Alexandria, VA – The long goodbye to the summer doesn’t mean an end to outdoor film screenings. September and October’s sultry reprise offers ideal opportunities to blanket down with a picnic for a classic flick revival or spooktacular cinema. Even once the balmy nights turn cooler, yielding to that inevitable nip in the air, the fall cavalcade of film fests kicks off, providing top-notch independent filmmaking and sneak previews of Oscar picks dropping at the end of the year.
Cinema Del Ray, the community family-friendly and fun-for-all kids film series sponsored by the Jen Walker Team, closed out September showing Kung Fu Panda 4. The field at the Mount Vernon Recreation Center, next to Del Ray Artisans, will show the blockbuster summer hit Inside Out 2 on October 19 at 6:30 pm.
Film lovers of every age will want to secure their space for that one. The sequel to 2015’s Inside Out is an animated coming-of-age story by Pixar. This little $200 million-to-make movie could have become the highest-grossing animated film of all time and the first animated feature to hit $1 billion. Still screening in theaters as of last month (Disney contracted for a 100-day theater run), Inside Out 2 is now among the elite list of top lifetime grosses, coming in at 8th. It’s currently streaming on Disney+. But why watch it alone in the dark at home when you can join half the city viewing the summer of 24’s mega-hit for free?
Paramount Studios, in conjunction with the National Park Service, reprised their Movies on the Mall last month, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the great American classic Forrest Gump. This 1994 popular and critically acclaimed film earned 74 awards nominations with 51 wins, including six Oscars in 1995, Best Picture among them. Tom Hanks, as the seemingly hapless Forrest Gump, deservedly won Best Actor, becoming the latest of five people to earn back-to-back best acting Oscars.
It was surprising to encounter so many adults who had never screened the improbable Gump chronicle – a fabled story of a man’s journey from childhood to parenthood. On September 19, it was 45 years ago that Forrest Gump stopped running across America for the fourth time after three years, two months, 14 days, and 16 hours. But the beloved film continues to be on screen via cable, streaming, repertory cinemas, and forever in our hearts. Run, Forrest! RUN!
Screen on the Green returned to the Mall after petitioning to access the renovated turf again. Throughout the summer season, HBO and Comcast, along with Friends of the Green, showed films on the National Mall between 7th and 12th streets on Monday nights. Beloved family films such as E.T. the Extraterrestrial and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, alternating with adult fare such as Tootsie and Norma Rae, were projected onto the 20-foot by 40-foot outdoor screen. It’s a pleasure to picnic before the dusk showtime, catching dramatic sunsets evolving across the expansive views from the Lincoln and Washington memorials to the United States Capitol’s pink alpenglow.
Another fun cinema with scenery venue is the Virginia Wine Country. Last month’s screening of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour at the Wine Reserve at Waterford entertained Swifties of all ages coming from near and far. One Swiftophile couple traveled from Florida to taste Cori and Jonathan Phillips’s award-winning wine, including a Gold Medal at this year’s Governor’s Cup for the 2023 First Harvest Petit Manseng, the first wine produced from their Waterford estate wines.
The Wine Reserve has been showing films outdoors with the parabolic mountainscape of the Catoctin Range in the Blue Ridge as a backdrop since soon after they opened. Check Facebook for upcoming scream screenings. Past fearsome flicks have included Scream and The Shining!
Other nearby NOVA wineries have movie nights scheduled this fall. Paradise Springs Winery in Clifton is the closest vineyard to Alexandria. Last month, they screened Apollo 13 on the cabin lawn. This month’s showing is Mean Girls on October 3 at 7:30. Tickets are $15 a person and include a glass of wine from the movie-night tasting menu. Paradise Springs is also close to the suburban legend of the Bunny Man Bridge. Cross it if you dare!
The Winery at Bull Run routinely hosts Movie Night Under the Stars throughout the summer and fall. The free Fall Family Movie Night kicked off with The Goonies. The winery sits on hallowed ground adjacent to the Stone Bridge and the Manassas National Battlefield Park. It’s the spooky season at the winery. Stop by during the Haunted Wine Tours from September 29 through October 31. Close spectral encounters aren’t guaranteed, but you might want to bring a PKE meter- just in case.
The Winery at La Grange, a short distance farther along Route 66 in Haymarket, is taking a different approach to fright-night screenings. Moviegoers get to vote on which film will be shown on October 25 at 8 pm. Will it be Beetlejuice, Hocus Pocus 2, or Ghostbusters? The event is for the over-21 audience. Tickets are $10. Get your leaf-peeping kicks in while heading west along the legendary Route 66 and other dirt roads less followed.
Mark your calendars now for the two upcoming must-see film festivals in the DMV. The Middleburg Film Festival runs from October 17 – 20. Advance festival passes and VIP packages sold out in August. Individual movie tickets go on sale at the beginning of October. Each year, films previewed at the tony Salamander Resort and various locations around the Burg become Oscar favorites.
Alexandria’s homegrown film festival spotlighting independent filmmakers from across the country and around the world returns November 7 -10. Venues for viewing the nearly 30 films participating are The Beatley Library, The Lyceum, and NOVA Alexandria Campus Auditorium.
Now in its 18th year, the AFF continues to feature compelling documentaries, engaging narrative shorts, and full-length films such as the feature doc Banned Together, the feature film Box Brown, and the thriller CROOKEDFINGER. Go to the AFF website, AlexFilmFest.com, for tickets and more information.
Virginia and fall is for film lovers. Whether you prefer Indoors or outdoors, fright nights or film festivals…We’ll see you at Z MovieZ!
And, if only to get in the spooktacular spirit, be sure to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — now playing at AMC Hoffman and a theater near you.
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