Located across from UC Irvine, inconspicuously wedged between Diedrich Coffee and Yoga Path, is the finest movie theater not just in Orange County, but in the entire world.

When Capturing the Friedmans, the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner came to Southern California, Edwards University Town Center 6’s exclusive engagement featured the documentary’s producer Marc Smerling in a roundtable discussion.

When The Cremaster Cycle, Matthew Barney’s legendary five-part, Guggenheim-inspired, fever-dream epic, toured the country in a limited engagement (New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Irvine), Edwards University screened all five remarkably delirious films—six hours and 36 minutes’ worth—in succession.

When This Thing of Ours, the New Jersey mob-goes-cyberspace film began its controversial release, Edwards University premiered it, with two of the film’s stars from the TV series The Sopranos adding commentary.

When Charlotte Sometimes, the Independent Spirit Award-nominated manage a trois relationship film opened in Southern California, Edwards University featured its writer/director, Eric Byler, for an all-day question-and-answer session.

When Derrida, the San Francisco International Film Festival award winner documenting the contentious French philosopher Jacques Derrida screened, Edwards University booked filmmaker Amy Zering Kofman to answer all your literary decontructivist questions.

When Bubba Ho-tep, the "true" story of post-drug-overdose Elvis, premiered in Orange County, Edwards University put on a gala presentation with its star, cult legend Bruce Campbell.

Are the folks at Edward_s University a blessing to film-lovers everywhere? Is the pope Catholic? Is George Bush a liar? Lost in Translation, Adaptation, Dog Town and Z Boys, Bowling for Columbine, The Weather Underground, Wing Migration, Amelie, Northfork, Russian Ark, and Rivers and Tides all started their West Coast runs at Edwards University—that’s right, the best movie theater ever.

Thanks to the theater’s general manager, Mike Peterson, and events director, Virginia Gilabert, Orange County is second to no one in presenting the world’s great films. New York. Chicago. London. Paris. Los Angeles. You think you’ve got something better? Bring on that weak shit. 4245 Campus Dr., Irvine, (949) 854-8818.

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