The dated 25th-anniversary events at the Jacob Burns Film Center have already happened. The gala was in June, the Founder's Series ran through September, and the thank-you gathering for the village took place on a Monday morning in mid-September. Now look at the calendar from October through January. In-person guests come through 364 Manville Road more often than in any part of the anniversary year covered in our research. Most of those nights fall on the same weekends as Pleasantville's own fall events.
For anyone who lives a few blocks away, the busiest stretch of the Burns' 25th year starts now.
How the anniversary year actually played out
The Burns marked the milestone across most of 2026. A March announcement laid out a yearlong celebration that included a June anniversary screening series and a Founder's Series running April through September. The 25th-anniversary gala on Friday, June 12 honored actress Carrie Coon, founder Stephen Apkon and former Director of Development Judy Exton, as River Journal reported in May. On June 28, a Family Fun Day followed a sing-along screening of The Greatest Showman.
The last dated anniversary event was the most local one. On September 14, the center hosted more than 200 guests for It Takes a Village: A Celebration of Gratitude in the David Swope Theater. Speakers included State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, County Executive Ken Jenkins and Mayor Peter Scherer. The honorees were founding supporters Patrice and Chris Sobecki; John Nonna, the center's treasurer and a former Pleasantville mayor; and filmmaker Andrea Garbarini.
None of the anniversary listings we reviewed show a 25th-specific event dated after September. The center has kept programming, though, and the schedule since then is packed with guests.
Nine days in late October
Here is the run from October 21 through October 29, as currently listed on the Burns film page:
- Oct. 21: Mario, with a Q&A with filmmakers George and Teddy Kunhardt and producer Emma Sassoon
- Oct. 22: A-Sides Songwriter Mixtape, with live musicians in Take 3, presented by A-Sides with Jon Chattman
- Oct. 24: Carrie, with a 50th-anniversary Q&A with Amy Irving, plus Halloween Movie Marathon X, curated by filmmaker Alex Ross Perry with an introduction from Irving
- Oct. 26: Bea Arthur: The Documentary, with filmmaker Dan Watt
- Oct. 27: Minari, with food writer Mark Bittman and Kathleen Finlay of the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, moderated by film critic Alissa Wilkinson
- Oct. 28: The Oldest Person in the World, with filmmaker Sam Green
- Oct. 29: Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead on 35mm, with fashion designer Christian Siriano
That adds up to six evenings with a guest Q&A or appearance in nine days, plus a night of live music. The week before has a preview of Wicker on Thursday, Oct. 15 at 5:30, with filmmakers Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson. November keeps up the pace. Closure has a preview and Q&A with filmmaker Michał Marczak on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 6:30 p.m. After that come Robb Moss on Nov. 8, the Being Heumann team on Nov. 9, and Victoria Price with director Matthew Miele on Nov. 12.
The center's membership FAQ says the weekly schedule is updated late on Tuesdays and that films and events are added all the time. Every date in this post is as listed today, and the list will probably get longer.
Saturday, October 24 is the village's busiest day of the fall
October 24 shows most clearly how the Burns calendar and the village calendar overlap. On a single Saturday, Pleasantville has:
- Amy Irving in person for the 50th-anniversary screening of Carrie at the Burns
- Halloween Movie Marathon X at the Burns, introduced by Irving
- Heard Immunity playing an outdoor village concert from 6 to 8 p.m., the time given in the Village's October 7 notice
The next morning brings the Ragamuffin Parade & Festival on Sunday, Oct. 25, which starts at Bedford Road School and ends at Memorial Plaza. The Halloween window painting is a week earlier, on Oct. 17, with Oct. 18 as the rain date. Oct. 17 is also the date of Live Well Pleasantville, a health-and-wellness event at the Civic Space on Memorial Plaza from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
If you live close enough to walk, you can fit all of it into one weekend: window painting on the 17th, an actress talking about Carrie fifty years later on the 24th, and the parade on the 25th, without driving anywhere.
