Art House Convergence

The 2027 Convening runs for five days, Monday 12 to Friday 16 July 2027, in Chicago. Badge pickup, screenings and affinity-group meet-ups are at the Gene Siskel Film Center on the Monday. Tuesday to Thursday are at Venue Six10, 610 South Michigan Avenue, with educational sessions, workshops, distributor presentations and Meet the Vendors and Meet the Distributors trade shows. The week closes back at the Siskel on Friday.

AHC has two discounted hotel blocks: Le Méridien Essex ($299, Monday to Friday, 0.2 miles from Venue Six10) and the Silversmith Hotel ($259 single or $299 double, Sunday to Saturday). AHC warns that Chicago hotels will be scarce that week because of summer festivals and the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby, and recommends booking early. Registration prices and the detailed schedule had not been published as of 23 October 2026; AHC says the schedule is coming in early spring 2027.

CinemaCon exists so studios can show exhibitors what is coming. Art House Convergence exists for cinemas whose programming decisions are not primarily driven by the studio slate — non-profits, single screens, cultural venues, university cinemas, community-run operations and independents with a curatorial identity.

The consequence is that the sessions cover things the larger conventions barely touch: membership and donor models, board governance for non-profit cinemas, grant funding, building and retaining a local audience, repertory and season programming, accessibility as a mission commitment rather than a compliance item, and the economics of a venue where the bar and the membership matter as much as the box office.

It is also, by most accounts, a more useful room for a small operator than a large convention, because everybody in it is running a business roughly your size with roughly your problems.

The conference has moved venue and format over the years and the current edition's dates and location are announced by the organisation directly. We are not going to guess at them here — check arthouseconvergence.org for the confirmed edition.

If you run an art house and can only justify one event a year, this is a stronger candidate than CinemaCon. The suppliers are fewer, but the sessions are aimed at you rather than at a circuit.