Days out from a crucial fundraising deadline, the activist movement to save the Garden Oaks Theater from destruction is turning to one of Houston's most iconic native sons: Academy Award-winning filmmaker Wes Anderson.
Anderson, known for his style of filmmaking with hits like "The Royal Tenenbaums," "The Grand Budapest Hotel," and most recently "The Phoenician Schee," is joining Arthouse Houston for a gala Friday evening to raise money to purchase the Garden Oaks Theater fully.
The theater and its connected buildings sit on a 2.3-acre lot, which Arthouse Houston hopes to remodel as a space for films, live performances, and filmmaking education, similar to the restoration of the River Oaks Theater, which Arthouse Houston also campaigned to revitalize.
The Garden Oaks Theater opened in Independence Heights in 1947, according to Arthouse Houston, designed by the same architectural firm that designed the River Oaks Theater. For more than a decade, the building was occupied by Grace Church, which sold the building in a private sale last year.
"What happened was we heard wind through a family member of the family who ran the theater many, many years ago, on a Friday evening that the theater was going to be torn down on Monday," Maureen McNamara, co-founder of Arthouse Houston, said on Hello Houston. "And so, we jumped into action. By Sunday, we had a demonstration planned."
Eventually, Houston city council members helped coordinate an agreement between the new owner and Arthouse Houston: if the preservationists could match the $7.1 million purchase, the theater would not be destroyed.
In February, Arthouse Houston paid an initial deposit and signed a contract to purchase the property, in an effort to prevent its destruction. By July 30, the contract must close on the property for a total of $7.1 million. Missing that funding deadline, Arthouse Houston says, would result in the demolition of the building.
"People at all levels are excited about the idea of having a new arts-and-film community," McNamara said. "It's going to be a first-of-its-kind kind of place, not just for Houston, but I don't know anybody else in the country that's doing exactly what our vision is to do. So, let's do it. Let's build something exciting and new for the future, on the foundation and shoulders of this beautiful past that is the Garden Oaks Theater."
Some tickets for Anderson's gala are still available. The event will include a personal introduction from Anderson, a screening of five of his short films, and a silent auction. Founds Experience ticketholders can also join an early Q&A session with Anderson.
The soiree is Friday evening at Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, with doors opening at 7 p.m. The early Q&A session begins at 6 p.m.
If the $7.1 million is secured by July 30, Arthouse Houston will begin a second phase of fundraising $6.9 million for restoration and renovation costs to the theater, with the goal of opening its doors in April 2028.
Another Houston-born filmmaker, Richard Linklater, whose films include "Dazed and Confused" and "Boyhood," has also thrown his weight behind the preservation of Garden Oaks Theater.
Copyright 2026 Houston Public Media News 88.7