1997 Japanese animated film Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫) in Pittsburgh from September 26, part of Studio Ghibli Fest 2026.

The 1997 Japanese animated film Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫) will play in the Pittsburgh area from September 26 through September 30 as part of Studio Ghibli Fest 2026.

From the legendary Studio Ghibli and Academy Award®-winning director Hayao Miyazaki comes an epic masterpiece that has dazzled audiences worldwide with its breathtaking imagination, exhilarating battles, and deep humanity. Inflicted with a deadly curse, the young warrior Ashitaka heads west in search of a cure. There, he stumbles into a bitter conflict between Lady Eboshi, the proud people of Iron Town, and the enigmatic Princess Mononoke, a young girl raised by wolves, who will stop at nothing to prevent the humans from destroying her home and the forest spirits and animal gods who live there.

It plays at many local theaters--depending on the day--including AMC Loews Waterfront, AMC Westmoreland in Greensburg, GQT Pittsburgh Mills, the Cinemark theaters in Robinson and McCandless, and the CHartiers Valley Luxury 14 + PTX. Tickets are available online; please note, some shows are in Japanese with English subtitles while others are dubbed in Japanese.

Filipino-Icelandic singer-songwriter Yaelokre performing in Pittsburgh, November 14.

Filipino-Icelandic singer-songwriter Yaelokre will perform in Pittsburgh on November 14.

If you ever feel as if music has lost its capacity for surprise, the beguiling wonder and infinite creativity of Yaelokre will respark your belief. The Filipino-Icelandic artist - real name Keath Ósk (they/it) - fuses three imaginative strands to their visionary expression: intimate, innocent folk infused with leftfield surrealism and instant pop accessibility; artwork which is intricately detailed and beautifully alluring; and storytelling which brings personal experience and poetry into rich, fable-like narratives. What’s more, all three of these elements are crafted by this one visionary artist.

The scale of the fantastical world they have created is vast, both in terms of narrative and lore. But its essence is relatively simple. The songs are set in the fictional world of Meadowlark and chart the adventures of four masked children who comprise a musical ensemble known at The Lark: Cole Seymour, Clémente Dearworth, Peregrine August, and Kingsley. They perform as representatives of The Harkers, mythical beings who express the fundamental principles of nature, wonder and chaos. What’s more, Yaelokre voices all of the different characters within their universe.

The show starts at 8:00 pm, doors at 7:00, at Mr. Smalls Theater in Millvale (map). Tickets are available online.

4K presentation of Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊) stays in Pittsburgh through (at least) September 30 for film's 30th anniversary.

A 4K presentation of Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊) for the film's 30th anniversary, which opened in Pittsburgh on September 17, will stay here through (at least) September 30. A synopsis, from the Anime News Network:

In the year 2029, the barriers of our world have been broken down by the net and by cybernetics, but this brings new vulnerability to humans in the form of brain-hacking. When a highly-wanted hacker known as "The Puppetmaster" begins involving them in politics, Section 9, a group of cybernetically enhanced cops, are called in to investigate and stop the Puppetmaster. The pursuit will call into question what makes a human and what is the Puppetmaster in a world where the distinction between human and machine is increasingly blurry.

It will continue locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront and tickets are available online.

2026 Korean movie Hope (호프) stays in Pittsburgh through (at least) September 30.

The 2026 Korean movie Hope (호프), which opened in Pittsburgh on September 9, will remain here through (at least) September 30.

A police chief, a policewoman and a group of hunters try to track down and kill a mysterious creature that's laying waste to a Korean village.

It plays locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront andtickets are available online.

Bilingual Chinese-English Story Hour at Carnegie Library in Oakland, September 26.

The Chinese Library for Children will present Bilingual Story Hour on Saturday, September 26.

Join us for stories, songs, movement and hands-on activities–designed to introduce children to language and culture through play and shared reading.

The target audience is for children age 0 through 5 and their caregivers. It runs from 10:30 to 11:30 am. The tOakland (Main) branch is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. (map), accessible by a number of city buses.

4K restoration of 1988 Japanese animated film Akira (アキラ) returns to Pittsburgh, from September 25.

A new 4K restoration of the 1988 Japanese animated film Akira (アキラ) will return to Pittsburgh from September 25.

