Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair
Presented in partnership with the American Cinematheque, ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair’ is an annual film festival showcasing some of the greatest works of cinema from across the globe that venture into the darkest sides of humanity and the bleakest points in human history.
For the festival’s fifth annual edition in June 2026, Cinematheque at Cleveland Institute of Art is presenting its own original curated lineup of uncompromising films defined by unpleasant truths and raw empathy.
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Bleak Week Series Passes for General Admission are available now at the links below:
Breaking the Waves
- Wed, Jun 10
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Lars von Trier Run Time: 159 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1996 Language: Danish
Starring: Adrian Rawlins, Emily Watson, Jean-Marc Barr, Katrin Cartlidge, Stellan Skarsgård
Love is a mighty power.
Pusher
- Wed, Jun 10
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn Run Time: 110 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1996 Language: Danish
Starring: Kim Bodnia, Laura Drasbæk, Mads Mikkelsen, Slavko Labović, Zlatko Burić
You don't have a chance. Seize it!
Taste of Cherry
- Thu, Jun 11
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami Run Time: 99 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1997 Language: Persian (Farsi)
Starring: Abdolrahman Bagheri, Elham Imani, Homayoun Ershadi, Mir Hossein Noori, Safar Ali Moradi
A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after...
Pusher II
- Thu, Jun 11
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn Run Time: 100 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 2004 Language: Danish
Starring: Anne Sørensen, Kurt Nielsen, Leif Sylvester, Mads Mikkelsen, Øyvind Hagen-Traberg
With blood on my hands.
Pusher III
- Thu, Jun 11
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn Run Time: 108 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 2005 Language: Danish
Starring: Kurt Nielsen, Marinela Dekic, Ramadan Huseini, Slavko Labović, Zlatko Burić
I'm the angel of death.
A Short Film About Killing
- Fri, Jun 12
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Krzysztof Kieślowski Run Time: 85 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1988 Language: Polish
Starring: Barbara Dziekan, Jan Tesarz, Krzysztof Globisz, Mirosław Baka, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz
Jacek climbs into the taxi driven by Waldemar, tells him to drive to a remote location, then brutally...
Threads
- Fri, Jun 12
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Mick Jackson Run Time: 117 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1985
Starring: David Brierly, Karen Meagher, Nicholas Lane, Reece Dinsdale, Rita May
The closest you'll ever want to come to nuclear war.
Funny Games
- Fri, Jun 12
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Michael Haneke Run Time: 109 min. Format: 35mm Release Year: 1997 Language: German
Starring: Arno Frisch, Frank Giering, Stefan Clapczynski, Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe
Two psychotic young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them...
The Fire Within
- Sat, Jun 13
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Louis Malle Run Time: 108 min. Format: 35mm Release Year: 1963 Language: French
Starring: Hubert Deschamps, Jean-Paul Moulinot, Léna Skerla, Maurice Ronet, Yvonne Clech
Depressed Alain Leroy leaves the clinic where he was detoxified. He meets friends, acquaintances and women, trying to...
Happiness
- Sat, Jun 13
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Todd Solondz Run Time: 140 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1998
Starring: Cynthia Stevenson, Dylan Baker, Jane Adams, Lara Flynn Boyle, Philip Seymour Hoffman
You want. He wants. She wants. But nobody wants what I want.
Werckmeister Harmonies
- Sat, Jun 13
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Béla Tarr Run Time: 139 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 2001 Language: Hungarian
Starring: Alfréd Járai, Gyula Pauer, Hanna Schygulla, Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz
A naive young man witnesses an escalation of violence in his small hometown following the arrival of a...
The Vanishing
- Sat, Jun 13
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: George Sluizer Run Time: 106 min. Format: BluRay Release Year: 1988 Language: Dutch
Starring: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Gwen Eckhaus, Johanna ter Steege, Pierre Forget
Who Has Seen This Woman?
Imitation of Life
- Sun, Jun 14
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Douglas Sirk Run Time: 125 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1959
Starring: John Gavin, Juanita Moore, Lana Turner, Sandra Dee, Susan Kohner
Fannie Hurst's best selling novel of today's tormented generation!
Umberto D.
- Sun, Jun 14
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Vittorio De Sica Run Time: 91 min. Format: 35mm Release Year: 1952 Language: Italian
Starring: Carlo Battisti, Elena Rea, Lina Gennari, Maria Pia Casilio, Napoleone the Dog
When elderly pensioner Umberto Domenico Ferrari returns to his boarding house from a protest calling for a hike...
Day of Wrath
- Sun, Jun 14
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer Run Time: 97 min. Format: 35mm Release Year: 1943 Language: Danish
Starring: Anna Svierkier, Lisbeth Movin, Preben Lerdorff Rye, Sigrid Neiiendam, Thorkild Roose
A Drama of Fear and Superstition in the 20th Century.
Boy
- Sun, Jun 14
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Nagisa Ōshima Run Time: 98 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1969 Language: Japanese
Starring: Akiko Koyama, Fumio Watanabe, Takeshi Kinoshota, Tetsuo Abe, Yun Yun-Do
A family of four lives off of scams in which they pretend to be injured by automobiles.