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Who We Are

The Billy Wilder Theater, the new home of the UCLA Film & Television Archive's Exhibition & Public Programs, is made possible by a generous gift from Audrey L. Wilder. The theater is named in honor of Mrs. Wilder's late husband, the legendary screenwriter, director and producer.

Billy Wilder (1906-2002) left a virtually unparalleled cinematic legacy. Born on the outskirts of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Wilder fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s to become a master of Hollywood film language and a shrewd comic observer of the American scene. During a career spanning nearly six decades, he won multiple Academy Awards, worked with the brightest stars of his day, and crafted some of the most memorable moments, images and lines of dialogue in movie history. Among the many classics Wilder co-wrote—most often with his trusted collaborator Charles Brackett and later, I.A.L. Diamond—and directed were Double Indemnity (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Ace in the Hole (1951), Sabrina (1954), The Seven Year Itch (1955), Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960).

Location

Billy Wilder Theater
Courtyard Level, Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Boulevard (intersection of Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards)
Los Angeles, CA 90024
310.206.8013

Parking

Parking is available in the lot under the theater. Enter from Westwood Blvd., just north of Wilshire.
Parking for people with disabilities is provided on levels P1 and P3.

After 6pm: $3.00 flat rate.
Before 6pm: $3.00 for first 3 hours with Museum validation and $1.50 per 20 minutes thereafter, maximum $12 per day. To obtain validation stamp show your ticket stub at the security desk in the Wilshire Lobby.

Unused Return Parking Discount cards can be applied towards the price of admission at the Billy Wilder Theater. Please present card at the box office.

Theater Features

The facilities of the Billy Wilder Theater are as exceptional as its namesake. The modern design by Michael Maltzan Architecture stylishly interprets cinema's play of light and movement in real space, and boasts a color palette befitting an artist as bold and singular as Billy Wilder. The 294-seat interior features comfortable leather seats and superb sightlines. The theater also possesses unique technical capabilities: it is among a select handful of venues nationwide able to exhibit an entire century's worth of moving images in their original formats. From the earliest silent films requiring variable speed projection to those glorious classics printed on fragile nitrate stock all the way up to cutting-edge digital cinema—the Wilder can accommodate an astonishing array of screen technologies.

Convenience

The theater's versatility makes it a perfect space for the Archive's famously wide-ranging cinematheque programming, complemented by filmmaker talks, multimedia lectures, panel discussions and other forums dedicated to the art, culture and history of the moving image. All these critically acclaimed activities, previously based at the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA campus, are now even more accessible in the heart of Westwood at the Billy Wilder Theater. Conveniently located on the courtyard level of the Hammer Museum, the "Archive at the Wilder" promises to be a unique gathering place for the culturally diverse communities of Los Angeles to rediscover that most revelatory and cathartic of entertainment events: a shared cinematic experience.