Huntington's Cinema Arts Centre in Crisis After Co-Director Firing

Between 200 and 300 demonstrators gathered along a Huntington, New York, street on October 3 to demand the reinstatement of Dylan Skolnick, co-director of the Cinema Arts Centre. The protest came one month after the CAC board of directors fired Skolnick on September 1, citing "serious misconduct" in a September 2 social media post that offered no further explanation.

The Cinema Arts Centre, a three-screen independent movie theater that Skolnick's parents founded 53 years ago, has since fractured along an increasingly combative divide. Skolnick and his supporters describe a "hostile takeover" by board members who misunderstand how independent film distribution works. The current leadership calls Skolnick "dysfunctional" and "disloyal."

The dispute has already disrupted operations. Two subscriber-based film series lost their hosts, actor Dolph Lundgren withdrew from a scheduled appearance, and a knowledgeable source told IndieWire that box office receipts have dropped steeply, creating a cash crunch. A MoveOn.org petition for Skolnick's reinstatement has collected more than 3,100 signatures, and a GoFundMe for his legal fees has raised more than $13,000.

Filmmaker and critic Kent Jones saw "Late Fame," his film starring Willem Dafoe and Greta Lee, pulled from the CAC by Magnolia Pictures after Skolnick's dismissal. He called the board's decision "a blow that strikes deep into the heart of New York movie culture."

Director Wim Wenders said: "I'm appalled by [Dylan's] firing and its circumstances. 'Serious misconduct' seems like total baloney, if you know Dylan."

Actor Isabella Rossellini urged the board to reconsider what she called a "disgraceful, cruel, and offensive decision." "Dylan knows the historical path of the Cinema Arts Centre, from an intimate point of view," she said. "It is unimaginable for me that the board of directors doesn't capitalize on Dylan's knowledge and guarantee the continuity of relationships with clients and friends in the film community."

Actor Edie Falco, who grew up on Long Island, added: "Some of my fondest memories of growing up on Long Island are trips taken with friends to see obscure movies at Cinema Arts Centre. That's what makes Dylan's removal so heartbreaking. To pull him out of a place that was built by his family, and that has meant so much to me and my friends and so many others is impossible to imagine. What is that place even, without Dylan?"

What triggered the firing?

According to a 15-page demand letter the CAC board sent Skolnick on September 1 and that IndieWire reviewed, the dismissal stemmed largely from his freelance work as a film buyer for other independent cinemas. The board said Skolnick, whose 2026 CAC salary reached $75,000, ran a side business called Cinema Arts Booking and used his CAC email address for outside work, "trading on goodwill associated with the Company" and possibly misusing corporate assets. The letter demanded repayment of all profits from the freelance work.

The letter also said the CAC had "received reports" that Skolnick pressured employees to file false complaints against board members. Skolnick denied coercion but confirmed a complaint was filed. "And it wasn't false," he said. "It was totally accurate and correct to complain."

Skolnick's freelance work has included theaters in Oklahoma, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and most recently Queens. He does not see nonprofit indie theaters as competitors: "Our competition is Netflix or Hulu, things that keep people in the house. Anything that gets people going out to the movies will benefit all of us."

He told IndieWire he informed the CAC board about his work roughly 10 years ago, though he conceded the current board "was not aware" of his activities. He used his CAC email for everything, calling it "clearly, not a good idea" but adding that it "didn't cost the Cinema a penny."

Is the freelance work actually a fireable offense?

Multiple figures in the independent film world backed Skolnick. Isil Bagdadi-Sergio, a former distributor who canceled her CAC film preview series after the dismissal, said: "He's a beloved member of our independent film community. Distributors, other exhibitors, art house cinema owners, everyone just has great respect for him. I can't separate him from the Cinema."

Michael Tuckman of mTuckman Media, which brought the Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land" to the CAC in 2025, said Skolnick is "beyond respected and highly regarded" and argued that freelance buying directly benefits theaters. "It helps that exhibitor have even more clout knowing that they're not just buying for one cinema but many," he said.

Adam Birnbaum, who operates the Nova Theater Circuit representing nearly 50 independent U.S. cinemas, called side gigs "a very common practice" and an "economic necessity" in an industry built on paper-thin margins. Given that context, Birnbaum said, firing a co-director for freelance work "seems like an utterly baseless rationale."

What does the current board say?

CAC co-director Kelsie Greene, promoted to her role alongside Skolnick at the beginning of the summer, told IndieWire on October 6 that public outrage had focused on "one publicly available sliver of information. It is far from the full scope of the situation at hand." She wrote: "An intentionally false narrative is leading the charge in destroying a cultural institution."

Michael Kornfeld, who stepped down as board co-chair and took over as interim co-director, sent IndieWire a statement one hour after Greene's October 5 email outlining additional concerns. He said the dismissal was "a year in the making." While applauding Skolnick's "programming capabilities," he found him "lacking in leadership and management skills."

Kornfeld also alleged that Skolnick continued freelance work with the Queens-based North Shore Towers Cinema after the board ended that arrangement. Skolnick acknowledged the omission: "It was outside of my work at the Cinema, a separate relationship." He maintained that the theaters are not in competition: "We're part of an ecosystem of cinemas. There's no conflict of interest."

What's next for the dispute?

Board chair Matthew Daidola, a former NYPD officer who practices law in Huntington and earned a medical degree in 2024, joined the board in 2024 and became co-chair in 2025. Jude Schanzer, the other co-chair, told IndieWire her working relationship with Daidola deteriorated; she resigned her chairmanship in February 2026 and from the board entirely in June. Four board members joined this year alone.

Ellen Reynolds, a 38-year CAC member and 25-year high-level donor, said no one from the theater contacted her after she asked for the return of a few-thousand-dollar August gift following Skolnick's suspension. "It's been over four weeks now since they fired him, and they have never reached out to me," she said.

Skolnick believes the current board opposes what he called the "socially pointed" programming he championed on LGBTQ issues, reproductive rights, immigration, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Greene called that claim "genuinely offensive and a deliberate misrepresentation."

Daidola told Newsday on October 3 that he has "tried to engage in good faith and find common ground" with Skolnick's supporters "because I believe we share the same goal, which is protecting the Cinema Arts Centre." The board did not respond to multiple IndieWire requests for comment.

With litigation increasingly likely, Skolnick said reinstatement is possible only if Greene, Kornfeld, and the current board resign. "It just seems impossible any other way," he said. "All I really want to do is get back to work." The Cinema Arts Centre's 53-year run as Long Island's leading arthouse venue now depends on whether either side moves first.