Built in 1905, the Palace Theater in the West Texas desert city of Marfa hasn’t shown movies since the 1970s, but that’s about to change. What’s coming is a “full reimagining,” according to its new owners.
The Austin-based filmmaking duo of Anna Rau and Corbett Jones closed on the building in mid-June. Jones told MySA their plans for the Palace, which has actually been a private residence for the last few decades, will take between 12 and 18 months, turning it into an operational single-screen theater, event venue and production space for filmmakers. The cause is close to the married duo’s hearts as founders of production company The Range, the company behind a Spotify documentary on George Strait, a close-up look at the real-life Fargo for FX, and the video for “Right Back to It” by Waxahatchee — a song which, if you ask Olivia Rodrigo, is one of the best this century.
Rau and Jones are deeply embedded in Marfa. They decided to get married there and have considered themselves “part-time locals” since buying a house in the city in 2017. Jones (an “honorary Texan” by way of California) says they’ve “always driven past the Palace, sort of wondering what was going on with it.” Rau, who hails from Austin, added that it’s been a longtime dream of theirs to expand their footprint in Marfa, and this year presented them with the opportunity to give the city a space for film fans and filmmakers alike.
The previous owner, prominent artist David Kimble, had died in 2024, and Rau and Jones were able to buy the theater after seeing an Instagram post from a local realtor. They were on their way back to Austin from Marfa — Jones said, “We hopped in the car, turned around, and drove back out to Marfa and said, ‘Hey, we want to take a look at this. This has been kind of like a dream property of ours forever.'”
It comes at a time when cinema is seeing a resurgence with more people growing “tired of seeing the same 20 titles suggested them over and over on these algorithmic platforms,”Jones said. People are “yearning” for community-based curation, and the new-old Palace is a piece of that puzzle.
Rau described their vision for what comes next. When you walk in, you’ll be met with a bar and concessions area with a lounge feel, with the food coming out of a full commercial kitchen. Perhaps pop-up chefs are in its future as well. She said the single-screen cinema will be “the heart” of the Palace, alongside production capabilities and offices for filmmakers and creatives. They also see the Palace as a place for corporate retreats, weddings and other events.
Lemmo Architecture and Design, an Austin-based firm, was tapped to build the updates from nothing (where the screen will be is now a garage). However, the iconic facade will be preserved and restored to its original look, Jones said.
“There’s just a lot of like like-minded folks on this project that love Marfa and are excited to give the town kind of a new special space — a new, old special space,” Jones said.