The Met: Live in HD is back on March 21 with TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, presented with the Des Moines Metro Opera The electrifying Lise Davidsen plays the Irish princess Isolde in Wagner’s transcendent meditation on love and death. Tickets at: varsitydesmoines.com/movies/the-m...

#ScienceOnScreen returns for one of the year’s biggest films! Join us on Wednesday, March 25 for #ProjectHailMary + pre-show presentation from NASA Solar System Ambassador Dan Hoy, about space travel, the science of stars, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life in our galaxy. 🎟️ bit.ly/4loEqDK

Our next Filmmaker in Person event is coming up! Join us on March 18 for Jason Biggs’ UNTITLED HOME INVASION ROMANCE, about an actor’s attempt to save his failing marriage by staging a home invasion. Following the show: a Q&A with screenwriter and Des Moines local Josh Johnson! 🎟️ bit.ly/4sss13R

Kink friends and Pillion @thevarsitydsm.bsky.social

Dark. Twisted. Beautiful. #TheBrideMovie opens this Thursday! Get tickets: varsitydesmoines.com/movies/the-b...

The big night is TWO WEEKS AWAY! Start planning your look now, whether that’s a top hat & bowtie or donning your favorite character costume like last year’s Nosferatu. Comfy clothes welcome too! See you on the red carpet. 💃 🎟️ Red Carpet Affair: bit.ly/4qXdc8a Photo Credit to Mary Elle Photography

Introducing the 2026 Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts! Opening Saturday, February 28. Tickets & showtimes: bit.ly/4sk8tPe 🔪 “Butcher's Stain” (26 min.) ⚽️ “A Friend of Dorothy” (21 min.) 🩸 “Jane Austen's Period Drama” (12 min.) 🎶 “The Singers” (18 min.) 💋 “Two People Exchanging Saliva” (36 min.)

We’re looking for a part-time shift lead to join our team! Send us an email to learn more and apply. 🍿

Introducing the 2026 Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts! Opening Friday, February 27. Tickets at: bit.ly/3P5owSr 🎥 All the Empty Rooms 🎥 Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud 🎥 Children No More: ‘Were and Are Gone’ 🎥 The Devil is Busy 🎥 Perfectly a Strangeness

Opening, March 5: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Frankenstein reimagining #TheBride stars Jessie Buckley as The Bride, who has been created as a companion for Frank (Christian Bale), sparking romance and radical social change. ⚡️ Tickets & Showtimes for Opening Weekend: bit.ly/3N3xwXK #TheBrideMovie

Introducing the Animated 2026 Oscar Shorts! Opening Friday, Feb. 27. 🏊 “Butterfly” (France, 15 min.) 🐻 “Forevergreen” (USA, 13 min.) 💧 “The Girl Who Cried Pearls” (Canada, 17 min.) 👴🏻 “Retirement Plan” (Ireland, 7 min.) 🏝️ “The Three Sisters” (Israel, 14 min.) Tickets & showtimes: bit.ly/4u0Lcna

Early Bird Pricing for our Summer Camps & Seminars ends March 1! Grades 4-5: Travel the world through movies 🌎 Grades 6-12: Get hands-on stop motion animation experience ⏯️ Grades 9-12: Explore the hero’s journey and the female perspective on film 🎥 Sign up at: varsitydesmoines.com/education/?u...

Opening Friday: PILLION 🏍️ Alexander Skarsgård stars as the enigmatic biker Ray who takes in Colin (Harry Melling), a timid gay man, as his submissive in a wild, erotic BDSM-focused relationship. Tickets & showtimes: varsitydesmoines.com/movies/pilli...

Showtimes & tickets are now available for the 2026 Oscar-Nominated Short Films for all three categories: Animated, Documentary, and Live Action – opening this Friday, Feb. 27! 🎥 Don’t miss your chance to catch some incredible filmmaking that will also help you predict this year’s big winners. ✨

PROJECT HAIL MARY tickets are on sale NOW! 🚀 Opening March 20, the highly anticipated sci-fi adaptation stars Ryan Gosling as an astronaut who wakes up in space with his memory wiped. He soon learns that his mission is to save Earth, and that he is not alone. 🎟️ varsitydesmoines.com/movies/proje...

