non-stop basis throughout the day, offering visitors an open-door, drop-in gallery-like experience.

“We are excited to share details of our inaugural Film Program,” said Tracey Bates, CEO of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. “George Lucas named the theaters to honor two innovators of cinema: Robert Flaherty and Slavko Vorkapich. The theaters will be spaces to connect with moving images as one of the most transformative modes of visual storytelling, making the Film Program an essential component of a visit to the Lucas Museum.”

“We wanted to offer an alternative to the traditional museum film program and create a dynamic, open-door experience designed for discovery, allowing audiences to encounter cinema as a living, breathing art form at their own pace,” said Ryan Linkof, Senior Curator and Head of Film Programs. “Our inaugural programming will shed light on the evolution of film form and the creative process more broadly, tracing a direct line from early innovators to the modern masterworks of visual storytelling that shape our culture today.”

The tradition of using cinema to capture reality in all its richness will be showcased in a theater named in honor of Robert Flaherty (1884-1951), a pre-eminent trailblazer in documentary filmmaking. The program will include films dedicated to documenting the process of artistic production, many including artists and storytellers featured in inaugural exhibitions.

The tradition of creating magic with the basic elements of film—light, motion, sound, color, and editing—will be showcased in a theater named in honor of Slavko Vorkapich (1894-1976), who created astonishing montage sequences and special effects for dozens of Hollywood movies from the 1920s through the ’40s, as well as making experimental films of his own. From 1948 to 1950, Vorkapich was chair of the Department of Film at the University of Southern California, the school that George Lucas would later attend.

Documentary screenings in the Robert Flaherty Theater will include:

episodes of a new documentary series commissioned for the Lucas Museum, Seeing is Believing: The Story of Narrative Art, directed by Robin Dashwood
episodes of the 2024 television series The Power of Film, created by Howard Suber and directed by Laura Gabbert
documentaries about artists whose work is exhibited in the Lucas Museum, including Norman Rockwell, Jim Lee, Charles Schulz, Maurice Sendak, Diego Rivera, J.C. Leyendecker, and Weegee
Comic Book Confidential, directed by Robert Mann

Screenings in the Slavko Vorkapich Theater, dedicated to “the emotion of motion” with innovative short films from the earliest years of the medium to the present, will include:

montage sequences by Vorkapich for films such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
early silent films by Georges Méliès, Émile Cohl, W.K.L. Dickson, Edwin S. Porter, and others
early animations by Winsor McCay
experimental films of Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, and others
early sound animations by Walt Disney Studios and Fleischer Studios
experimental films by Canadian animator-director Norman McLaren
Looney Tunes
abstract “visual music” works by Mary Ellen Bute, Oskar Fischinger, Jordan Belson, and others
excerpts from Busby Berkeley musicals
experimental films of the 1960s by Stan Brakhage, Kenneth Anger, and others
experimental animation by Vince Collins
anime from Cowboy Bebop
an episode of Star Wars: Visions
student films by George Lucas, 1965-1969

The films selected for the theaters vary in length from a few minutes to 90 minutes in running time, and visitors may come and go as they like.

The Lucas Museum opens its doors September 22. Tickets are now on sale from opening through February 2027, at lucasmuseum.org.

About the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

George Lucas and Mellody Hobson co-founded the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art to honor the universal tradition of telling stories through images. Encompassing everything from prehistoric cave paintings to today’s screen art, the Museum explores and celebrates the power of visual storytelling to inspire individuals, give shape to beliefs and ideals, and forge community.

Built in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park, the Museum is housed in a 300,000-square-foot building designed by Ma Yansong of MAD with Stantec to embody the emotional power of narrative art, creating a sense of wonder, possibility, and connection to something larger than ourselves. The building is integrated into a new 11-acre campus including a park designed by Mia Lehrer of Studio-MLA: a green, multilayered gathering place for local communities and an extraordinary programming resource that brings learning and engagement outdoors.