10 outdoor movie screenings you don’t want to miss this spring and summer

From parks to cemeteries to the tops of buildings, the list of places you can catch an outdoor movie screening in Philadelphia is endless. There are several different annual series that have already been announced, including the Laurel Hill East Cinema Series, cineSpeak Under the Stars, Sunset Social Movie Nights, Schuylkill Banks Movie Nights, and Movies at the Mann.

While we wait for more screenings to be announced, we picked 10 outdoor showings to look forward to this summer.

The third year of the cineSpeak Under the Stars series kicks off with the Philadelphia premiere of this new documentary about drummer, composer, and activist Max Roach. CineSpeak founder Sarah Mueller described the film as exploring “the ways in which his music kind of went against the system [and] influences a lot of different genres.” Philadelphia’s own Questlove is also featured in the film, which is presented in association with WRTI & Ars Nova Workshop.

The Laurel Hill East series, held in a cemetery in East Falls, presents this 1954 horror classic, about a creature called Gill-man, an allegory for everything from colonialism to scientific hubris. Presented in association with the Philadelphia Film Society.

Most of this year’s cineSpeak Under the Stars lineup consists of Philadelphia premieres and other newer movies. One exception is Black Orpheus, Marcel Camus’ 1959 musical take on the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, set during Carnival in Brazil. The event features a meetup of the Be Reel Black Cinema Club.

Sunset Social’s Movie Nights take place on the rooftop of the Cira Centre. On June 14, the series features the Indiana Jones film from 1989, the one in which Sean Connery played Harrison Ford’s father. The showing is two weeks before the theatrical arrival of the brand new Indiana Jones film, The Dial of Destiny.

The Schuylkill Banks Movie Nights series features 10 movies over the course of the summer, and one particular highlight is Ivan Reitman’s 1984 original Ghostbusters. Grab your blanket to watch the film near the river, and hope that the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man doesn’t attack Center City.

The cineSpeak Under the Stars series wraps up with the acclaimed new documentary about the rock legend Little Richard, directed by Lisa Cortés. The film explores the musician’s rise, and his complicated relationship with both his sexuality and with his place in rock history.

The Sunset Social Movie Nights series continues with the return of Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Arriving 36 years after the original movie and, thanks to the pandemic, nearly four years after it was filmed, Top Gun: Maverick has its hero on a secret mission with Rooster (Downingtown’s own Miles Teller), the son of his departed friend Goose.

There’s a fantastic new documentary about Michael J. Fox called Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie that debuts this week on Apple TV+. You can follow that by seeing Fox’s most famous movie, near the river. Robert Zemeckis’ 1985 movie stars Fox as a teenager traveling back in time to the 1950s, where he confronts his mom (Lea Thompson) and has to straighten the timeline to ensure his own survival.

The first of this summer’s Movies @ the Mann series features the 2015 Star Wars sequel The Force Awakens, while the Philadelphia Orchestra plays John Williams’ score. Between Star Wars, E.T., Harry Potter, and Jurassic Park — also coming to the Mann, on July 22 — Williams has undoubtedly been featured in more live orchestral performances of movie scores than any other composer.

In August, the Schuylkill Banks series will feature Cameron Crowe’s beloved 2000 film, based on the director’s adventures as a teenage rock journalist for Rolling Stone, and his crush on “Band-Aid” Penny Lane (Kate Hudson.)