Canyon Cinema is an American nonprofit organization for distributing independent, avant-garde, and artist-made films.

After starting in the 1960s as an exhibition program, it grew to include a nationwide newsletter and a distribution cooperative.

Filmmaker Bruce Baillie got a projector and army surplus screen to put on shows in his backyard.

Chick Strand and Ernest Callenbach became involved, and they began holding screenings around the Bay Area.

[2] Callenbach, an editor for Film Quarterly, had the idea to publish a regular newsletter.