In advance of its opening on September 22, 2026, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art revealed 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 Linkof. “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.