Amy Irving, once a month into January
The Irving series explains why the fall calendar stays strong past Halloween. Starring Amy Irving runs from Oct. 24 through Jan. 9, 2027, with eight films presented monthly and Irving in person at several screenings. The Burns does not bill it as anniversary programming. It is built around Irving's career, which the center describes as fifty years on screen and twenty more on stage. In practice, a resident gets one major guest night each month through the holidays.
| Date | Film | Format and guest |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 24 | Carrie | 50th-anniversary Q&A with Irving; also screens Oct. 31 |
| Oct. 31 | The Fury | 35mm |
| Nov. 7 | The Competition | 35mm; Q&A moderated by JBFC board member Kenneth Bowser |
| Nov. 7 | Yentl | Q&A moderated by Kenneth Bowser |
| Dec. 5 | Carried Away | Q&A with Irving |
| Dec. 5 | Bossa Nova | 35mm; Q&A with Irving |
| Jan. 9, 2027 | Micki & Maude | 35mm; Q&A with Irving |
| Jan. 9, 2027 | Voices | Q&A with Irving |
Four of the eight films are shown on 35mm prints. Irving received an Oscar nomination for Yentl, Barbra Streisand's film, and Carried Away and Bossa Nova were her two collaborations with director Bruno Barreto.
There is still time for the end of the Andrzej Wajda Centennial, which runs Oct. 9 through 15. The series has eight of the Polish director's films, several of them newly restored, and was presented with the Polish Film Institute, among other partners. Katyń and Man of Marble both play through Oct. 15.
What a membership is worth in a season like this
With this many events, the membership numbers are worth a look. The Theater page lists regular tickets at $11 for members and $16 for nonmembers, and notes that special-event prices vary. The entry-level Film Fan membership costs $100 a year for one person or $155 for two. Its benefits include a $5 ticket discount, waived $1.75 online ticket fees, 10% off concessions, members-only events, Wednesday popcorn and selected presales.
Counting only regular screenings booked online, a single member saves $6.75 per ticket, so the $100 fee is covered after about fifteen films. That count doesn't include member-only events. A free members-only screening of Éric Rohmer's My Night at Maud's is listed for Nov. 5, and the membership page also promises invitations to an annual Thank You screening. Q&A nights may be priced as special events, so the per-ticket math will differ for some of the dates above.
December belongs to families, and to the Media Arts Lab
The holiday weekends are scheduled for younger audiences. Posted listings include a Frozen Sing-Along on Dec. 5 and 6, The Nightmare Before Christmas on Dec. 12 and 13, The Muppet Christmas Carol on Dec. 19 and 20, and Home Alone on Dec. 26 and 27. GIANT—The Play is listed for Dec. 16. Dec. 5 has a lot going on: Irving's two Barreto films are on the same Saturday as the first sing-along.
Down the street at 405 Manville Road, the Media Arts Lab has been part of the Burns since January 2009. This fall it is hosting a fully funded, nine-week screenwriting fellowship with NYU Tisch for ten high school students. The fellowship pays a $1,000 stipend and ends with a table read by professional actors. Teens who are more interested in watching can take Frame by Frame: Exploring Film Through Horror. It meets for five Friday sessions between Oct. 30 and Dec. 11, costs $250, and covers films from A Quiet Place to The Return of the Living Dead.
The building that made all of this possible
The schedule only works because the Burns has the space for it. Steve and Lisa Apkon bought Pleasantville's old Rome Theater, a 1925 building, and the Jacob Burns Film Center opened to the public there in June 2001. The building now has five theaters. On a night like October 24, that means a 50th-anniversary Q&A and a Halloween marathon can run in the same building at once. At the September gathering, the center described its history and the village's as intertwined.
If you're thinking about how close you'd like to live to Manville Road, or which side of the village makes a walk to the Burns easiest, Lizette Sinhart knows these streets. Let's find your forever home. Get in touch, and we can start with a walk past the marquee.
