Press
ANNOUNCEMENTS
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July 11, 2026 | Cleveland Film
OGTTM: Cleveland Silent Film Festival at Cleveland Public Library “The Scarlet Letter”
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Cleveland Arts + Events has created a page for us, listing our screenings.
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May 4, 2026 | Cleveland Jewish News
The Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium will screen a new restoration of Karel Anton’s 1926 film “A May Tale” from 3 to 4:30 p.m. March 14 at the Cleveland Public Library’s Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium at 325 Superior Ave. in Cleveland.
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March 12, 2026 | Scene Magazine
The Cleveland Silent Film Festival, Cleveland Orchestra and more.
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October 14, 2025 | FreshWater Cleveland
Thanks to the Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium (CSFF), Northeast Ohio moviegoers are discovering something that was common knowledge a century ago, but hardly anyone knows today:
Watching a film with live music isn’t just fun, it can be positively electrifying.
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October 2, 2025 | Cleveland Classical
Horror movies and metal music seem a natural fit. Too bad that F.W. Murnau’s Faust isn’t really a horror movie.
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September 25, 2025 | Cleveland Classical
The 2025-2026 Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium got off to an impressive start with the screening of one of the icons of the pre-talkies era: Universal Pictures’ Phantom of the Opera in a restoration of its original version of 1925.
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September 17, 2025 | Cleveland Jewish News
“The Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium is presenting four centennial films as its fall lineup which started on Sept. 14 and will run through Sept. 27 at the Cleveland Museum of Art at 11150 East Blvd. in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood.”
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September 18, 2025 | Currents
“The Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium (CSFF) will present its fall lineup through September 27, with screenings at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), as well as the fall festival’s closing screening at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque.”
Read more (article on page 44)
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September 18, 2025 | Freshwater Cleveland
“The Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium (CSFF) launched its fall series of five silent films last weekend, with the screening of the 1925 “Phantom of the Opera” in the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) Gartner Auditorium. The film stars Lon Chaney and American Musical Productions’ 18-piece orchestra playing the film’s original orchestral score under the baton of conductor Joseph Rubin.”
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September 16, 2025 | Fox8.com
New Day Cleveland talks with Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium Executive Director Emily Laurance along with CSFF Board Member Caroline Breder-Watts, also Managing and Artistic Director & Co-Founder of Radio On The Lake, and CSFF Board Member Ygal Kaufman, also Senior Programming Partner at Radio on the Lake.
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September 13, 2025 | The Chronicle
“The appeal of silent films isn’t just how one watches movies but instead experiences the score.
That’s the idea annually explored at the Cleveland Silent Film Festival, which returns with five screening dates scheduled from Sept. 14 through 27 at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s (CMA) Gartner Auditorium and the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque.”
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September 11, 2025 | The News-Herald
“The appeal of silent films isn’t just how one watches movies but instead experiences the score.
“That’s the idea annually explored at the Cleveland Silent Film Festival, which returns with five screening dates scheduled from Sept. 14 through 27 at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium and the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque.”
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September 9, 2025 | ClevelandClassical.com
“On Sunday, September 14 the Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium will open its 2025 edition with that iconic film. The special screening at 3:00 pm in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art will celebrate Phantom’s 100th anniversary and feature its original score, performed live by American Musical Productions’ 17-piece orchestra conducted by Joseph Rubin.”
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September 2, 2025 | WKYC.com
“These four screenings not only present the opportunity to experience cinema from 100 years ago, they also offer a rare window a genre of music that one does not hear often these days: silent film scoring. Guests can travel back to the era before recorded sound hit the movies and hear four historically informed approaches.”
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September 3, 2025 | Nitrateville
Nitrateville, a podcast featuring vintage films, spoke with founder and executive director, Emily Laurance, about how the festival began and how it's evolved over the four years it's been in existence.
From NitrateVille Radio: Ep. 123: Cleveland Silent Film Festival • Lukas Foerster on Weimar Comedies • A Gish Sisters Book, Sep 3, 2025
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August 25, 2025 | Cleveland.com
“We are thrilled to partner with the Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium,” said Gabe Pollack, CMA director of performing arts, in a statement. “This is a rare chance to experience the silent cinema as it was meant to be seen and heard— on the big screen, with live music, in a remarkable performing arts setting.”
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August 22, 2025 | Northeast Ohio Thrive
Information on the Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium’s 2025 festival and events.
