Savor Cinema

Savor Cinema occupies a building in downtown Fort Lauderdale that has already lived several lives before becoming a movie theater. It was originally constructed as the First Methodist Church of Fort Lauderdale in the earlier half of the twentieth century, and after the congregation moved elsewhere, Broward County took over the building and used it for various civic purposes. By the mid 1980s it had become the Vinnette Carroll Theater, hosting stage productions, before the Broward County Film Society took over management in the late 1990s and began converting the space for film projection.

Around 2000 the venue reopened as the Festival Arts Cinema, built specifically to give the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, known locally as FLIFF, a year round home rather than a rented space used only during festival season. A later renovation upgraded the projection and sound systems and replaced the seating with plush velvet chairs, and the theater took on its current name, Savor Cinema, in 2016. Today it serves as the headquarters of the Broward County Film Society and FLIFF, screening foreign films, independent releases, documentaries, and retrospectives that generally don’t make it to the mainstream multiplexes around town, alongside the film festival’s own programming each fall.

Because the space started life as a church, it still has some of the bones of one, high ceilings and a sense of scale you don’t get in a typical strip mall cinema, and that same versatility means Savor Cinema also gets used for live theater, panel discussions, and private events beyond just film screenings. The venue is available for rental, which is part of how the nonprofit sustains year round operations between the busy festival weeks each October and November.

Screening schedules and ticket prices vary depending on the film and whether it’s part of a special festival program or a regular weekly showing, so it’s worth checking the calendar on fliff.com before heading over rather than assuming a fixed showtime. The box office and theater open ahead of each scheduled screening rather than keeping standard retail hours throughout the day. The venue is located at 503 SE 6th Street, just south of downtown in the Himmarshee area, close enough to Stranahan House and the Riverwalk that it’s easy to combine a movie with a walk along the river or dinner in the surrounding restaurant district beforehand. Parking is available on nearby streets and in downtown garages a short walk away. If you’re new to the venue, arriving a little early is worth it since seating for popular festival screenings can fill up, and the theater doesn’t guarantee assigned seats for most regular showings.

Visitors coming specifically for FLIFF’s fall festival should expect a busier, more schedule-driven experience than a regular week, with passes and multi-film packages sold alongside single tickets, so it helps to plan which screenings matter most in advance.