The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Parkway Theatre is a historic cinema in Baltimore’s Station North Arts District and the permanent home of the Maryland Film Festival (MdFF), which owns and runs it.
The Parkway opened on October 23, 1915. Architect Oliver Birkhead Wight modeled its auditorium on London’s West End Theatre, with ornate Louis XIV–style plasterwork and chandeliers patterned on those at Versailles and Fontainebleau; John Eberson remodeled it for Loew’s in 1926. It later ran as the Five West Art Theatre before closing in 1978, and the building stood largely vacant for decades.
A $5 million gift from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation launched an $18 million restoration, and the theatre reopened on May 3, 2017, during the 19th Maryland Film Festival, with the restored main auditorium and two smaller screening rooms in a new adjoining building. After a pause in 2023, the Parkway reopened for the 25th festival in 2024. It screens independent, international and documentary films, often with filmmaker Q&As, and serves as the hub of the Maryland Film Festival each spring.