Set in 2019, Kaneda is a bike gang leader whose close friend Tetsuo gets involved in a top-secret government project known as Akira. On his way to save Tetsuo, Kaneda runs into a group of anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists, and a powerful military leader. Considered one of the greatest films ever made.

It plays at the Row House Lawrenceville on September 25, 27, 30, and October 1, multiple times per day, and tickets are available online. The Row House Lawrenceville is a single-screen theater located at 4115 Butler St. in Lawrenceville (map).

The Yoshida-ryo Dormitory (対話のゆくえ 京都大学吉田寮), 2026 Japan Documentary Film Award (JDFA) winner, screening in Pittsburgh on September 23.

The Yoshida-ryo Dormitory (対話のゆくえ 京都大学吉田寮), which was named the 2026 Japan Documentary Film Award (JDFA) winner in August, will play at the University of Pittsburgh on September 23, part of the SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest.

The Japan Council of the University of Pittsburgh and SCREENSHOT: Asia are pleased to announce the winner of the fifth biennial University of Pittsburgh Japan Documentary Film Award: The Yoshida-ryo Dormitory (『対話のゆくえ 京都大学吉田寮』), directed by Keizo Fujikawa. The film will be screened with the filmmaker in attendance as a special part of the SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Festival. An award ceremony and screening with the filmmaker will take place on Wednesday, September 23, 2026 at 7:00pm in David Lawrence Hall 121 on campus at the University of Pittsburgh.

The winning film, The Yoshida-ryo Dormitory, takes viewers inside Yoshida-ryō, Kyoto University’s storied self-governing student dormitory, as its residents confront the university’s plans to remove them from a building they have administered themselves for over a century. True to its Japanese title, 対話のゆくえ, which speaks to the continued political importance of dialogue, the film patiently observes the dormitory’s culture of consensus at work: the meetings and negotiations, the compressed history of conflict and litigation, and the recurring celebrations of the dorm festival that bind the students to one another and to the space they are fighting to preserve. With deep roots in the collectivism of the student protest era, the film pushes against familiar stereotypes of Japanese conformity by focusing on the eccentric and communitarian among us, and it speaks directly to questions being asked of universities everywhere: student autonomy, institutional memory, and the reach of administrative power. As one judge noted, the film “captures the essence of the universal, fundamental issue of the world we live in by digging deep into a very local, small world.”

Established by Pitt’s Japan Council to recognize exemplary documentary films promoting the understanding of Japan and Japanese culture, the University of Pittsburgh Japan Documentary Film Award is supported by generous endowments from Japanese donors to promote Japan Studies and deepen cross-cultural understanding at the University of Pittsburgh and across the region. This year’s award marks the tenth anniversary of the program’s founding.

The film starts at 7:00 pm, is followed by an award ceremony with the director, and is free and open to the public in room 121 David Lawrence Hall in Oakland (map).

1957 Kurosawa film Throne of Blood (蜘蛛巣城) in Pittsburgh, from September 25.

The 1957 Akira Kurosawa film Throne of Blood (蜘蛛巣城) will play in Pittsburgh from September 25, part of the Row House Lawrenceville's Shakespeare Adaptations series.

Akira Kurosawa retells Macbeth by replacing lords and kings with samurai and emperors in this rendition set in medieval Japan. Brutal, suspenseful, and visually stunning — this is by far one of the best Shakespeare adaptations ever made for the screen.

On the 26th the theater will host a Throne of Blood with Shakespeare Monologues special event.

Our friends from Shakespeare in the Park will introduce this amazing adaptation of Macbeth and perform a few monologues before the show! A portion of all ticket sales will go back to supporting their nonprofit mission.

Tickets are available online. The Row House Lawrenceville is a single-screen theater located at 4115 Butler St. in Lawrenceville (map).

2025 Korean film 3670 in Pittsburgh, September 22, part of SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest.

The 2025 Korean film 3670 returns to Pittsburgh on September 22, part of this year's SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest. A synopsis, from SCREENSHOT:

CONTENT WARNING: Sexual situations

3670 is a group text code for a meet-up of a special club of friends. For Cheol-jun (Cho You-hyun), a young North Korean defector building a life in Seoul, it becomes the address of a self he has never been able to show in public. By day he works part-time at a convenience store, crams for the college entrance exam, and depends on the fellow defectors who have taken him in. But there is a secret he cannot let even his closest friends know: he is gay. After a chance encounter with another gay man, he is pulled into Seoul’s queer social world: new friends and the messy thrill of wanting someone who may want someone else. Park Joon-ho’s debut keeps the melodrama low and moves with Cheol-jun’s emotional weather, as he experiences the cruelties and beauty of friendship.

