The Uptown Film Center will be the name of a new arthouse cinema planned at the site of the shuttered Metro theater at Broadway and 99th Street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, backers said, announcing the launch of a $29 million capital campaign and target of early 2027 to break ground.
Ira Deutchman, president of UWS Cinema Center, the nonprofit that purchased the building in April, said the name is meant to reflect the center’s mission and the fact that it will be the only full-time art film theater north of Lincoln Center.
“Unlike commercial theaters or streaming platforms, the Uptown will deliver an immersive, community-first film experience that blends the best of independent, international, documentary, repertory and family cinema with educational programs and cultural partnerships,” he said at an event Monday with Tim Blake Nelson, Kyra Sedgwick and Tony Kushner to celebrate the new name and reveal renderings of the marquee and landmarked façade of the historic Metro, built in 1933.
“We envision a future where the Uptown Film Center will be more than a theater; it will be a cultural anchor that revitalizes the Upper West Side neighborhood, bridges divides through the power of cinema, and ensures that film remains accessible, inclusive, and essential to community life.” Deutchman said.
He hopes to break ground by early 2027 and open the center’s doors by early 2028. The timeline for completion depends largely on how quickly funds can be raised. The organization set a goal of $5 million in donations by the end of 2025 and has achieved more than half of that through commitments by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Great Hill Foundation, Roland and Lois Betts, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, continued support from the Klingenstein-Martell Foundation, and an additional grant from the State of New York through the efforts of Assemblyman Micah Lasher.
Arthouses are having a resurgence, particularly with young audiences.
“Filmmakers — those who consider movies an art form as well as entertainment or a way to make a profit — still make films for movie theaters,” said Blake Nelson, who sits on the Uptown Film Center board. “The work might end up on smaller screens, but the actual creation happens with theaters in mind: places where strangers gather for state-of-the-art projection and sound to sharpen their sensitivity and intelligence about the world. The Uptown is going to be such a venue for a neighborhood that’s been starving for it.”
That hunger has been keen since the venerated Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, a six screen multiplex at 68th and Broadway, shuttered in early 2018 after serving as a beacon for the best in international arthouse fare for more than three decades. Film at Lincoln Center across the street continued to fly the arthouse flag.
Deutchman’s nonprofit acquired the Metro for $6.9 million. That included a $3.5 million grant from NY Gov. Kathy Hochul; $500k in grants from the NY State Senate spearheaded by Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal; major grants from Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw’s Hearthland Foundation; the Martell-Klingenstein Foundation; the Brandt Jackson foundation; and more than 500 individual contributors from the greater NYC community.
Since then, the group has hired the architects (Voith & Mactavish) and consultants to plan and prepare final designs, which are nearly complete. The original volunteer founding team, Deutchman, Adeline Monzier, Steven Cohen and Beth Krieger, is working to expand the board and otherwise build the organization, which hosted a 10-part summer pop-up film series in cooperation with local arts and community organizations, and is launching a pilot educational project with an UWS public school this month.