If you have ever wanted to experience Evangelion the way it was meant to be seen, this is your moment. GKIDS just announced the Evangelion 30th Movie Fest, a two-night theatrical event bringing two of the franchise's most important films back to the big screen across North America. Mark your calendar for July 21st and July 22nd, because this is a limited run and then it is gone.
Here is the lineup. On Tuesday, July 21st, theaters will screen Evangelion: Death (True)2 & Rebirth. The following night, Wednesday, July 22nd, brings The End of Evangelion. Both are distributed by GKIDS, and tickets are on sale now through the official GKIDS event page as well as participating chains like AMC, Cinemark, and Atom Tickets. This is a select-theaters release rather than a blanket nationwide one, so I would not wait around if there is a screen near you.
What makes this special is not just nostalgia. For a lot of fans in North America, these films have only ever existed on home video or streaming. Death (True)2 & Rebirth in particular has never had a proper North American theatrical run before now, which makes this the first real chance to see that cut the way audiences in Japan did. Films like these were built for a dark room and a massive screen, and Eva's sound design alone makes the trip worth it.
If the two titles blur together, here is the quick version. Death (True)2 & Rebirth pairs a remixed recap of the TV series with the opening movement of Anno's new ending, so it is the on-ramp. The End of Evangelion is the payoff, the feature-length conclusion that reworks the final two TV episodes into something far stranger and more devastating. Watching them back to back across the two nights is the intended way to take the whole thing in.
Thirty Years Of EVANGELION In Brief
The fest is timed to a real milestone. Neon Genesis Evangelion premiered on TV Tokyo on October 4th, 1995, and went on to become one of the most influential and most argued-about anime ever made. Its original 26-episode run ended on a famously divisive note, which led director Hideaki Anno to revisit the conclusion on film. Death & Rebirth arrived in March 1997 as a recap plus a new beginning, and The End of Evangelion followed that July with a darker, definitive alternate ending. Decades later the franchise was fully reimagined in the Rebuild tetralogy, from 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone in 2007 through 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time in 2021.
If you only make it to one night, know what you would be choosing between. The End of Evangelion is regularly named one of the greatest anime films ever made and one of the boldest endings in the medium, full stop. It is not an easy watch, and that is exactly the point. Seeing it with a crowd, where every gasp and uncomfortable silence is shared, is a completely different experience from streaming it alone at home.
There is something fitting about marking thirty years this way, too. Evangelion has never really been a passive franchise. It is the kind of show people stay up arguing about at conventions and in group chats, and a two-night theatrical event turns that private obsession into a shared room. Whether this is your first time or your fifteenth, you are going to be sitting next to people who care as much as you do.
For me, this is an easy yes. I have watched these films more times than I can count, but I have never gotten to see them properly projected, and I am not about to pass that up for a 30th anniversary. If you have been meaning to finally cross Eva off your list, a theater full of fans is honestly one of the best on-ramps I can think of. So tell me your plan. Are you going both nights, picking just one, or introducing someone to Evangelion for the very first time? Let me know which screening you are circling, and I will see you there.