How We Choose the Films for CAPA’s Summer Movie Series

Each year, CAPA selects 20-30 classic films for its CAPA Summer Movie Series at the Ohio Theatre. Out of the thousands of possibilities, how is it narrowed down to those few titles?

CAPA VP of Programming Rich Corsi and consultant Lance Carwile are the team tasked with the job of assembling the CAPA Summer Movie Series. They look at available films across many genres—drama, comedy, thriller, romance, film noir, Western, musical, horror—as well as “old” classics like The Wizard of Oz and “new” classics like The Princess Bride. They also look at silent films to showcase featured organist Clark Wilson and the Ohio Theatre’s “Mighty Morton” theatre organ.

After assembling a short list, they check to see if each film has been shown in the Series before, and if so, how recently. “You need to have a 6-7 year gap before repeating a film,” said Corsi. This helps to whittle down the list even more.

They then begin the process of determining if the rights are available, and when the film is physically available. “Once we get that nice list, we see what’s available in what timeframe, and it all kind of comes together,” explains Corsi.

In the end, the CAPA Summer Movie Series becomes a well-rounded list of popular, cult, and classic films that people love seeing on the big screen again. “There are wide variety of people that come to the CAPA Summer Movie Series,” said Corsi. “And we hope we have found something for everyone.”