The FSC facilities include an auditorium and seminar room used for film classes and screenings, both equipped with state-of-the-art projection equipment for 35mm and 16mm film, slides, laserdiscs, and a variety of video formats: commercial, professional, and international. Large-screen video projection makes it possible to show films on videotape and disc to a large number of students at once, and allows lecturers to perform close analysis of film texts in class.

In addition, the FSC has an individual viewing and research area with a video checkout and a variety of video and 16mm film playback equipment, as well as DVD and laserdisc players; a temperature and humidity controlled vault for the film collections; and a technical workroom for inspection and repair of archival film materials.

The FSC houses the Gerald Mast Film Archive, an expanding collection of over 10,000 film, video and disc titles (including feature films, experimental cinema, silent film, classic Hollywood cinema, documentary, European art cinema, video art, international cinema, etc.) available for teaching, study, and research purposes. The FSC makes every film shown in class available on video, DVD, or laserdisc in the Individual Viewing Area, to provide individual access to the films and to protect the archival film materials from overuse.

The FSC shows over 800 film and video titles each year for classes, workshops, conferences, and special events. The Individual Viewing Area is open seven days/70 hours a week during the school year. On average, the Viewing Area provides over 6,000 individual viewing and research appointments per year, totalling more than hours of viewing time. FSC staff maintain computerized catalogs of the film, video, and disc collections.

In addition to classroom screenings, FSC hosts visiting filmmakers, workshops, and special lectures, often in collaboration with other University departments and community organizations.

Recent major events co-sponsored by the FSC include the 2001 archival screening program of "KINETICA 2: A Tribute to Oscar Fischinger" and the 1999 presentation of the film "Man With A Movie Camera" with live performance by composer  Dennis James based on director  Dziga Vertov´s notes for an accompanying score. The 1997 film series "Colonial Imaging: Early Films from the Netherlands Film Museum", presented in collaboration with  DOC Films and the  Consulate General of the Netherlands, featured rare early non-fiction travelogues, scenics, and actualities with live musical accompaniment by composer  Sebastian Huydts and the  Friends of the Gamelan ensemble. A symposium was presented in conjunction with the series where representatives from the  Netherlands Film Museum and experts in the fields of early cinema and postcolonial studies discussed the intersection of cinema with the late colonial period and the representation of "exotic" cultures to Western audiences.

Past events have included the 1997 John Nuveen Company Fellow Lecture by writer-producer  James Schamus and sneak preview of his film "The Ice Storm"; the 1996 Symposium "Cinema Studies in the Age of Global Media"; the film series "A Tribute to French Animation, 1956-1992"; the Chicago premiere of "Disgraced Monuments", by  Laura Mulvey and  Mark Lewis; the film and lecture series "Visual Madness: Perceptions of Mental Illness in Popular and High Culture"; "The Ministry of Illusion: German Film 1933-1945"; a British film series in conjunction with the  Smart Museum exhibit "From Blast to Pop: Aspects of Modern British Art, 1915-1965" and the 1993 Chicago premiere of the  Museum of Modern Art reconstruction of  D.W. Griffith's epic film "Intolerance" (1916), with live performance of the original score by  Joseph Carl Breil, conducted by  Gillian Anderson of the  Library of Congress. In conjunction with this performance, the FSC and  Chicago Humanities Institute hosted a one-day symposium on music and silent film. In November of 1992, the FSC held its formal opening ceremony with guest of honor Susan Sontag, a University of Chicago alumna and well-known writer and critic of film and the arts.

The FSC has also hosted German, South Asian, and African-American film series; Chicago Latino Film Festival programs; the Chicago premiere of video artist Scott Rankin's "The Pure", and visiting artist programs with independent film and video artists  Sadie Benning, Abigail Child, Ernie Gehr, Peter Hutton, Tom Kalin, Lewis Klahr, Babette Mangolte, Yvonne Rainer and Janice Tanaka. The University's Mass Culture Workshop, the Experimental Film Club, and the Race/Film Study Group all hold regular meetings, lectures and screenings in the FSC.

Lectures presented at the FSC include presentations by scholars such as Richard Allen, Raymond Bellour, Peter Bondanella, Roland Cosandey, Ian Christie, Donald Crafton, Richard Dyer, Mary Ann Doane, Andreas Huyssen, Antonia Lant, Gertrud Koch, Laura Mulvey, Frank Stern, Leslie Stern, Eric Rentschler, and Steve Ungar.