No shoveling. No icy patches. No frozen fingers. Just classic movies in a climate-controlled environment.
The Museum of the Moving Image presents See It Big: Let It Snow from Friday, Dec. 6, to Sunday, Jan. 24, 2025.
This annual program shows 14 classic winter films on a big screen this year. This includes everything from cozy holiday settings to forbidding snowy landscapes to family-friendly pieces set in cold weather to awe-inspiring documentaries.
General admission is $17.50, and there’s a $1.50 transaction fee per ticket for online purchases. Seniors and students can attend for $12, while youth (ages 3 to 17) can get in for $10.
Click here for the schedule or read the summaries that follow.
The Empire Strikes Back (Special Edition, 1980)
Friday, Dec. 6, at 4 pm
In the second film released in the Star Wars series, George Lucas (no longer directing but clearly presiding) unveiled new landscapes (icy Hoth, swampy Dagobah, cloud-covered Bespin) and characters, such as Yoda (Frank Oz), Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), and Boba Fett (voiced by an uncredited Jason Wingreen), who remain in the vernacular 40-plus years later. The director is Irvin Kershner, and other stars include Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and James Earl Jones.
Dersu Uzala
Saturday, Dec. 7, at 12:45 pm, and Sunday, Dec. 15, at 3 pm
This Oscar winner follows a Russian cartographer at the turn of the 20th century as he surveys a region in the Far East of Russia with the help of Dersu Uzala, a Goldi nomad hunter. Thus begins an emotional bond that spans years and further adventures. Director Akira Kurosawa.
Little Women
Sunday, Dec. 8, at 12:30 pm, and Friday, Dec. 13, at 4 pm
Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Kirsten Dunst, and Christian Bale have parts in this 1994 adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel. Director Gillian Armstrong.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Sunday, Dec. 8, at 5 pm, and Saturday, Dec. 14, at 3:30 pm
Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, and Shelley Duvall star in this 1971 Western directed by Robert Altman. Beatty is a gambler who takes over a small northwestern town at the turn of the 20th century. Christie is the madam of the brothel he opens as a business venture.
All That Heaven Allows
Friday, Dec. 20 at 7:30 pm, and Saturday, Dec. 21, at 4:15 pm
Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson are in this 1955 romance between a well-to-do suburban widow and a lower-class bohemian gardener. Director Douglas Sirk.
Doctor Zhivago
Saturday, Dec. 21, at 12:30 pm, and Sunday, Dec. 22, at 3 pm
Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, and Geraldine Chaplin are in this 1965 Russian adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s novel about a love triangle set against the Bolshevik Revolution. Director David Lean.
Meet Me in St. Louis
Saturday, Dec. 21, at 6:15 pm, and Sunday, Dec. 22, at 1 pm
Released in 1944, Director Vincente Minnelli’s first color film is one of the greatest musicals ever made. Starring Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Mary Astor, and Leon Ames, a family contends with life, love, and an impending move from St. Louis to New York City.
The Shining
Saturday, Jan. 11, at 5:45 pm, and Sunday, Jan. 12, at 3:15 pm
Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall rock this 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s eponymous horror novel. Director Stanley Kubrick tells the tale with iconic set design and groundbreaking Steadicam photography, as writer Jack Torrance (Nicholson) goes crazy while working as the caretaker of a cavernous Colorado hotel over an isolated winter.
Nanook of the North
Saturday, Dec. 29, at 1 pm
Director Robert Flaherty’s 1922 documentary hunkers down with an Inuit family as they survive the harsh winters of Canada’s Hudson Bay.
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
Monday, Dec. 30, at 2:30 pm, and Tuesday, Dec. 31, at 2:30 pm
Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, and Marlon Brando are part of an all-star cast in Director Richard Donner’s interpretation of a comic-book hero. Due to tensions with the producers, Donner was fired with three-quarters of the film in the can. Richard Lester (A Hard Day’s Night) came in to finish, resulting in his reshooting most of it. Decades later, the original Donner footage was recovered from a vault in England and the director’s original vision was restored, including scenes originally cut.
The Thing
Saturday, Jan. 4, at 6 pm, and Sunday, Jan. 5, at 6 pm
Director John Carpenter’s 1982 remake of Howard Hawks’s The Thing from Another World features some oozy, creepy, and imaginative practical effects. Trapped in a remote Antarctic outpost, several scientists are beset by an extraterrestrial force that can enter a body undetected.
Runaway Train
Sunday, Jan. 5, at 1 pm, and Saturday, Jan. 11, at 12:45 pm
Jon Voight and Eric Roberts received Oscar nominations for their performances in Director Andrei Konchalovsky’s 1985 thriller based on a story by Akira Kurosawa. After being released from solitary confinement, convicted bank robber Manny (Voight) convinces fellow prisoner Buck (Roberts) to join his escape plan via a sewer tunnel. Once emerged, the men hijack a locomotive, embarking on a journey into the Alaskan hinterlands with authorities in hot pursuit and railroad officials trying to stop them.
The Gold Rush
Friday, Jan. 10, at 4 pm, and Saturday, Jan. 11, at 3:30 pm
Charlie Chaplin directs and stars in this 1925 silent comedy. His Little Tramp is a lone prospector who hikes to the Klondike, hoping to strike it rich and find romance. Some of his most famous scenes – the boiled shoe supper, the dance of the dinner rolls, the precarious cabin tipping over the cliff’s edge – are there.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Sunday, Jan. 12, at 12:30 pm, and Friday, Jan. 17, at 6:30 pm
The sixth installment of the James Bond franchise stars George Lazenby, a model with no previous acting experience. Released in 1969, directed by Peter R. Hunt, and partly filmed in the Swiss Alps, the film is arguably the franchise’s best, despite being highly criticized at the time for the unseasoned Lazenby’s reticent and vulnerable approach to the character.
The Ascent
Sunday, Jan. 19, at 3:45 pm, and Friday, Jan. 24, at 4 pm
In snow-choked, wind-swept, Nazi-occupied Belarus, two Soviet partisans find themselves separated from their troop and fighting for survival in Director Larisa Sheptiko’s 1977 film.
All screenings are set for either the Sumner M. Redstone Theater or the Celeste and the Armand Bartos Screen Room. Both are in the Museum of the Moving Image at 36-01 35th Ave. in Astoria’s Kaufman Arts Studios.
Top image: Little Women/Columbia Pictures/Sony
Middle image: The Gold Rush/Janus Films
Bottom image: Runaway Train/MGM/Park Circus