Prior to 1975 the distribution of both domestic and foreign film was handled by an agency of the Royal Lao Government. By 1974 16 cinemas (most of them in private ownership) were operational in the Vientiane area, and most provincial towns under Royal Lao Government control also had their own picture houses.

From 1976 onwards the entire film production, distribution and exhibition network came under the control of the Cinema Department, which initially determined that only films with revolutionary, progressive and popular characteristics could be screened in cinemas. In the years which followed, in addition to home-grown documentaries and newsreels, the Department imported many Soviet and Vietnamese films.

By the early 1980s censorship had begun to relax, and at the height of its activities prior to the advent of television in 1983 the Cinema Department was importing around 70 films each year, including movies from Thailand, India, Hong Kong, France, Italy, the UK and even the USA. However, this growth period did not last. From the mid 1980s Laos’ ageing and run-down cinemas found themselves unable to compete with the new technology of television and video. Lacking funds for renovation and new equipment, they began to close, and by the early 1990s only a handful were left. Between 1995 and mid 2003 there were no purpose-built cinemas anywhere in the country.

Many hope that the opening of the first modern two-screen cinema within Vientiane's Lao International Trade Exhibition and Convention Centre (Lao-ITECC) in 2003 will herald a new era for commercial cinema in Laos.

There are a number of non-commercial film exhibition venues in Laos. In Vientiane the National Cultural Hall is equipped for 16mm, 35mm and video projection, but is infrequently used for this purpose. Meanwhile in the north the Siengsavan Theatre, Luang Prabang's only cinema venue, last showed films in the early 1990s, and while its projectors are still in place some parts have long since been stolen.

In contrast, regular art film programmes are offered in Vientiane at the French Cultural and Language Co-operation Centre and the National Film Archive and Video Centre.

The French Cultural Centre screens a regular programme of French and Asian films, while the National Film Archive and Video Centre screens mainly documentaries, newsreels and feature films from its collection and also rents them out on videocassette/VCD.

With the opening of the new Vietnamese-funded National Film Archive and Video Centre building in 2005, the adjacent former premises of the centre have been converted into a film screening room of 120 seats, with new projection equipment donated by the Japanese government.

Meanwhile, using portable 16mm, 35mm and video equipment, the Centre's mobile cinema crew continues to present outdoor film programmes such as that organised as part of the 2003 Boun Phra That Luang, which comprised seven nights of Lao, Russian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai and Indian films.

Subject to the identification of further financial aid, the Centre hopes also to create a public access area with computers and screening booths where researchers, teachers and students can come to view films from the Centre’s archives. It is also keen to develop outreach programmes and to purchase the necessary technical equipment to subtitle Lao films and present them overseas.