Library programming has to work harder than ever to get patrons through the door and actually engaged once they’re there, and film is one of the easiest ways to do it. Whether you’re filling a slow afternoon or building out a full seasonal series, Kanopy’s catalog has something for every age group your library serves.

Below, we’ve pulled together programming ideas of all kinds, from single-session events to ongoing series, organized by audience and occasion, along with title suggestions to get you started.

A quick note before you plan any of these: public performance rights (PPR) are secured on a per-title basis, not something your library needs to obtain separately. Before scheduling a group screening, confirm that the specific title you want to use has PPR. Titles with PPR are labeled with a “PPR” icon on the title details page, in both the admin dashboard and on the Kanopy website.  Learn more about PPR.

Programs for Kids

• Storytime Brought to Life

• • Read a picture book aloud, then screen the related Kanopy Kids animated short. Works well as a 30-minute add-on to an existing storytime slot. Vooks has a great collection of read-alongs, all of which have PPR as well as supplemental materials which feature activity pages, discussion questions and lesson plans related to each title. These materials can be downloaded, printed, and passed out to your patrons

• “Watch the Book” Club

• • Choose a book with a film adaptation. Read it together over several weeks during story time, then watch the adaptation as a wrap-up and talk about what changed. This works as an at-home event too: encourage book checkouts, then have patrons watch the film on Kanopy on their own time.

• Make Story Time Interactive

• • Titles from the Signed Stories, which features animated children’s stories performed in sign language, all have PPR, a nice way to build a learning moment into story time.

Programs for Teens

• Film Club with discussion guide
  • Rotate genres monthly. A short discussion guide (3-5 questions) gives quieter participants an entry point into the conversation.

• Documentary and Debate Night

• • Screen an issue-driven documentary, then run a moderated discussion on the topic it raises. A great title to use is, Banned Together. The film pulls back the curtain on two of the most controversial issues in America today: book bans and curriculum censorship in public schools. Banned Together follows three students as they fight to reinstate 97 books suddenly pulled from their school libraries. As they evolve from local to national activists, they meet with banned authors, politicians, and the major players protecting the First Amendment of our Constitution.

• Behind the Scenes Workshop
  • Pair a short film screening with a basic discussion of filmmaking or editing choices. Useful if your library has AV equipment or a maker’s space available to patrons.

Programs for Adults

• International Film Night Series
  • Rotate a different country or language each month. This pairs naturally with heritage month programming (see below). Our collection of titles in Spanish  or Frenchare a good place to find a title to highlight. You can also search for titles in other languages using our search filter. Use the Audio Languages and Subtitle Languages filters in the search panel to filter by specific languages or find closed-caption-only titles. Access may vary by country and title availability.

• Based on the Book

• • Pair a screening with your library’s existing book club, alternating between reading the source material and watching the adaptation. Check out our From Book to Screen collection for some recommendations.

• Skills Night
  • Use Kanopy’s instructional content (cooking, painting, personal finance, and similar categories) as the basis for a hands-on session. Check out titles from Skillshare, The Great Courses as well as the rest of our instructional content.

Programs for Seniors

• Classic Hollywood Matinee
  • A recurring daytime series built around films from a specific era. Our Dedicated to the Decades Collection is the perfect starting point
• Reminiscence Programming
  • Pair era-specific documentaries or newsreel footage with a facilitated group conversation about patrons’ own memories of the period.
• Armchair Travel Series
  • Screen a travel or culture documentary about a specific destination, paired with light refreshments from the featured country or culture, to match the theme. Check out our Travel collection for more titles.
• Gentle Movement Sessions
  • Use Kanopy’s Sports and Fitness collection to schedule a low-commitment weekly series on exercising and wellbeing.

Holidays, Heritage Months and Observances

Planning programming around a heritage month or holiday takes time: finding the right titles, writing promotional copy, and pulling together materials patrons will actually notice. Kanopy already does much of that groundwork by curating collections around many holidays, heritage months and national observances, such as Black History Month, Pride Month, Women’s History Month, Juneteenth, Earth Day, National Indigenous History Month, and more. Each collection is paired with its own marketing toolkit, so you and your staff aren’t starting from scratch each time. Check out the current editorial Kanopy Calendar on the  US Resource Center or Canadian Resource Center pages for a complete list of these collections and toolkits. These toolkits include ready-to-use copy for your newsletters and social media accounts, graphics, and title recommendations, which means less prep work and more consistent promotion across your library’s channels. Check the US Resource Center or Canadian Resource Center pages for titles and ready-made assets.

Getting Started

You don’t need to build a full slate of programming at once. Pick one or two ideas that fit your community and your staff capacity. If you are hosting a screening, confirm PPR on the titles involved, and go from there. A well-attended event tells you more about what your patrons want than a packed calendar of untested ones. And as always, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at marketing@kanopy.com.