AFI Silver

SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND, USA · 1938

AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

A restored 1938 movie palace by John Eberson, now a three-screen cinematheque run by the American Film Institute.

At a glance

The AFI Silver is a three-screen movie theater in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, just north of Washington, D.C. It occupies the former Silver Theatre, a 1,100-seat cinema designed by the noted movie palace architect John Eberson and built in 1938 for Warner Bros. Pictures.

History

The Silver Theatre closed in 1985. The building then stood empty for sixteen years. Restoration began in 2001, leading to the complex that opened as the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center.

What you see

The main auditorium contains the DC Metro area’s third-largest commercial movie theater screen. Outside the Smithsonian Institution, it is second in size only to the Uptown Theater in Cleveland Park.

Cultural significance

As of 2017, the theater shows upward of 600 movies per year. The program mixes first-run features, classics, obscure archival prints, rarities from global cinema, and locally made one-offs.

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

Key facts

Country: United States
City: Silver Spring, Maryland
Coordinates: 38.9967, -77.0276
Operated by: American Film Institute

Practical information & getting there

The theater is in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, north of Washington, D.C. Check the AFI Silver website for showtimes and ticket information.

Sources & resources

National Register of Historic Places nomination file (National Park Service), ref. 88003466
Wikipedia: AFI Silver
Cultural Heritage Online

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