Skip to content

Screen on the Green’ Lines Up Film Classics

In an annual Washington tradition that looked earlier this year as if it might not happen, the 10th “Screen on the Green— film festival will begin July 20.

Washington residents are invited to gather on the National Mall between Fourth and Seventh streets Mondays at sunset for free screenings of film classics on a giant 20-by-40-foot screen.

This year’s festivities kick off with the 1977 science fiction classic “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,— an early hit for director Steven Spielberg.

The subsequent films, in order, will be “Dog Day Afternoon— (1975), an adaptation of a real-life Brooklyn bank heist that stars an incendiary young Al Pacino; “On the Waterfront— (1954), a portrayal of Marlon Brando taking on powerful unions that garnered eight Academy Awards; and “Rebel Without a Cause— (1955), which solidified James Dean’s reputation as an icon of reckless, searching youth.

HBO, Comcast and the Trust for the National Mall sponsor the event, and Warner Bros. Studios will provide classic cartoons before the films. Earlier this year, HBO announced it would withdraw funding for the popular series, but it later reinstated the series with the help of Comcast and the trust.

Recent Stories

‘Two weeks’: GOP hawks left twisting on Iran after Trump resorts to familiar crutch

Supreme Court allows civil lawsuits against Palestinian groups

Appeals court backs Trump control of National Guard in LA, for now

Photos of the week | June 13-19, 2025

American businesses need a stable and competitive tax rate

Fact-checking Trump, Gabbard comments on Iran nuclear capability