Dylan Skolnick coming back to Cinema Arts Centre

Huntington’s Cinema Arts Centre and co-director Dylan Skolnick issued a joint statement Friday announcing his return to the nonprofit theater two months after his firing sparked outrage throughout the local arts community.

"I’m very happy with this being resolved," Skolnick told Newsday. "We’re all going to work together to make the cinema even better moving forward."

The statement said that Skolnick will return as director of the Cinema Arts Centre. It also promises a "realignment effort," including a new co-director to work alongside Skolnick and new board members with backgrounds in the film industry. The cinema would not comment on the future of the co-directors who stepped in after Skolnick's firing — Michael Kornfeld and Kelsie Greene — but their names and positions are no longer listed on the cinema’s website.

"Moving forward, our priority is to bring our community back together and put the cinema on stronger footing," the statement said.

In a separate joint statement, arts center board co-chair Matthew Daidola and newly appointed co-chair Alex Caliman described the fallout of Skolnick's firing as "a difficult time for the community."

"The Cinema was built with the support of our passionate community, and your voices were heard the last few months during a tumultuous time," Daidola and Caliman said in a statement emailed to Newsday via a spokesperson. "Many aspects of the organization and its operations had room for improvement and required a fresh evaluation. Difficult discussions were held and sensitive topics addressed. The result was renewed commitment and clear focus on preserving what made the Cinema so special, while adding governance and oversight enhancements that will ensure it continues far into the future."

Skolnick, whose parents founded the cinema in 1973, had been running the theater since 2010 but was fired Sept. 1 for what the board called "serious misconduct." Skolnick said he had been dismissed for freelancing as a film booker for other theaters but maintained that he had received permission to do so years ago and his side work did not compete with the cinema.

His firing was met with swift blowback from cinema members who requested their fees back, called for a boycott and held a demonstration last month to demand Skolnick be reinstated. Guest lecturers and programmers vowed not to work with the venue, and high-profile members of the film industry such as directors Martin Scorsese and Wim Wenders and actors Edie Falco and Isabella Rossellini, who lives in Bellport, called for Skolnick’s return.

Mediation between Skolnick and the board was the outgrowth of a group of cinema members who feared for the theater’s financial viability. An online petition launched in mid-October that encouraged mediation gathered more than 600 signatures. A professional mediator was hired to handle the negotiations, according to Ellen Reynolds, a longtime cinema member and Huntington resident who helped bring the parties together.

"The Cinema Arts Centre is 100% positioned to build back to where it was before this entire episode," Reynolds said. She added: "The cinema needs the community to come back."

Skolnick said that three days of meetings took place at the cinema over the past week. The resulting agreement allows Skolnick to continue freelancing as a film booker, and his estimated $75,000 salary will not change, he said.

Skolnick described the cinema’s financial position as "challenging" as a result of the fallout over his firing. Now, he said, "we’re strongly encouraging people to donate money to the cinema and attend movies."

Newsday's Nicholas Grasso contributed to this story.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com