Idaho Film Society in Boise, Idaho

A beautiful mid-century bus terminal has a new lease on life as a home for brilliantly curated movie screenings. Idaho Film Society is a nonprofit cinema-and-studio mash-up that has become Boise’s unofficial embassy for movie lovers and makers.Step through the doors, slip past a row of retired pay phones reborn as a lounge, and you’ll land in a pitch-black, 53-seat theater programmed by volunteers who mix second-run favorites, indie gems, and surprise “Secret Cinema” nights, with post-film conversations that feel more living room than lecture hall.

Behind the screen waits one of Idaho’s largest indoor soundstage, a gear-rental library, and shared workrooms that spare local crews the long trek to Salt Lake City or Portland for cameras and lights. Fueled by memberships, donations, and a stubborn belief that a film scene can thrive where the potatoes grow, the Society is turning an old bus station into a launchpad for homegrown stories.