Michigan and State are dedicated to film exhibitions, providing a 365-day-a-year film program to over 7,100 paying members and attracting nearly 250,000 patrons annually. Presented across Michigan’s historic Main Auditorium and Screening Room, the State’s four theaters, and our Virtual Movie Palace, film themes commonly include classic, contemporary, foreign, documentary, student, American independent, experimental, and silent-era films accompanied by the restored 1927 Barton Theater Pipe Organ.

The MTF is one of the few exhibitors in the country with union projectionists that present films in a wide range of celluloid and digital cinema formats including 16mm, 35mm, and 2K and 4K digital formats in theater spaces with state-of-the-art sound systems. Films projected at Michigan are often preceded by an organ concert.

Michigan is also home to the Not Just for Kids series of children’s theater productions, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, the University of Michigan’s University Musical Society, the Ark, Live Nation Worldwide, a multitude of University of Michigan departments and cultural clubs, and many local area non-profit community groups, who use the historic Main Auditorium for a variety of live events. A handful of local film festivals also call the MTF home, including the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Ann Arbor Jewish Film Festival, and the Ann Arbor Polish Film Festival.

This combination of community service, media arts, and performance programs is arguably unparalleled anywhere in diversity, quality, and scope—especially for a market the scale of the Ann Arbor area—allowing the MTF to carry out its mission to bring diverse people together to build community, enhance understanding, and advance public storytelling and the arts, as we protect these two historic theaters.