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The 10 Best Open-Air Cinemas Worth Skipping a Sunset For
A film under the stars beats a film in a multiplex every single time, and a handful of places have turned it into something magical. These are the best outdoor cinemas in the world — rooftops, beaches, and one screen inside an actual ruin.
The best outdoor cinemas in the world will ruin the multiplex for you forever. There’s something about a film projected against a wall while a warm breeze moves through, a glass of wine in your hand, the moon doing its own thing above the screen — it turns watching a movie into an actual evening, an event, a memory. I’ll skip a famous sunset for the right outdoor screening, no hesitation.
The conversion happened in Athens. A rooftop cinema in the old town, the lit-up Acropolis literally framed beside the screen, an old film I’d half-seen before suddenly the best thing I’d ever watched. The projector flickered. A cat walked across two rows. I was completely, stupidly happy.
Here are the ten worth rearranging your evening for.
The list
1. Cine Paris, Athens, Greece
A rooftop cinema in the Plaka neighbourhood with the Acropolis floodlit right beside the screen. This is the one that converted me. Athens has a glorious tradition of summer rooftop cinemas (the “therina”) — this and Cine Thisio are the legends. Tickets are cheap, the seasons run all summer, and they serve wine. There is no better place on earth to watch an old film.
2. Rooftop Film Club, London / NYC / LA
A slick operation across several cities — rooftop screenings where everyone gets wireless headphones (genius for noise) and a deckchair, with a bar and the city skyline behind the screen. Books up fast for the cult-classic nights. Bring a jumper; London rooftops turn cold the second the sun’s gone, headphones or not.
3. Sun Cinema, Mardin, Turkey
Built into the hillside of an ancient stone town, with the screen positioned so you look out over the vast Mesopotamian plain stretching into Syria beyond it. The setting does half the work — watching a film with that view as your backdrop is genuinely something else. A rare, special place that few travellers ever reach.
4. Cinespia, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, LA
Films projected onto a mausoleum wall, the audience picnicking among the graves of old Hollywood stars. It sounds macabre and it’s actually joyous — blankets, wine, hundreds of people, classic films, a DJ before the show. Deeply LA, in the best way. Book the moment tickets drop; it sells out in minutes.
5. Luna Cinema, various UK locations
A travelling outdoor cinema that pops up in castles, stately home grounds, parks and palaces across Britain through the summer. Watching a film on the lawn of a grand old house as it gets dark is the most pleasant possible use of a British summer evening — on the roughly nine evenings Britain manages to be warm. Pack a blanket and a flask.
6. Cinéma en Plein Air, Parc de la Villette, Paris
Free outdoor cinema in a big Paris park all summer, where Parisians turn up with picnics, wine and rugs and sprawl on the grass to watch arthouse and classic films. Free, lively, very Parisian. Get there early to claim grass; it gets packed on a warm night and the picnic spreads are competitive.
7. Moonlight Cinema, Australia
A summer institution in Sydney, Melbourne and other Aussie cities — films in botanic gardens and parks, with “Gold Grass” beanbag tickets if you want to splurge on comfort. Australian summer evenings are made for this. Bring a picnic and a bottle and settle in as the parrots head to roost overhead.
8. Beach cinema, Goa & Thai islands
Less an institution, more a vibe — beach bars and hostels across Goa and the Thai islands string up a sheet and a projector and show films right on the sand with the waves a few metres away. Free or the price of a drink, gloriously informal, occasionally interrupted by the tide. The least fancy and most relaxing on this list.
9. Openluchtbioscoop / Pluk de Nacht, Amsterdam
Amsterdam’s free open-air film festival on the waterfront at Het Stenen Hoofd, with deckchairs, food trucks and the harbour as a backdrop. Quirky, free, and very Dutch in its laid-back organisation. Bring a coat — the water makes it cold fast once dark falls, even in a Dutch “summer.”
10. Slow Boat / rooftop screens, Berlin
Berlin’s open-air cinema (Freiluftkino) scene is huge in summer — screens in courtyards, beer gardens and parks across the city showing everything from blockbusters to obscure German classics with subtitles. Cheap, beery, unpretentious. The Freiluftkino in Friedrichshain is a favourite. A perfect cheap Berlin summer night.
How to do it right
Season matters — roughly May to September if you’re in the northern hemisphere, year-round in the warm-climate spots. Book ahead for the popular ones (Cinespia, Rooftop Film Club, the cult-classic nights) because they genuinely sell out. And bring a layer, always, even in a hot city: the temperature falls off a cliff once the sun’s fully down and there’s nothing worse than shivering through the third act.
A film under the open sky is one of travel’s great cheap pleasures, and worth, yes, skipping a sunset for. The sky puts on its own show anyway, right there above the screen.
Book it, pack a jumper, get a glass of wine, and let a film play out under the actual stars. The multiplex will never feel the same again.
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