About Us

The Screening Room is a 3-screen independent movie theatre located in the heart of downtown Kingston, Ontario. We play all kinds of movies—including the best new Hollywood films—but we specialize in art-house, indie, foreign, classic cinema & event programming.

Our atmosphere is more intimate, unique & down-to-earth than the multiplexes. We play movies you won’t see anywhere else in the region. Our popcorn is the best in town (cooked in coconut oil) and we serve tea in china mugs. Our membership cards make regular moviegoing affordable (save $3 on admission).

Since 2011, the cinema has been locally owned & operated by Wendy Huot. She took over from Terry, who owned & ran the cinema for the 10 year prior. Dan Wannemacher founded and built the theatre in the mid-1990’s. Tribute to Dan Wannemacher, founder of The Screening Room.

We did a major renovation of our cinema in 2017/2018, which doubled our footprint and created two new beautiful exposed brick walled auditoriums (the Cameo & the Roxy). Nearly everything was rebuilt (snack bar, washrooms, lobby, hvac, etc), and the cinema was made fully wheelchair accessible.

2023 Projector Donation Drive: In Spring 2023, we raised over $70,000 in community donations (from over 620 people) to pay for a much-needed new laser projector & sound system for the Roxy auditorium.

Our Welcome Ad & Jingle

Lyrics:
Need a place to go to watch the picture show? It’s unique — boutique! — The Screening Room. Kingston’s only downtown cinema, a cool and cozy gem. So silence that phone, leave your worries at home, take an armchair vacation to sights unseen. Fly solo, with friends, or take a date; it’s great — REAL BUTTER — at The Screening Room.

Documentary About The Screening Room

In eatly 2020, filmmaker Roy Zheng made an interactive documentary about The Screening Room & independent cinema in Kingston.