IU Cinema Remarks

Meryl Streep stops in

Listen to Michael McRobbie's 2014 interview with Meryl Streep on WFIU's "Profiles."

For decades, IU Bloomington has had an enviable reputation in the scholarly study of film. However, there was no associated facility dedicated to the screening of quality, international, and arthouse films at the highest technical standards to support IU’s research and educational programs in this area.

University Chancellor McRobbie began to develop plans to establish such a facility on the IU Bloomington campus when he was Vice President for Research and Provost. When he became President in 2007, this planning moved into high gear, and the old University Theatre was identified for conversion into a state-of-the-art facility to support the scholarly study of film in its traditional and modern forms. This became the IU Cinema, which opened in 2011.

Below are the many addresses University Chancellor McRobbie has made over the years in support of the IU Cinema, from its groundbreaking through to its recent 15th anniversary celebration, along with remarks introducing each President's Choice series. In 2017, the President's Choice series was endowed in perpetuity thanks to generous gifts from Indiana University faculty and staff in honor of then-President McRobbie's leadership and support for the scholarly study of cinema. When he stepped down as IU President in 2021, the series was renamed the Michael A. McRobbie's Choice series.

Cinema Milestones

Building on a Glorious IU Tradition: Breaking New Ground in the Arts and Humanities (10/19/2009)

The Difference the Big Screen Makes: The Dedication of the IU Cinema (1/27/2011)

IU Cinema 15th Anniversary Celebration (1/13/2026)

The President's Choice Series

An "Impassioned and Adventurous Career:" Celebrating Filmmaker Werner Herzog (9/12/2012)

Playing to the Camera: Great Concert Films of the Classic Rock Era (2/11/2013)

Decadence, Detail, and Lavish Beauty: The Films of Luchino Visconti (4/14/2014)

Meryl Streep: Powering the Empathy Machine (4/16/2014) - This is a transcription of University Chancellor McRobbie's interview with Meryl Streep, published in the journal POST SCRIPT: Essays in Film and the Humanities, Volume 39, Nos. 2 and 3, Winter/Spring & Summer 2020, 6-20, originally aired on WFIU public radio, June 8, 2014.

Introducing Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (11/30/2015)

Introduction to Peter Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously (10/9/2016)

Introduction of Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad (12/4/2017)

Introduction of Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up (8/27/2018)

Introduction of Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin(8/26/2019)

Presentation of President's Medal to Jon Vickers (9/29/2020)

IU Cinema Introduction of Fellini's 8 1/2 (2/18/2021)

IU Cinema Introduction of Fellini's And the Ship Sails On (5/18/2021)