It plays from 7:00 pm at the Harris Theater in downtown's Cultural District (map) and tickets are available online. University of Pittsburgh students, faculty, and staff can use promo code ASIAN2026 to get free tickets, but must show valid university ID at the door. 

Opafé, "artisan bakery" from Opal Group, to hold soft opening tomorrow.

Opafé is holding its soft opening tomorrow on the South Side. Described as a "bakery focused on artisan croissants, it is located at 2720 SIdney St. (map), and comes from the team behind Top Pot, Okane Sushi, and Opal Buffet, among others, and is a portmanteau of "opal" and "café."

Starting this Monday, we are opening the doors softly to give Pittsburgh a first taste of Opafe Bakery. An exclusive selection from our menu will be available as our team gradually commissions our kitchen equipment and refines the processes of service. 🥐

For our Grand Opening, official hours will be announced soon! In the meantime, please stay tuned to social media for hours and additional exciting updates! We invite you to share your opinion, so when you visit, please be sure to let us know how we are doing.

Signage first went up earlier this year.

2025 Vietnamese film Ky Nam Inn (Quán Kỳ Nam) in Pittsburgh, September 21 for SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest.

The 2025 Vietnamese film Ky Nam Inn (Quán Kỳ Nam) will play in Pittsburgh on September 21 as part of the SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest. A synopsis, from SCREENSHOT:

Ky Nam Inn, a romance set in 1980’s Saigon, explores the frustrations of desire when cast against duty, community, expectation, and authoritarianism. Khang (Liên Bỉnh Phát) wants to prove himself to be a skilled translator, even though he may have gotten his job translating The Little Prince from nepotism. Meanwhile, his neighbor Ky Nam (Đỗ Thị Hải Yến) caters lunches out of her kitchen while suffering from judgement because of her deceased husband’s southern associations. Though the film and its characters are unabashedly beautiful, the love story is rooted in literature and language. Their relationship grows because of—and in spite of—how languages cannot close the gaps between cultures, classes, and regions. Shot on luminous 35mm, the lyrical film explores what can and cannot be said in a world with duties, rules, and expectations.

Best film: Beijing International Film Festival (2026)

It plays at 6:30 pm in Public Health G24 on the University of Pittsburgh campus (map) and tickets are available onilne. Tickets are free for CMU students and for University of Pittsburgh students, faculty, and staff.

Queer Taiwan: Works from Jo-Fei Chen, with films Where is my Love? (強迫曝光) and Incidental Journey (海角天涯), September 20 at Carnegie Museum of Art.

The Carnegie Museum of Art will screen two films, Where is my Love? (強迫曝光) and Incidental Journey (海角天涯), on September 20 for SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest's "Queer Taiwan: Works from Jo-Fei Chen" programming. A synopsis, from SCREENSHOT:

SCREENSHOT: Asia is excited to bring two rarely-seen works of queer filmmaker Jo-Fei Chen to Pittsburgh. These two works offered a nuanced portrayal of gay love in Taiwan at a time when few films did.

Where is My Love, Taipei in the 1990s: Ko (Wen Jixing) is a young gay writer who has written a story about his sexuality, and is encouraged by his mentor to enter it into a prestigious writing competition. But that would mean publicly revealing his homosexuality, so Ko must decide whether or not to remain in the closet.

Incidental Journey, after breaking up with her girlfriend, student Ching (Wu Su-Li) goes on a road trip around Taiwan. On the island’s east coast, she encounters hitchhiker Hsiang (Wang Wan-Jung), an older, solitary artist. Hsiang takes Ching to visit her friend Ji (Vicky Chiang), who lives on a peaceful rural farm with her husband.

Presented by SCREENSHOT: Asia, Jaded Collective, AQUARIUS, Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Office of Institutional Engagement and Wellbeing.

The event starts at 3:00 pm and tickets are free, though reservations are required. The Carnegie Museum of Art is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map), accessible by a number of city buses.

Music at Main: Album Listening Club – “KPop Demon Hunters” Movie Soundtrack, September 26 at Carnegie Library in Oakland.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Main Branch is hosting "Music at Main: Album Listening Club – “KPop Demon Hunters” Movie Soundtrack" on September 26.

