Crandell LIVE at PS21
2980 Route 66, Chatham, NY 12037
featuring a Q&A with Oscar-nominated producer
and co-writer James Schamus after the film
FREE
(suggested donation at the door)
Limited to 100 tickets
RESERVE TODAY!
From director Andrew Ahn (Fire Island) comes a joyful comedy of errors about a chosen family navigating the disasters and delights of family expectations, queerness, and cultural identity. With a pitch-perfect cast of multi-generational talent that includes Bowen Yang (Wicked, SNL), Academy Award nominee Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon), Kelly Marie Tran (Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi), Han Gi-Chan, Joan Chen (Didi; Lust, Caution), and Academy Award winner Youn Yuh-Jung (Minari), this fresh reimagining of Ang Lee’s beloved, award-winning rom-com teems with humor and heart in a poignant reminder that being part of a family means learning to both accept and forgive.
The film was an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and was the opening night film of the 2025 BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival.
Much has changed since the original film, made in 1993 before the legalization of same-sex marriage and reconceived now at a critical moment in the protection of LGBTQIA rights in the US. Although Ahn’s Wedding Banquet is in direct conversation with its predecessor, including lines that wink at the original, both he and Schamus wanted something much different this time around. “This is not a remake,” stresses Schamus, who produced Ahn’s second feature, Driveways.
James Schamus, a Crandell Theatre board member, is an award-winning screenwriter (The Ice Storm), producer (Brokeback Mountain), and former CEO of Focus Features (Lost in Translation, Milk, The Pianist). His feature directorial debut, an adaptation of Philip Roth’s Indignation, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival, and was released by Roadside Attractions. Schamus’ production company, Symbolic Exchange, has produced, among others, Kitty Green’s The Assistant, Minhal Baig’s We Grown Now, and Andrew Ahn’s forthcoming The Wedding Banquet. Schamus is Professor of Professional Practice in Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he teaches film history and theory.
“Andrew Ahn’s consistently amusing and winningly sincere reimagining of Ang Lee’s 1993 classic for a 2025 audience finds the queer community in a dramatically improved place.” — Carlos Aguilar, Variety
“The humor lands as if it’s coming not from the writers but through the characters by its grounding in the details of their lives.” — Marshall Schaffer, Slant Magazine
Andrew Ahn
Andrew Ahn, James Schamus
Bowen Yang, Kelly Marie Tran, Han Gi-chan, Joan Chen, Youn Yuh-jung
English, Korean, Mandarin