Catch the latest releases under the starry skies on Melbourne's newest outdoor screen. With a few months of successful service under their best, the team at Lido Cinemas, the eight-screen theatre which opened in Hawthorn earlier this year, have put the finishing touches on what is quite literally their crowning feature: a 100-seat rooftop cinema complete with beanbags and a bar. And now that the summer sun is peeking out from behind the clouds, we've finally gotten a glimpse at their lineup. Spoiler alert: it's pretty bloody great.
Lido on the Roof will launch on Thursday, November 12 and will screen films until Easter. Opening night will feature the new James Bond movie Spectre, highlighting the cinema's focus on new releases — something which should help differentiate them from Melbourne's numerous other outdoor screens, where the programs tends to be a little more on the retro side.
Other films on the program include holiday blockbusters such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, family fare like Goosebumps and Pixar's The Good Dinosaur, and anticipated comedies including Sisters and Zoolander 2.
They'll also screen a number of this year's likely Oscar contenders, including same-sex romance Carol starring Cate Blanchet and Rooney Mara, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's new Western The Revenant featuring a grizzled Leonardo DiCaprio, and the Aaron Sorkin-scripted biopic Steve Jobs starring Michael Fassbender as the tech icon.
Rounding out the lineup are a handful of nostalgic gems, including The Lion King, The Princess Bride and perennial Yuletide favourite Elf. That said, we're probably most excited for a late January screening of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, which should pair quite nicely with his new film The Hateful Eight which hits cinemas around the same time.
The Lido is located at 675 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn. The full rooftop program will be made available online on November 12.