It’s like a book club, but for music! This month’s album is the “KPop Demon Hunters” Movie Soundtrack. We’ll play some tracks, talk about its history and share what the album means to us. Held in the North Wing Music Room.

It runs from 2:00 to 3:00 pm and is free and open to the public. The Main branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map), accessible by numerous city bus lines.

1998 Taiwanese drama-musical film The Hole (洞) in Pittsburgh, September 21 through 24.

The 1998 Taiwanese drama-musical film The Hole (洞) will play in Pittsburgh from September 21 through 24.

Set on the eve of the 21st century, Tsai Ming-liang’s fourth feature turns a crumbling Taipei apartment block into one of cinema’s strangest and most tender end-of-the-world romances. Perennial muse Lee Kang-sheng (“the man upstairs”) and Yang Kuei-mei (“the woman downstairs”) are among the building’s last holdouts, refusing evacuation as a mysterious epidemic spreads outside and rain batters the city without end. When a plumber leaves behind an unfinished repair, the man’s floor opens into an accidental passage between two sealed-off lives, turning leaks, trash, pesticide, and petty territorial warfare into a strange form of courtship. Among the most disarmingly funny and cathartic entries in Tsai’s filmography, The Hole finds hope in a world that seems to be falling apart, breaking its deadpan plague scenario open with splendorous Grace Chang musical numbers and poker-faced slapstick.

The film plays at the Harris Theater in downtown's Cultural District (map) and tickets are available online.

2026 film Filipiñana in Pittsburgh for SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest, September 19.

The 2026 Filipino film Filipiñana will play in Pittsburgh on September 19, part of this year's SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest. A synopsis, from SCREENSHOT:

In Filipiñana, Isabel (Jorrybell Agoto) — a new “tee girl” at a luxury golf course – attempts to navigate the quiet luxury and ruthless hierarchical structure of Manila’s wealthy elite. Even as Isabel becomes increasingly entranced with the club’s president Dr. Palanca, she also seems to know secrets that point to Palanca’s dark history. The film’s highly artificial shots of composed pastel symmetries and minutely choreographed workers paint a portrait of Manila’s high society as simultaneously banal and terrifying. The luxurious facility echoes the country’s instabilities: its challenges from climate upheaval amid an increasingly wealthy elite, its history of violence, and its underlying class conflicts. First-time feature director Rafael Manual’s confident artisanship and darkly funny writing are remarkable, but Agoto is the standout star of the film, as a young woman who wants a different life than has been allocated to her. Her relationship with Dr. Palanca maps the Philippines’s past onto its present, showing how even the most elite can’t escape the realities in which they live.

It plays from 7:00 pm at the Harris Theater in downtown's Cultural District (map) and tickets are available online. University of Pittsburgh students, faculty, and staff can use promo code ASIAN2026 to get free tickets, but must show valid university ID at the door.

An Evening With the Incredible Ming-Na Wen, October 8 in Shadyside.

Riverstone Books will present "An Evening With the Incredible Ming-Na Wen" on October 8 at Third Presbyterian Church in Shadyside (map).

Join us for an unforgettable evening with beloved actress and Pittsburgh's own , Ming-Na Wen!

Join us on Thursday, October 8th to celebrate the release of Ming-Na Wen's cookbook, Have You Eaten Yet?

This cookbook is a heartfelt collection of stories and recipes from Ming-Na Wen, weaving together her childhood in her family’s Pittsburgh Chinese restaurant with the dishes she now cooks at home for loved ones and friends.

We are excited to announce that author Jim Rooney (A Different Way to Win: Dan Rooney’s Story from the Super Bowl to the Rooney Rule), member of the legendary Rooney family, will be our moderator for the evening!

See below for all details regarding the event and please reach out to us if you have any questions.

2025 Japanese film Two Seasons, Two Strangers (旅と日々), starring Shim Eun-kyung, in Pittsburgh on September 20, part of SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest.

The 2025 Japanese film Two Seasons, Two Strangers (旅と日々), starring Korean actress Shim Eun-kyung, will play in Pittsburgh on September 20, part of this year's SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest.

