Paramount Gets Romantic for the Summer Classic Film Series

Get ready to love the movies again as Genevieve and Jared Padalecki present When Harry Met Sally as part of the Paramount's Summer Classic Film Series

Romance will be in the air as Austin gets all hot under the collar for the Paramount Summer Classic Film Series – and you can blame one of the city’s most famous couples, Jared and Genevieve Padalecki.

Yup, as the Paramount drops the lineup for their annual celebration of the best in cinematic history, part of the lineup will be the Walker and Supernatural stars talking all things l’amour for Rom Com Night with author Katherine Center ahead of one of the all-timers of the genre, When Harry Met Sally.

This is just one of over a hundred titles screening all summer long as part of the long-running series, kicking off with an opening week that includes Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, a pair of rarities presented by Robert Rodriguez, and, per tradition, Casablanca (because it's not the summer series without Bogey beating the Nazis).

Of course, the Paramount doesn’t only do movies: So, in celebration of the fourth annual Majestic Ball (June 21) there will be a week of queer cinema, including Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, British sheepfarming gay drama God’s Own Country, Rafiki, and Femme, among others.

However, the Summer Series is also about collaboration and opening the biggest screen in town even to other organizations that have their own cinemas. Austin Film Society head out from AFS Cinema to present a double feature of The Stunt Man and Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, while Hyperreal Film Club leaves their East Austin club house to screen Pan’s Labyrinth, Now and Then, and Cabaret. Austin’s vibrant festival scene also joins the party, with longtime Paramount partners Austin Film Festival screening Steven Spielberg’s Hook and Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula with Texas-born screenwriter James V. Hart putting down the pen and picking up the mic to talk about his scripts for these two blockbusters. Meanwhile the Austin Asian American Film Festival holds their own double bill of Polite Society and The Assassin.

As always, the season includes rare 70mm prints, this time of Phantom Thread, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and North by Northwest, plus 21 screenings in 35mm, including The Night of the Hunter, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Shampoo, Welcome to the Dollhouse, and more.

For the full lineup, including the Family Film Series, a slate of anniversary screenings including the 25th anniversary of the Austin-made Miss Congeniality, and of course Hitchcock Month, visit austintheatre.org.