Please refer to the official websites for events to ensure that you have the most up-to-date information about ticketing, reservations, delays, rescheduling, cancellations, and other guest policies for venues, including relevant COVID-19 requirements. Inclusion in the Philadelphia Monthly Cinema Arts Round-Up does not signify cinéSPEAK’s endorsement of an event or organization’s mission or political affiliations.
Now that it’s summer for real, there are plenty of outdoor screenings this month. You can watch movies in a cemetery, on the banks of the Schuylkill River, and at West Philly’s beautiful Bartram’s Garden. Festivals this month include the last week of the Philadelphia Latino Arts and Film Festival, the first day of BlackStar Film Festival, and Blobfest.
Also, if you liked Elia Suleiman’s film It Must Be Heaven at opening night of cinéSPEAK Under the Stars (or if you’re bummed that you missed it!), make sure to check out a screening of another of Suleiman’s films, The Time That Remains, presented by South Philly Autonomous Cinema and Philly Socialists.
Make sure to read the full July Monthly Cinema Arts Round-Up to plan your summer film calendar.
Saturday, July 5, 2025 at 1 PM
Exhumed Films Presents: Attack Of The Super 16mm Monster-Thon
The creeping, crawling, oozing, gargantuan mystery monster movie marathon raids again with an all-new selection of classic creature features from the 1950s and 60s on 16mm film. You won’t know what lurks beyond the screen until the projectors roll, but be on the look out for bizarre beasts, giant monsters, and vengeful vampires in an all-day assault of creeping terror and atom age horror that is sure to excite the monster kid in you.
Cost: $30
The Colonial Theatre — 227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460
Sunday, July 6, 2025
Philadelphia Latino Arts and Film Festival: Week Seis
Closing out the 2025 Philadelphia Latino Arts and Film Festival is a full day of programming at Cherry Street Pier. There are four feature films screening and one shorts program, all celebrating the diversity of Latino life and culture.
Cost: $0-$120
Cherry Street Pier — 121 North Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Friday, July 11, 2025 at 7 PM
Cinema in the Cemetery: Death Becomes Her
Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn seek immortality in this 1992 dark satire. When wealthy Los Angeles socialite Isabella Rossellini offers them an elixir, grotesque consequences spiral out. Come at 7 PM for a popup artists’ market and trivia hosted by the Philadelphia Film Society, and stay for the screening at 8:30 PM.
Cost: $2-$20
Laurel Hill East — 3822 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19132
Saturday, July 12, 2025 at 4 PM
Film and Funds for Gaza: The Time That Remains
Join South Philly Autonomous Cinema and Philly Socialists for another afternoon of Palestinian film, fundraising, and solidarity. This screening features Elia Suleiman’s The Time That Remains (2009), a semi-autobiographical film that uses Suleiman’s dark sense of absurdity to examine the creation of the Israeli nation-state from 1948 to the present. All proceeds from this screening will be split between The Sameer Project and Gaza Champions.
Cost: $10-$15 Suggested Donation
Making Worlds Bookstore and Social Center — 210 South 45th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104
Saturday, July 12, 2025 at 6 PM
WinMore Media Presents: Life in Shorts 2025 Film Festival
Attend the third annual Life in Shorts Film Festival, a curated showcase of indie films that depict the different ways in which we live life as individuals and/or as a community, from the mundane to the exciting, and everything in between. In addition to the short film showcase, there will be local vendors selling their art on site.
Cost: $15
Cherry Street Pier — 121 North Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Friday, July 18, 2025 at 7 PM
Scribe Video Center Presents: Two BIPOC Horror Shorts, One Evening
Attend this evening of new BIPOC horror short films with two Philadelphia-based filmmakers: Destiny Cox and Wi-moto Nyoka. Films include Cox’s You Were Dead Yesterday, in which at the height of a zombie apocalypse, one family discovers that the outbreak that is destroying their community was a conspiracy led by the federal government; and Nyoka’s Affordable Housing about a cutthroat rental market that leads two desperate roommates to fight to the death to keep their affordable housing.
Cost: $3-$5
Scribe Video Center — 3908 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Friday, July 25, 2025 at 7 PM
Bartram’s Garden Community Movie Night: Mufasa
Bring your picnic blankets, bug spray, and snacks, and enjoy a free, family-friendly movie under the evening sky. Come at 7 PM for information resources from enVision New Possibilities and a hands-on Heart, Womb, and Brain Tea Blends workshop with Folami Irvine–make and take your own custom tea blends with herbs like hawthorn, red raspberry leaf, and gotu kola. The screening of Mufasa (2024) will start at 8:30pm.
Cost: Free
Bartram’s Garden — 5400 Lindbergh Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19143
Thursday, July 31 – Sunday, August 3, 2025
BlackStar Film Festival
The 2025 BlackStar Film Festival is set to feature a total of 92 films representing 35 countries, including the world premiere of Scribe Video Center’s Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez’s TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing. Other films with Philly connections include the films made in BlackStar’s Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab, Della Can Fly! directed by local filmmaker Jasmine Lynea, and We Were the Scenery, for which local filmmaker Jess X. Snow served as producer and cinematographer. Read more about the films screening in BlackStar to plan your festival experience.
Cost: Ticket prices TBA; Passes $225-$350
Multiple Locations
More Events:
Saturday, July 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
PhilaMOCA x This Is Hardcore Present: Harley Flanagan: Wired For Chaos
Cost: $24.20
PhilaMOCA — 531 North 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123
Monday, July 7, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Four Filmic Character Sketches: Private Life
Cost: $5-$15
Fleisher Art Memorial — 719 Catharine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Thursdays, July 10 – July 31, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Movie Nights at the Schuylkill Banks
Cost: Free
Multiple Locations on the Schuylkill Banks
Friday, July 11 – Sunday, July 13, 2025
Cost: $8-$135
The Colonial Theatre — 227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460
Wednesday, July 16, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Blood Sick Underground Cinema Presents: Wolf Moon Rising
Cost: $14.52
PhilaMOCA — 531 North 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123
Wednesday, July 16 and Saturday, July 19, 2025
Philadelphia Film Society and Lightbox Film Center Present: The Innerview
Cost: $11.50-$15.50
Philadelphia Film Society East — 125 South 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Monday, July 21, 2025 at 8:30 PM
30th Anniversary Screening: A Maggot Tango
Cost: $6.05
PhilaMOCA — 531 North 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123
Wednesday, July 23, 2025 at 7 PM
Lightbox Film Center Presents: The Sealed Soil
Cost: $13.24-$15.28
Drexel University URBN Annex — 3401 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Friday, July 25, 2025
Batikh Batikh x Vox Populi Present: Experimental Film Screening and Mixer
Cost: Free
Vox Populi — 319 North 11th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Wednesday, July 30, 2025 at 7 PM
Lightbox FIlm Center Presents: Going Down
Cost: $13.24-$15.28
Drexel University URBN Annex — 3401 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
*Featured Image: Still from El Tomate Perfecto screening at PHLAFF 2025. Courtesy of PHLAFF.
Sophia Abraham-Raveson is the Managing Editor for the cinéSPEAK Journal. In addition to working at cinéSPEAK, Sophia is a licensed social worker in Pennsylvania, a volunteer with the restorative justice group Let’s Circle Up, and a musician and songwriter in her band Charm School Looks.