Before the phenomenon of SINNERS and BLACK PANTHER, Ryan Coogler directed Michael B. Jordan in the poignant biographical drama FRUITVALE STATION. Join us for a special screening on Wednesday, February 25 featuring a post-film conversation with local community leaders. Tickets at: bit.ly/46jACgC

It’s a Charli XCX fest at Varsity Cinema this weekend! Catch her new film THE MOMENT and her new soundtrack in WUTHERING HEIGHTS — now playing 😎

It feels like #AllisSummer right now in Des Moines. ☀️ Making it the perfect time to see THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE before it closes at the end of the week! Hurry in to witness Amanda Seyfried’s angelic voice and Mona Fastvold’s fearless direction in the legendary true tale of Ann Lee.

The moment is almost here. Who’s ready for Brat February? Charli XCX’s THE MOMENT opens Friday, February 13. 💋

Nearly close enough to touch. #WutheringHeightsMovie comes to Varsity Cinema in ONE WEEK. 🌹

The time is here for THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE — now playing, one week only! Don't miss one of the best films of the year and a career best performance from Amanda Seyfried. Tickets & showtimes: varsitydesmoines.com/movies/the-t... #TheTestamentofAnnLee #NowPlaying

and it's really delicious and you should get one when THE MOMENT opens on friday, february 13 💚

Anyone joining us Saturday for the critically acclaimed 5+ hour documentary MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS gets free bottomless popcorn! Don’t miss your chance to catch this unique cinematic experience of a thought-provoking journalistic documentary, featuring two intermissions and all-you-can-eat popcorn.

Opening Friday and playing ONE WEEK only: THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE 🙌 Experience the extraordinary true legend of Ann Lee, founder of the devotional sect known as the Shakers. Seyfried is revelatory in this retelling of an 18th century feminist icon. Showtimes: varsitydesmoines.com/movies/the-t...

High school cinephiles: Now's your chance to flex your love for film with Seminars and a Stop Motion Animation class! Early Bird Pricing ends March 1. Sign up at: bit.ly/4c4lzLo ⟡Main Character Energy⟡ Seminar: June 30-July 2 ⟡HerStory⟡ Seminar: July 14-16 ⟡Stop Motion Animation⟡ Class: July 20-24

THE VOICE OF HIND RIJAB uses original audio recordings to devastating effect. The Best International Feature Film nominee is being hailed as “a virtuoso exercise in single-location filmmaking” (NYT) and “an essential act of intervention” (Time Out). Now playing: varsitydesmoines.com/movies/the-v...

Just a couple more days until GROUNDHOG DAY! Come quote your favorite holiday film at our Movie Bash on Monday, February 2 at 7pm. 🦫🎩 Tickets at: varsitydesmoines.com/movies/groun...

Join us on Sat., Feb. 7 for a one-time showing of the critically acclaimed 5+ hour documentary “My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow” w/ two intermissions. It captures a moment of immense anxiety for a journalist in Russia, just months before the Ukraine invasion. 🎟️ bit.ly/4bnWD1j

Everyone in Iowa right now. 🥶 Save the date! 📆 GROUNDHOG DAY plays on February 2 at 7pm as our next Movie Bash — audience interaction encouraged! 🎟️ Tickets at: varsitydesmoines.com/movies/groun...

Our July stop motion class for 6-8 graders is almost sold out! But don’t worry — we’ve opened another week in August. 🤠 Grades 6-8: August 10-14 from 8:30am-12:30pm. Register at: bit.ly/4r8oYgL

Playing Saturday, January 24 at 1 pm: Met Live in HD production of THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY — presented with the Des Moines Metro Opera! Don't miss this exhilarating operatic adaptation of Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Tickets: varsitydesmoines.com/movies/met-o...

Back by popular demand, HAMNET returns this Friday, January 23!

It's finally here! There’s practically no other choice but to see NO OTHER CHOICE this weekend at the Varsity. Park Chan-wook’s latest is “a masterclass in the tension between comedy and tragedy” (Little White Lies) — and it's being hailed as one of the best films of 2025. Tickets at bit.ly/3NNepB4

The award-winning docudrama THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB opens on January 30. A group of Red Crescent volunteers respond to a call from a 6-year old girl trapped in a car fire in Gaza. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab.

