George Eastman Museum Council Celebrates Valentine’s Day With Brunch and Film Event
Rochester, N.Y., January 16, 2026—On Sunday, February 15, the Eastman Museum Council will present the 2026 Valentine's Day Brunch and Film, with proceeds benefiting the George Eastman Museum. The event begins at 10 a.m. and includes brunch by Creative Caterers in the Potter Peristyle, an opportunity to view the Dutch Connection floral display, and a screening of The King and I (Walter Lang, US, 1956) in the Dryden Theatre.
In The King and I, the ubiquitously charming Deborah Kerr is Anna Leonowens, a widowed English schoolteacher hired to instruct the children of the King of Siam (Yul Brynner in an Oscar-winning, career-defining performance). The vibrant colors of the set and costumes have been wonderfully restored to their original splendor in a newly struck widescreen 35mm print of this Rodgers and Hammerstein musical classic. The film also stars the 2025 George Eastman award winner Rita Moreno.
Schedule of events:
- Doors open at 9:15 a.m.
- Brunch, promptly at 10 a.m., Potter Peristyle
- Film Screening, 12 p.m., Dryden Theatre, The King and I (1956)
Reservations for the Valentine's Day Brunch and Film ($75/person) are required by Saturday, January 31, 2026. Guests are welcome to join for the film screening only, without advanced registration, for $10.
For more information, call the Eastman Museum Council office at (585) 327-4935.
About the Dryden Theatre
The 500-seat Dryden Theatre is the premier exhibition space for the art of cinema as championed and interpreted by the George Eastman Museum. Presenting film screenings every day of the week, the Dryden is devoted to showing all films in their original formats, thus honoring and reproducing their historical—and aesthetically supreme—modes of exhibition. It is one of the very few theaters in the world equipped for the projection of original nitrate film that also makes nitrate film screenings part of its regular program.
About the George Eastman Museum
Founded in 1947, the George Eastman Museum is the world’s oldest photography museum and one of the largest film archives in the United States. Its holdings comprise more than 400,000 photographs, 31,000 motion picture films, the world’s preeminent collection of photographic and cinematographic technology, one of the leading libraries of books and archival materials related to photography and cinema, and extensive holdings of documents and other objects related to George Eastman. The museum is located on the historic Rochester estate of entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography. As a research and teaching institution, the Eastman Museum has an active publishing program, and its L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation’s graduate program (a collaboration with the University of Rochester) makes critical contributions to film preservation. The George Eastman Museum is supported with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. For more information, visit eastman.org.