Now in its fifth season, the Educational Classic Film Program (formerly known as the Student Classic Series*) is a cinematic literacy program that introduces students of all ages and the broader community to the art of filmmaking through masterworks of Hollywood’s Golden Age (mid-1930s to early 1960s). *New this year, CIFF has expanded the program beyond school-age students to welcome the entire community of cinephiles.
On Sunday, Feb. 22, the Coronado Island Film Festival presents Director Robert Mulligan’s 1962 motion picture To Kill a Mockingbird in honor of Black History month. The event will take place in the Winn Room of the Coronado Public Library from 1:30 to 4 pm. The screening is FREE and open to the public of all ages.
Atticus Finch: The Greatest Hero in Cinematic History?
In 2003, the American Film Institute “100 Years” Series, celebrating cinema’s first century, released a much-publicized list of the 100 greatest movie characters. AFI named its 50 greatest heroes and 50 greatest villains. As one might expect, AFI’s list of heroes included Robin Hood, Tarzan, Indiana Jones, Rocky Balboa, Batman and even Lassie! But what character topped the AFI list as the greatest hero of the first 100 years of movies? Atticus Finch, a small-town depression-era southern lawyer who fails at defending his client, a client who is then killed before Atticus can appeal his conviction. This begs a question: Why is Atticus Finch considered the greatest hero in cinematic history?
To explore, discuss, and debate this character and these enduring themes, cinephiles of all ages are invited to the Winn Room on Feb. 22, at 1:30 pm. This special screening invites audiences to step into the role of contributing “cinema scholars.”
This cross-generational initiative invites grandparents, students, and film lovers of all ages to experience, discover, and discuss the classic films that defined Hollywood’s Golden Era — many of which younger generations have never had the opportunity to see on the big screen or explore in conversation together.
The 2026 Program Series theme, “The Art of Adaptation,” is exemplified by Horton Foote’s Oscar winning screenplay adaptation of Harper Lee’s 1960 bestselling Pulitzer Prize winning novel. As in Lee’s novel, the story of widower attorney and father Atticus Finch is told cinematically through the eyes of his children, primarily his six-year-old daughter, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, played brilliantly by Mary Badham. The role earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. She was, at the time, the youngest person ever recognized (at age 10) with a competitive Oscar nomination.
Her father Atticus was portrayed by Gregory Peck with such understated magnificence that it earned Peck his only Best Actor Oscar in a distinguished movie career that spanned six decades. In all, To Kill a Mockingbird earned eight Oscar nominations, winning three.
At this special screening, Coronado’s own Phil Garn, grandson of the film’s Oscar winning Art Director, Alexander Golitzen, will share research about his grandfather’s contribution to the production and thoughts about the exceptional craftsmanship of “Golden Age” studio-era motion pictures. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to see a landmark motion picture in the American film canon and a chance to participate in post-screening discussion of its significance culturally, cinematically and historically. The “scholar” with the Best Take during post-screening discussion will receive a handsome hard-copy of Harper Lee’s novel compliments of CIFF.
On the set of To Kill a Mockingbird, Pulitzer Prize winning Lee reportedly said of Gregory Peck, ‘The minute I saw him I knew everything was going to be all right, because he was Atticus.’
The 2026 “The Art of Adaptation” line-up includes, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Captains Courageous (1937), Shane (1953), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), A Tale of Two Cities (1937), and Les Misérables (1935).
