This year, the City Cinema Kinodvor is celebrating no less than three anniversaries – the centenary of the cinema at Kolodvorska, the twentieth anniversary of the art cinema and the fifteenth anniversary of the Public Institute Kinodvor.

Since 1 October 2008, when the Public Institute Kinodvor, which was founded the same year by the City of Ljubljana, started the projectors in the cinema at Kolodvorska, and over 1.5 million visitors have watched 3,300 different films at over 27,000 film screenings.

Cinema with history

The life of the cinema at Kolodvorska began with a commemorative screening on 15 October 1923, and the next day, the Ljubljanski dvor started running a regular program for the broadest audience. It was the first space explicitly designed as a cinema, and with it, Ljubljana got a luxurious »cinema theatre«, the kind that was built in all European cities in the 1920s. Years and decades followed, in which the cinema changed names, managers, appearance, number of seats and program, but it never stopped being a cinema. An important basis for the operation of the present city cinema was the renovation and opening of the Kinodvor art cinema in October 2003, which was made possible by the efforts of Silvan Furlan, the then director of the Slovenian Cinematheque. Art cinema Kinodvor was created with an agreement between the City of Ljubljana and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, and the Slovenian Cinematheque managed it. When the new management of the Cinematheque closed it on 1 April 2008, the City of Ljubljana founded the Public Institute Kinodvor on 26 May 2008, and the city cinema Kinodvor welcomed visitors again in October 2008.

Kinodvor is »more than a cinema«

Kinodvor has established itself as an important film and cultural centre and a scene of lively social and film events.

The success of the city cinema is mainly due to the fact that the cinema is not just a screening of a film in a cinema, but rather a complete film and social experience: this includes all the time the visitor dedicates to visiting the cinema. The program is enriched by conversations with filmmakers, round tables, expert discussions, exhibitions, workshops, quizzes, musical performances, special guests and much more. Kinodvor is »more than a cinema« also because it is a space for meeting each other, community formation, and a safe and inclusive place for everyone.