Could it possibly be summer in L.A. without spending a night in a cemetery watching classic cinema? That’s right, it’s time for one of our favorite seasonal traditions: The first Cinespia lineup announcements of the year.
The beloved series will return to Hollywood Forever Cemetery this Memorial Day weekend with three screenings to wrap up the month: The Big Lebowski (May 24), Clueless (May 25) and, in a tribute to late director David Lynch, Blue Velvet (May 31).
If L.A.’s not-as-macabre-as-it-sounds rite of passage has eluded you, here’s the deal: Since 2002, Cinespia has projected movies onto the side of a mausoleum at Hollywood Forever. Thousands of picnickers show up early to claim a spot on the Fairbanks Lawn and dig into their BYO snacks and drinks (yep, including beer and wine). That’s in addition to the hot food, popcorn and beer and wine for sale on the grounds of the outdoor movie series.
It’s not just the cemetery environs that sets Cinespia apart: Each screening is preceded and followed by a DJ set, as well as some remarkably elaborate photo backdrops that you can pose in front of for free. For example, when Cinespia screened Clueless a few years ago, it recreated Cher’s bedroom. And for The Big Lebowski, you were able to pose in front of the checker-floored bowling dream sequence (you can see the backdrop from the 2021 event below).
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Expect more monthly screening announcements to come throughout the summer. Last year’s schedule also included some off-site events at L.A. State Historic Park and the Rose Bowl, but there’s no word yet if we’ll see screenings this year at those landmarks.
General admission tickets for the cemetery screenings, presented by Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video, cost $30 (that includes fees), and parking ranges from $24 to $36. You can search for free street parking in the streets surrounding the cemetery, but it’s pretty limited—chances are you may have to resort to one of the paid garages near the Paramount Pictures studio to the south.