AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center (commonly called as AFI Silver) is a three-screen

movie theater A movie theater (American English) or cinema (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business ...

complex in downtown

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...

, north of

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

It is operated by the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...

. It occupies the former home of the 1,100-seat Silver Theatre, whose 1938 building was designed by

movie palace A movie palace (or picture palace in the United Kingdom) is a large, elaborately decorated movie theater built from the 1910s to the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 1925 and 1930. Wi ...

architect John Eberson. The Silver Theatre closed in 1985, and the building stood empty until 2001, when restoration began. As of 2017, the theater now shows "upward of 600 movies per year" including "first-run features, classics, obscure archival prints, rarities from global cinema and the odd locally made one-off". Its main auditorium hosts the DC Metro area's third-largest commercial movie theater screen, and the second-largest commercial movie theater screen outside of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

after the Uptown Theater in

Cleveland Park Cleveland Park is a residential neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. It is located at and bounded approximately by Rock Creek Park to the east, Wisconsin and Idaho Avenues to the west, Klingle and Woodley Roads to the sou ...

. From 2003 to 2022, the theater hosted an annual documentary festival called Silverdocs and then AFI Docs.

References

External links

AFI Silver
Official Homepage
AFI Docs
AFI Docs Homepage * American Film Institute Art Deco architecture in Maryland Art Deco cinemas and movie theaters Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Maryland Cinemas and movie theaters in Maryland Downtown Silver Spring, Maryland John Eberson buildings Tourist attractions in Montgomery County, Maryland {{Maryland-struct-stub