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Historic Ventura County movie theater celebrates its reopening with a film festival

The front of the Ojai Playhouse with its marquee.
Lance Orozco
The Ojai Playhouse reopened in November of 2024, after being closed for more than a decade. It underwent a $10 million refurbishment.

The Ojai Playhouse Film Festival will feature 20 screenings Tuesday through Sunday, with some acclaimed new movies that haven't been seen outside of the film festival circuit.

The only independent arthouse movie theater between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara is celebrating its first anniversary since reopening with a film festival.

"Over the past year, we've screened over 500 films, and held more than 100 free screenings. We're going to celebrate the one-year anniversary of us reopening after us being closed ten years," said David Berger, owner of the historic Ojai Playhouse Theater. The theater is hosting its inaugural Ojai Playhouse Film Festival November 11-16.

"Because we are in awards season, and there are so many special films, people are really interested in movies. It's going to be 20 films over the next six days," said Berger.

He said it’s a chance to see films which did well at film festivals, but haven’t made it to the theater circuit yet.

"It's a collection of really popular movies within these festivals which have been well received," said Berger. The lineup includes Kristen Stewart's The Chronology of Water and Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice. Many of the films in the festival are considered to be early front-runners for Oscar nominations.

You can find a link to the Ojai Playhouse Film Festival lineup here.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.