Isis Theatre Capital Campaign

After 44 years of bringing cinema, dialogue and community engagement to the Roaring Fork Valley through Aspen Filmfest, Academy Screenings, Aspen Shortsfest, Indie Showcases, FilmEducates and partnerships with other organizations, Aspen Film is poised to solidify its place as one of the valley’s leading cultural institutions with this acquisition of a permanent home for our programming. 

With your crucial support, Aspen Film will convert the existing Isis Theatre space into a film centric community art center. 

After changing hands multiple times since the late 1990s, the Isis Theatre was again on the market in 2007. The City of Aspen partnered with Aspen Film and the Isis Property Group, LLC to create a private-public ownership structure to save the theater from being purchased by a developer, which would have left Aspen without a movie theater. Aspen Film became the sublessee to the City, and thus to the theater. Monthly lease payments went to the City toward debt repayment. Metropolitan Theatres continued to operate the multiplex, as it had since the year before the partnership, becoming the tenant of Aspen Film.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the theater was closed for a cumulative year, causing financial hardships for all parties. In 2022, Aspen Film had the ability and opportunity to exercise an option to acquire this iconic property, and with the support of a generous lender, purchased the Isis Theatre. Aspen film has engaged Bow Tie Management, a professional commercial movie theater operations company to handle theater operations, effective immediately, and is now involved in the programming of this beloved institution.