Wawa Welcome America

The Philadelphia Film Society partners with Wawa Welcome America to present a two week eclectic program of FREE screenings made for Philly. From Old Hollywood stars and directors that called Philadelphia home to Eagles diehards, this explosive display of cinematic fireworks kicks off the summer right.

June
MANNEQUIN (35MM)
She’s dated Christopher Columbus. She’s been rejected by Michelangelo. So when an ancient Egyptian princess (Kim Cattrall) is reincarnated as a mannequin in 1980s Philadelphia and falls in love, she declares it the greatest place on earth. We agree!
Director: MICHAEL GOTTLIEB
Runtime: 90 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 19, 29
Genre
ROMANCE
Category
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Formats
35MM
Release
1987
RUSTIN
Colman Domingo delivers a commanding performance as Civil Rights Activist, Bayard Rustin, diligently organizing the historic March on Washington amid widespread political resistance and personal prejudice over his identity.
Director: GEORGE C. WOLFE
Runtime: 106 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 19
Genre
BIOGRAPHICAL
Category
Centerpieces
Curated
First Run
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Release
2023
SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS
A seductive city woman disrupts the sanctity of a family when she begins an affair with a farmer, soon convincing him to murder his wife (Philadelphia’s Janet Gaynor and the first Best Actress winner!). American cinema was never the same.
Director: F.W. MURNAU
Runtime: 94 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 20
Genre
DRAMA
Category
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Release
1927
A STAR IS BORN (1937)
Long before Gaga and Cooper (and Babs and Kristofferson), Philly's own Janet Gaynor and Fredric March headlined Hollywood’s classic drama, where the birth of a star coincides with the fading of another.
Director: WILLIAM A. WELLMAN
Runtime: 111 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 20
Genre
ROMANCE
Category
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Release
1937
MAYBE THIS YEAR
An ode to Philadelphia’s Eagles fans, this film captures one of the most die-hard fan bases in the NFL as they finally see years of disappointment vanish with one Philly Special.
Director: KYLE THRASH, JENIFER WESTPHAL
Runtime: 83 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 21
Genre
DOCUMENTARY
EAGLES
Category
Curated
Special Screening
Release
2019
SPLIT
M. Night Shyamalan shows the many sides of James McAvoy and Philly in this nail-biting thriller about a very special man imprisoning three women instead of going to therapy.
Director: M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN
Runtime: 117 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 22
Genre
Horror
Category
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Release
2016
DAYS OF HEAVEN
Terrence Malick’s poetic period drama follows a scheming couple (including Philly's Richard Gere) who manipulate a dying farmer’s affections in hopes of securing a better future.
Director: TERRENCE MALICK
Runtime: 94 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 23
Genre
DRAMA
Category
Beginning of the End
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Formats
4K
Release
1978
CREED
Training under a reluctant Rocky Balboa, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) enters the ring with hopes to establish his own legacy, while battling the crushing weight of his legendary father’s name in Ryan Coogler's excellent kick start to a new trilogy.
Director: RYAN COOGLER
Runtime: 133 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 24
Genre
DRAMA
Category
Curated
Special Screening
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Formats
DCP
Release
2015
FOOTLOOSE (1984)
Kevin Bacon is magnetic as Ren McCormack, a rebellious newcomer ready to shake things up and empower the youth in a town where dancing and rock’n’roll are forbidden.
Director: HERBERT ROSS
Runtime: 107 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 25
Genre
MUSICAL
Category
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Release
1984
THE WIZ
Diana Ross is Dorothy. Michael Jackson is the Scarecrow. Richard Pryor is the titular man behind the curtain. Ease on Down the Road to the city that never sleeps in Philadelphian Sidney Lumet’s one and only musical, featuring a sensational all-Black ensemble!
Director: SIDNEY LUMET
Runtime: 134 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 26
Genre
MUSICAL
Category
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Formats
4K
Release
1978
HIGH NOON
Director Fred Zinnemann takes the classic American “oater” and imbues it with a notably revisionist approach. Starring Gary Cooper as town marshall, and Grace Kelly as the marshall’s wife, the marshall must choose between confronting a vicious outlaw vs. fleeing with his wife and morals.
Director: FRED ZINNEMANN
Runtime: 85 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 27
Genre
WESTERN
Category
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Formats
4K
Release
1952
HIGH SOCIETY
Grace Kelly, in her final act before becoming Princess of Monaco, stars as a Newport socialite caught between her jazz-musician ex husband, Bing Crosby, and news reporter, Frank Sinatra, in this jazzy remake of the 1940 screwball, The Philadelphia Story.
Director: CHARLES WALTERS
Runtime: 111 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 27
Genre
MUSICAL
Category
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Formats
4K
Release
1956
SUMMER OF SOUL
One year after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival served as a healing balm for a grieving nation. Questlove’s Sundance-winning documentary unearths forgotten footage, molding it into a lyrical critique of systemic racism and a joyous celebration of Blackness, vibrant and defiant of the odds.
Director: AHMIR "QUESTLOVE" THOMPSON
Runtime: 118 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 28
Genre
DOCUMENTARY
Category
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Release
2021
INVINCIBLE
Lifelong football fan Vince Papale (Mark Wahlberg) sees his wildest dreams come true when he becomes a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Director: ERICSON CORE
Runtime: 105 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JUNE 30
Genre
EAGLES
Category
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Release
2006
NATIONAL TREASURE
Nicolas Cage stars as Benjamin Franklin Gates, a historian on an explosive mission to find a centuries-old treasure by decoding a hidden map on the back of America’s most sacred document. When life gives you lemons, steal the Declaration of Independence!
Director: JON TURTELTAUB
Runtime: 131 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JULY 1
Genre
ACTION
Category
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Release
2004
MEAN GIRLS
It may not be October 3rd, but you can definitely sit with Cady Heron as her attempt to sabotage the plastics from the inside begins to unravel when she starts to enjoy being Queen Bee in Tina Fey's timeless and hilarious script.
Director: MARK WATERS
Runtime: 112 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JULY 2
Genre
Comedy
Category
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Release
2004
INDEPENDENCE DAY
Welcome to Earth! No. Welcome to ‘Merica. No wait, welcome to…the Commonwealth? The White House is rubble. Las Vegas is ash. An alien invasion is threatening human extinction. Lucky for the planet, Pennsylvania natives, Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum, are on the case.
Director: Roland Emmerich
Runtime: 145 min
Theater: Film Society Center
JULY 3
Genre
SCI-FI
Category
Curated
Wawa Welcome America - Free Movie Days
Formats
4K
Release
1996