Join us on Jan. 27 for a special screening of CHEVALIER, presented with the Des Moines Symphony! Concertmaster Jonathan Sturm will introduce the film and offer historical insight into the French-Caribbean musician Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges’ remarkable life. Tickets: bit.ly/3YAzalZ

NO OTHER CHOICE opens this Friday! Park Chan-wook (OLD BOY, THE HANDMAIDEN) is back with another masterfully crafted thriller/dark comedy. Abruptly laid off after 25 years, a man goes to extreme lengths to eliminate the job market‘s competition. Get tickets: varsitydesmoines.com/movies/no-ot...

Registration is now open for 2026 Summer Youth Programs for grades 4-12! Early Bird Pricing ends March 1. 🗺️ Passport Cinema: Stories Around the World ⏯️ Stop Motion Animation 🦸 Main Character Energy: Examining the Hero's Journey 💃 HerStory: The Female Perspective On Film Sign up at: bit.ly/4bt2QJ8

Cozy up with the wryly funny FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER – a unique anthology of estranged family, from acclaimed writer-director Jim Jarmusch, featuring an exceptional ensemble cast. www.varsitydesmoines.com/movies/father-mother-sister-brother/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=or

Master filmmaker Park Chan-wook's NO OTHER CHOICE opens Jan 16! After being fired and humiliated by a ruthless job market, a veteran paper mill manager descends into violence in a desperate bid to reclaim his dignity. "A brutal story for brutal times...steeped in corrosive humor." — New York Times

Opening Friday: Winner of the 2025 Golden Lion at Venice, FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER is the eagerly-awaited new film from Jim Jarmusch. Funny, tender, and sharp, this intimate exploration of family dynamics stars Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, and Vicky Krieps.

Take it from Charli, THE PLAGUE is an unforgettable cinematic experience. Now playing. 🏊‍♂️ Tickets & Showtimes: www.varsitydesmoines.com/movies/the-plague/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=or

THE MET: LIVE in HD continues in 2026! Join us on Saturday, January 10 for I PURITANI – Presented with the Des Moines Metro Opera. When it comes to beautiful melodies, captivating coloratura and virtuoso vocal fireworks, few operas can match the tragic love story of Elvira and Arturo in I PURITANI.

End 2025 with one more movie at the Varsity. ✨ MARTY SUPREME and THE SECRET AGENT are now playing. (Don't worry, they'll be here next year too. 😉) Thanks for another great year at the movies.

Have you witnessed the pursuit of greatness? MARTY SUPREME is now playing. 🟠“Safdie is working at a remarkable technical level.” – LWL 🟠“Boasts throwback elements but leans timeless in its unlikely hero’s journey” – USA Today 🟠“The wildest damn thing Chalamet has ever put on screen” – Peter Travers

Opening this week: a 12-year-old boy at a water polo summer camp experiences the vitriol of his peers in Charlie Polinger’s arresting feature debut THE PLAGUE.

THE SECRET AGENT is winning over moviegoers for its historical precision, subversive storytelling, and a career-best performance from Wagner Moura. Now playing.

Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness. #MartySupreme starring #TimotheeChalamet is now playing. Showtimes & tickets at: www.varsitydesmoines.com/movies/marty-supreme/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=or

After winning big at Cannes, THE SECRET AGENT is already sweeping nominations early in awards season. In this neo-noir thriller, Marcelo (Wagner Moura) is an innocent man entangled in the dangerous regime of 1977 Brazil. Now playing at the Varsity.

Come out for a holiday edition of HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS on Mon., Dec. 22 at 7pm! This inventive, snow-covered spectacle feels like a live-action cartoon—complete with fuzzy beaver suits, mischievous antics, and wintry chaos. Featuring a special pre-recorded holiday intro! 🎟️ Tickets: bit.ly/44GrguG

Less than a week to go until the highly anticipated A24 film MARTY SUPREME — starring Timothée Chalamet, directed by Josh Safdie. First screenings start Wednesday, December 24. 🎟️ Get tickets: bit.ly/4aVll8U