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August 21, 2025 | Voyage Ohio
An interview with Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium Executive Director and Founder Emily Laurance.
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August 5 | Film Festival Close-up from Ohio Goes to the Movies.
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July 24, 2025 | Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium Press Release
The Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium (CSFF) will present a unique double bill of silent shorts, including War Story, a rare 21st century silent picture, directed by Lorain native John Baumgartner, along with one of the Charlie Chaplin shorts that inspired it, Sunnyside.
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May 30, 2024 | by Mike Telin, clevelandclassical.com.
““The Many Moods of Melodrama: Sentiment, Satire, Horror, and Noir” was a fascinating and thoroughly entertaining evening that featured five short silent films exploring the melodramatic mode, with original scores performed by the students.”
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May 8, 2024 | by Mike Telin, clevelandclassical.com.
“ . . . one of the objectives of the class — Music and Melodrama on Stage and Screen — was for the students ‘to get a feeling of music in melodrama, and to get a sense of the history of the silent film genre by learning how to compile a musical score.’”
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September 19, 2023 | by Daniel Hathaway, clevelandclassical.com
“Now in its second season, the Silent Film Festival has obviously attracted a following. The crowd gathered on Friday evening September 8 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art so far exceeded expectations that attendees were asked to recycle their programs for the Saturday screening”
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September 4, 2023 | Cool Cleveland
“Bask in that artistry this weekend when the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Cinematheque, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium present the four-day Silent Film Festival at three different venues.”
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August 31, 2023 | by Daniel Hathaway, clevelandclassical.com
“Organist Clark Wilson is one of the most prominent scorers of silent photoplays in America today. His accompaniments reflect the techniques and materials of the musical performances given in major picture palaces during the heyday of silent film.”
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August 31, 2023 | by Mike Telin, clevelandclassical.com
“When you create something successful, people want more. Such is the case with the Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium, which made its debut in January of 2022.”
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August 28, 2023 | The Chronicle-Telegram
Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium Executive Director Emily Laurance on the 2023 Silent Film Festival.
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March 23, 2022 | by Peggy Turbett, Currents, page 20
“Midway through the silent film “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans",” a reunited couple passionately embrace in the middle of a traffic intersection swirling with annoyed motorists. The chaotic scene is so cinematically vibrant, you would swear you heard the staccato bleats of an angry car horn…”
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February 11, 2022 | by Kabir Bhatia, Ideastream Public Media
“At the very first Academic Award ceremony in 1929, Best Picture went to the silent film, “Wings.” Unlike today, there were no categories for anything sound-related, but there was an original score to go with the movie…”
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February 10, 2022 | by Jacqueline Gerber, Ideastream Public Media
“WCLV's Jacqueline Gerber chats with Emily Laurance of the Oberlin Conservatory about a new event focusing on silent movies and the music written for them…”
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February 9, 2022 | by Mike Telin, ClevelandClassical.com
“Until recently, only a select few would have recognized the name John Stepan Zamecnik (1872–1953) if it had come up in conversation. But in the past few months the Cleveland-born violinist and composer is experiencing a resurgence. His music and accomplishments are being featured as part of the Cleveland Arts Prize Past Masters Project…”
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February 8, 2022 | by Mike Telin, ClevelandClassical.com
“When we think of film composers, the names Miklós Rózsa, John Williams, and Randy Newman immediately come to mind. But who were the important composers from the silent era?…”
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Febrary 2, 2022 | by Dennis Dooley, freshwatercleveland.com
“The first-ever Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium: Music That Once Filled the Silence will this month celebrate the emergence of music paired with films at venues around Northeast Ohio…”
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February 2022 | CoolCleveland.com
“Cleveland has a seemingly endless stream of film festivals: festivals devoted to documentaries, LGBTQ+ films, Black subjects, Jewish subjects, shorts, indie films — and of course, the biggie, the Cleveland International Film Festival. But now there’s a new event: the Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium: Music That Once Filled the Silence, which kicks off at the Hermit Club in Playhouse Square on Sunday February 13…”
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January 21, 2022 | by Zachary Lewis, cleveland.com
“CLEVELAND, Ohio – A little-known Clevelander and star of the silent film era is about to enjoy a local renaissance. This week, the Cleveland Arts Prize announced a new Cleveland Silent Film Festival and a colloquium focused on John Stepan Zamecnik, a Cleveland-born composer whose music supported some of the biggest titles of the era…”