ByTowne Cinema, Independent movie theater in Ottawa, Canada

The ByTowne Cinema is a one-screen repertory movie theatre at Rideau Street and Nelson Street in Ottawa, several blocks east of the Rideau Centre. The 650-seat auditorium was built in 1946 by Hyman Berlin to designs by architects Harold Kaplan and Abraham Sprachman, and it opened on February 10, 1947 as the Nelson Theatre. Its ground-level seats were replaced in May 2013 with 435 Greystone "Madrid" chairs, and a Christie digital projector was installed in 2011 alongside two 35mm projectors.

The building opened in 1947 as the Nelson Theatre, showing mainstream films to Ottawa audiences. New management took over in 1988, renamed it ByTowne Cinema, and shifted its programming toward independent and international cinema.

The ByTowne hosts film festivals throughout the year that bring together audiences interested in international and arthouse cinema. It has become a gathering point for people in Ottawa who follow independent film closely.

The cinema sits on Rideau Street near Nelson Street and is easy to reach by public transit. Buying tickets online in advance is a good idea, especially during festival periods when screenings fill up quickly.

The ByTowne is considered the largest single-screen cinema in Ottawa, a rare format in a city where multiplex theaters have become the norm. It reopened in 2021 after a pandemic closure that had left its future uncertain for a time.