Inspired by two of Yoshiharu Tsuge’s manga short stories – A View of the Seaside and Mr. Ben and His Igloo – the film connects and contrasts two moments in time and space, exploring how lives and stories can be viewed, reviewed, and reimagined in cinema. In the first story, a damp, windswept summer by the sea provides the location where two young strangers exchange tentative glances and halting conversation. In the second, a screenwriter, Li, meets the enigmatic innkeeper Benzo at a remote snowy inn. In both, director Sho Mikaye (whose first film, Small, Slow but Steady screened at our 2023 festival) bridges connections between strangers to give us a beautiful, intimate, at times surreal, portrait of human connectivity.

It plays at the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium in Oakland (map) and tickets are available online. Tickets are free for CMU students and for University of Pittsburgh students, faculty, and staff.

2025 Chinese film Gloaming in Luomu (罗目的黄昏) in Pittsburgh, September 19, part of SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Festival.

The 2025 Chinese film Gloaming in Luomu (罗目的黄昏) will play in Pittsburgh on September 19, part of this year's SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Festival. A synopsis, from SCREENSHOT:

CONTENT WARNING: Addiction

When Bai (Bai Baihe) – a dancer with an alcohol problem – receives a postcard from her missing boyfriend that only says “Gloaming in Luomu,” she heads to the untouched, idyllic village to try to find out what happened to him. There, she connects with a host of interesting characters, all of whom help her as she feels increasingly more connected to her absent companion. In Gloaming in Luomu, Korean-Chinese filmmaker Zhang Lu offers a radical reworking vanished soulmate theme, with the Sichuan-set tale unfolding like a delirious dream, the mysteries of its complex characters and metaphysical conversations heightened by meticulous camerawork and imaginative sound design. The film captures the surreal disjuncture of searching while also lost and of looking for a shade of the past–someone who may or may not be a fever dream.

It plays in room 332 of the Cathedral of Learning (map) and tickets are available online. Tickets are free for students, faculty, and staff with a valid University of Pittsburgh ID card, and for Carnegie Mellon University students. 

Laurie Trok x Peel Open Session, debuting new menu, September 19 at Peel in Squirrel Hill.

Newish Squirrel Hill teahouse Peel is hosting an Open Session on September 19 where it will unveil its new menu.

Laurie Trok x Peel is a kinetic menu collaboration for play, translocal encounters, and rituals.

Laurie is a multidisciplinary artist whose work leans into our experience of the ephemeral and the ways time is made visible by entropy. Food is central to this practice and Laurie has sought to create menus that investigate our relationship to time.

Often sourcing directly from their own garden, Laurie’s and Peel’s practices are both particularly attuned to time and place-specificity. The collaboration approaches temporalities and inheritances as sites where play, locality and collaboration can generate speculative rituals for tasting, relating and gathering.

Your ticket gives you access to the space from 12-5pm, with unlimited menu offerings available throughout the session (menu below). Once the reservation is made, there are no additional charges at Peel.

Tickets are available online for $38. More information is on Peel's Instagram post. Peel opened in February at 5806 Forbes Ave., second floor, above Uncle Sam's (map). 

2026 Indonesian horror film Sleep No More (Monster Pabrik Rambut) in Pittsburgh, September 18, part of SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Festival.

The 2026 Indonesian horror film Sleep No More (Monster Pabrik Rambut) will play in Pittsburgh on September 18, part of this year's SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Festival. A synopsis, by SCREENSHOT:

CONTENT WARNING: Violence, Extreme Gore

Following the horrific death of their mother while on the job at a wig factory in Jakarta, sisters Putri (Rachel Amanda) and Ida (Lutesha) decide to visit the premises to investigate. Upon arriving at the gloomy, prison-like building, they meet the mysterious and intimidating Mrs. Maryati (Didik Nini Thowok), the owner of the Evergreen factory, who tells them they will have to work there to pay off the colossal debt their late mother had incurred to fund Ida’s education. There are great bonuses, but the workers live in an exhausted, zombie-like state. When more workplace accidents (and eventual deaths) occur, the sisters begin to investigate. This visceral, grotesque body horror underscores the relationship between violence and labor, and the ability of capitalism to both steal everything from the human body, even using magic as a labor-saving resource in the pursuit of global profit.

It plays from 8:00 pm at the Harris Theater in downtown's Cultural District (map) and tickets are available online. University of Pittsburgh students, faculty, and staff can use promo code ASIAN2026 to get free tickets, but must show valid university ID at the door.