Sag Harbor Cinema Rises From The Ashes

SAG HARBOR, NY — After a devastating fire in 2016, the Sag Harbor Cinema has risen from the ashes and is ready for its soft reopening.

The theater has been rebuilt and will reopen on April 9, with a grand opening set for Memorial Day weekend.

“It’s been a long and challenging road to get to this moment,” SHC Capital Campaign Chair April Gornik said. “But at long last, we are thrilled to be able to open our doors to Sag Harbor and the East End, to welcome you back to your brand new cinema — masked and distanced, of course.”

The new theater features three "state-of-the-art screens with cutting-edge digital projection, industry-leading HVAC and air-sanitizing systems, and one of the best sound-reproduction systems in the state," a release said.

The new cinema also includes a cafe, a lounge, and other community use spaces.

The cinema's central mission will be to screen films, all agreed.

“We believe the theatrical experience makes a difference,” SHC Artistic Director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan said. “Which is why in addition to some exciting first runs and special events, in the next few weeks, we will be presenting outstanding titles of the award season that, due to Covid, could not be shown in cinemas, but deserve to be seen on the big screen.”

To start, on Friday, April 9, the cinema's slate of offerings will kick off with Azazel Jacobs’ French Exit starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges. French Exit will show daily at 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., with the director appearing via Zoom for a post-screening question-and-answer session following the 7 p.m. show on April 10.

Also launching April 9 is Nomadland, by Chinese filmmaker Chloé Zhao; check the cinema’s website for showtimes.

SHC will also screen the Oscar shorts, offering three full-length programs of the animated, live action, and documentary short films in competition ahead of the Academy Awards on April 25.

On April 9 and 10, matinee screenings of Irish animator Tomm Moore’s Academy Award-nominated Wolfwalkers, "about an apprentice wolf trapper in the town of Kilkenny, who forms a strange bond with the creatures she is dedicated to exterminating," will be shown at 1 p.m.

The Cinema adheres to the "strictest possible Covid-compliance standards, to protect your safety. These standards, which include adherence to the National Association of Theater Owners’ CinemaSafe guidelines, include pre-reserved socially distanced seating, the wearing of masks in the cinema, and non-recirculatory audience flow," the release said.

Also available are “pod screenings” in the theater's screening room, where guests can reserve the entire venue for the exclusive use of their own pod of up to 10 people, and screen any of the cinema's film programs; the entire screening room is then sterilized between each show. Pod screenings cost $150.