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Cinema Unbound is typically a one-night, star-studded awards gala hosted by PAM CUT, Portland Art Museum’s Center for an Untold Tomorrow. This year, Cinema Unbound will be a five-day celebration of art, film, fashion, music, comedy, food and more, May 27-31.
The 2026 honorees will be artist Titus Kaphar, comedian Maria Bamford and Wildfang founder Emma McIlroy, along Mariah and Thomas Pisha-Duffly, the team behind restaurants Gado Gado and Oma’s Hideaway.
The celeb appearances don’t stop there. Cinema Unbound Awards Week will also feature a live reading and conversation with author and Japanese Breakfast frontwoman Michelle Zauner (May 27) and a live taping of the Criterion Channel’s Adventures in Moviegoing with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein at PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater (May 31).
“Cinematic storytelling doesn’t just live on a screen—it’s out in our community and our world, literally everywhere you look,” said Amy Dotson, director of PAM CUT, in a statement. “As PAM CUT continues to expand and share its unbound, inclusive spirit with local and global audiences and artists alike, it only makes sense that our Cinema Unbound Awards fun and celebration expand beyond the walls of the Portland Art Museum, too.”
Lastly, film aficionados should get ready to jostle for a spot in the Criterion Mobile Closet, the famed 18-foot traveling “film closet” stocked with more than 1,000 titles. It’s a replica of the original closet in New York that’s been the setting of many a viral video featuring a celebrity choosing their top “closet picks.” The closet will be parked outside of the art museum for three days and Portlanders will have to stand in line for a three-minute visit inside. That’s happening May 29-31.
GO: Cinema Unbound Week, various locations including the Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave. 503-226-2811, portlandartmuseum.org.
