Photo by erin m

Screen on the Green, D.C.’s best-known and sometimes imperiled outdoor summer movie series, is announcing its four-film slate for this year. And the 2013 edition of the 14-year-old series appears to have been scheduled without a whiff of the financial panic that marked recent summers.

The series, which occupies the National Mall between Seventh and 12th streets, is once again sponsored by HBO and Comcast, and features a lineup of well-loved films, two of which are unoffensive and family-ready, the other two of which were slightly edgy for their times.

The series runs four Monday evenings starting July 22, beginning at sundown, This year’s films are:
July 22: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
July 29: Norma Rae
August 5: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
August 12: Tootsie

Although Screen on the Green has plenty of competition these days, especially from neighborhood associations and business districts that offer more than just four titles, the series’ organizers still boast that Screen in the Green is the best. And there’s some credence to that. The films are projected on a massive 20-foot-by-40-foot screen, and the backdrop—the U.S. Capitol—is a far nicer sight than, say, the weave of construction cranes one is likely to see in NoMa or Arlington.