Although summer movies are usually associated with blaring GCI spectacles playing throughout the world’s multiplexes, in Los Angeles we’re blessed with a popular alternative option — outdoor screenings. Instead of Crows, Goobers, Jujyfruits, Raisinets, and delicious but nauseating gallons of buttered popcorn a ttendees can in many cases pack a picnic basket or grab some proper grub from a food truck.
Now in its second year, The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences hosts a series of outdoor film screenings in Hollywood called, straightforwardly, Oscars Outdoors. So far this year they’ve shown Much Ado About Nothing (2012), Twenty Feet from Stardom (2013), National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983), Peter Pan (1953), Vertigo (1958), LA Story (1991), Beetlejuice (1988), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Groundhog Day (1993), Clueless (1995), King Kong (1933), Risky Business (1983), Point Break (1991), Short Term 12 (2013), Big (1988), Blazing Saddles (1974), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios – 1988), American Graffiti (1973), and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).
Still to come are Safety Last (1923), Monsoon Wedding (2001), Born in East LA (1987), Rushmore (1998), Grease (1978), and Cinema Paradiso (1988). All remaining screenings are already sold out with the exception of Monsoon Wedding and Born in East LA. On 10 August they’ll be showing and I’ll be attending the screening the former film, which will be introduced by hostess and English–Canadian actress (and former MuchMusic VJ!) Hannah Simone.
The Academy Hollywood campus is located on a lot south of Amoeba Music and The Arclight Hollywood (the entrance is on Homewood Avenue, just off Vine Street) and is accessible by DASH Hollywood, the Metro‘s 210 line and near the Hollywood/Vine Red Line subway station.
Not only will there be the film but a Bollywood-style dance troop, Blue 13 Dance Company, henna tattoos provided by Daksha from Eyebrow Images. There will also be food and beverages courtesy Boba Truck (tea), Bool BBQ (Korean–Mexican fusion), and India Jones Chow Truck (Indian).
Tickets are $5 for the public; free for children ten years and younger; and $3 for Academy members and students with ID. Gates open at 6:30 pm and screenings begin at sunset (~8:01 pm).
Other outdoor summer screenings around the Southland include Atwater Village Movie Nights (Atwater Village), Cinema on the Street (Santa Monica), Cinespia (Hollywood Studio District), Dinner and a Movie at Alcove (Los Feliz), Eat|See|Hear (various venues), Free for All Movie Mondays (Costa Mesa), Friday Night Flicks (Downtown‘s Historic Core), Moonlight Movies on the Beach (Belmont Shore, Long Beach),Silents Under the Stars (Agoura Hills), Silver Lake Picture Show (Silver Lake), Street Food Cinema (Exposition Park)… not to mention our dozen drive-ins). Some of those have ended their 2013 programs already so stay-tuned for next year.
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Eric Brightwell is an adventurer, writer, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener who is always seeking writing, speaking, traveling, and art opportunities — or salaried work. He is not interested in writing advertorials, clickbait, listicles, or other 21st century variations of spam. Brightwell’s written work has appeared in Amoeblog, diaCRITICS, and KCET Departures. His work has been featured by the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture & Design Museum, the Craft & Folk Art Museum, Form Follows Function, Los Angeles County Store, Skid Row Housing Trust, and 1650 Gallery. Brightwell has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Magazine, LAist, Eastsider LA, Boing Boing, Los Angeles, I’m Yours, and on Notebook on Cities and Culture. He has been a guest speaker on KCRW‘s Which Way, LA? and at Emerson College. Art prints of his maps are available from 1650 Gallery and on other products from Cal31. He is currently writing a book about Los Angeles and you can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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