January 23 - January 25, 2026 Walter Murch: An American Cinematheque Retrospective Series | THE CONVERSATION, THX 1138, RETURN TO OZ, APOCALYPSE NOW: FINAL CUT
ABOUT THE SERIES: The American Cinematheque welcomes filmmaker, sound designer, editor and author Walter Murch for a retrospective of some of the most iconic films from across his stunning multi-genre, multi-role, six-decade career. In addition to three in-person Q&As, our retrospective culminates with a masterclass with Murch himself followed by a screening of APOCALYPSE NOW: FINAL CUT, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Sound. A three-time Oscar winner, Murch’s contributions to cinema have built the look, feel and sound of the modern effects-driven film. The series begins with George Lucas’ cult classic feature debut, THX 1138. Murch co-wrote the screenplay with Lucas, helping bring the film’s tale of unsanctioned love under a dystopian regime to life. Murch earned his first Academy Award nomination for his editing work on Coppola’s classic thriller THE CONVERSATION, a perfectly paranoid story of a surveillance expert who records something he was never meant to hear—and that might destroy him. In addition to his collaborations with Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, Murch stepped into the director’s chair for RETURN TO OZ, a darkly fantastical adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s series of novels. Forgoing the candy-colored dreamland of the 1939 film, Murch creates a harrowing world of sanitariums and ruined cities that young Dorothy must navigate to save her friends. Join us at the Egyptian Theatre to experience Murch’s medium-defining work on the big screen.