Viewing: June 03,2025
Join us on Tuesday, June 3rd at 6:00 p.m. to help us celebrate 110 amazing years as your local, uptown movie house with a special public reception paired with a screening of Cinema Paradiso!
Admission is only 10-cents …just like in 1915!
Public Reception: 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Cinema Paradiso Start Time: 7:00 p.m.
The Athena Cinema invites all of Southeast Ohio to this once-in-a-lifetime celebration on the evening of June 3. In honor of its first screening, and in celebration of the historic occasion, tickets for Cinema Paradiso will be available to the public for just ten cents and will be preceded by a small reception.
The reception will begin at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday June 3rd, and will feature light refreshments, a toast to the historic event, and a chance for guests to share their most cherished memories of The Athena. Afterwards, the movie screening will begin at 7:00 p.m. Come join The Athena Cinema as it honors 110 years as Southeast Ohio’s premier arthouse theater.
Giuseppe Tornatore’s 1988 classic film Cinema Paradiso was chosen as the film to kick off the celebration because it is all about the joys and pleasures of movie-going, moviemaking, and projection. It’s a nostalgic, international film that shows how local theaters shape our lives, communities, and connections. Ultimately, it’s about how our local theaters bring people together through film, and is emblematic of The Athena Cinema’s core goal as Southeast Ohio’s premier arthouse theater: to show high-quality films that bring our community together.
About the film
Salvatore Di Vita, a famous Italian film director, learns of the unfortunate death of a man who served a very important role in life. Alfredo was the projectionist of the Cinema Paradiso, the movie house in the small, war-torn village where Salvatore grew up during WWII. The old man’s death prompts Salvatore not only to return to his village for the first time in 30 years, it also causes him to flashback to his childhood – a time when he first met Alfredo, discovered the magic of cinema, and was set upon the path that would define his life.
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