It's about time for Austinites to retreat into their indoor lifestyles for summer, making this a great time to catch up on classic films. Even though the Paramount Theatre will close in June to start major renovations, it is still running its 52nd annual Summer Classic Film Series from today, May 22, through the end of August.

The Paramount will host films when it can, and after it closes, the series will continue next door at the State Theatre and at the Bullock Museum's gigantic IMAX Theatre.

The Summer Classic series is, as the name suggests, all about the classics, but this doesn't necessarily mean classical cinema. Some are obvious, like Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon together in a double screening on opening night, while others like Spy Kids, celebrating its 25th anniversary with a visit from director Robert Rodriguez, are more recently canonized.

“The Summer Classic Film Series is woven into the fabric of Austin summers,” says senior director of film programming Stephen Jannise in a press release. “This year carries something extra, a bittersweetness as we say a temporary goodbye to the Paramount for its long-overdue and much-deserved restoration, and an excitement as we bring the series to new venues and new audiences. The films are as great as ever, and the tradition is very much alive and thriving.”

Curators are taking advantage of the IMAX Theatre as a new venue by getting some nostalgic visual spectacles on the schedule, including Jaws on June 16, The Wizard of Oz in 3D on June 23, and 2001: A Space Odyssey on June 30.

Much of the three months of programming is organized into themed blocks:

• Hyperreal Film Club joins the fun with Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair, with sad, wistful, or otherwise dark yet empathetic films like Where the Wild Things Are and The Virgin Suicides.
• Hitchcock Month shows off five films by Old Alfred himself, including Notorious and Strangers on a Train, which mark their 80th and 75th anniversaries, respectively.
• More anniversaries are on the lineup, with the longest being Charlie Chaplain's Modern Times (90 years), Citizen Kane (85 years), and A Streetcar Named Desire (75 years).
• Kids are welcome for the return of the Family Film Series, featuring films that will especially appeal to Millennial parents, including Monsters, Inc., The Princess Diaries, and The Goonies.
• A multitude of other categories like "Affairs to Remember" for classic love stories that don't necessarily end happily; "Shot in Texas" for films that show off the Lone Star State; "We're Being Watched" for films about surveillance and voyeurism; and “Soundtrack(s) of Our Lives” for films with iconic soundtracks.
• Curation collaborations with the Austin Asian American Film Festival, Black Auteur Film Festival, and ATX TV Festival, among others.

Some special events go beyond the screen, like the fifth annual Majestic Ball on June 6, with visits from drag and ballroom performers Diamond Dior Davenport, Shea Coulée, and Iconic Mother Natalie Lepore. Speaker Alok Vaid-Menon will visit a couple of days in advance on June 4, followed by a 35mm presentation of Rent (2005) on June 5. Then the education nonprofit Nobelity Project gets its own three-film tribute to launch three university endowments in Kenya and Austin.

Because there are so many films to see, tickets to the Summer Classic Film Series are sold in a variety of configurations. One regular admission film ticket costs $15. A 10-ticket pack is $90 for non-members and $75 for members. There are other member and child discounts, and double features are sold under one ticket. Viewers can purchase tickets and browse the full lineup by month at austintheatre.org.