Philadelphia Film Society Celebrates the Holidays With Screenings of Gremlins and Other Cult Classics


Published on December 15, 2025


Philadelphia Film Society leans fully into that chaos this season with special screenings of Joe Dante’s Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch at the Film Society Center, as part of its annual holiday film lineup.

PFS will screen Gremlins on December 20, 21, 26, 27, and 28 at the Film Society Center.

The fun continues later in the week with Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Joe Dante’s wildly unhinged sequel that trades suburban streets for a corporate skyscraper in New York City.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch will screen December 26, 27, and 28.

Gremlins remains one of the most enduring-holiday films of all time. The 1984 horror comedy follows a young man who receives an adorable creature called a Mogwai, along with three very specific rules: don’t expose it to bright light, don’t get it wet, and never feed it after midnight. Naturally, those rules are broken, unleashing chaos on a small town in a film that forever blurred the line between Christmas cheer and creature-feature mayhem.

The Gremlins films are just part of Philadelphia Film Society’s broader holiday programming, which spans heartfelt classics, action-driven counter-programming, international oddities, and darker seasonal fare. This year’s lineup includes:

  • The Long Kiss Goodnight

  • Carol

  • Home Alone

  • The Muppet Christmas Carol

  • The Shop Around the Corner

  • Dial Code Santa Claus

  • Fanny and Alexander: Television Version

  • Black Christmas