Sidewalk Film  Center and Cinema Executive Director Chloe Cook spoke at the Pell City Rotary Club meeting on Tuesday about the Sidewalk Film Fest success over the past decade and how efforts are being made to build a new cinema theatre. The Sidewalk Cinema is planning to build a permanent film center near the theatre district of Birmingham in the Pizitz building.

The new Sidewalk Cinema and Film Center will include two theatres (each having a 100 seat capacity), two lounges, two projections booths, concession stands, a bar, a box office, and an “educational space.”

The project budget for the Sidewalk Cinema and Film Center campaign is $4,987,440. Cook said they are a million dollars shy from reaching their goal of creating a cinema for independent films.

Chloe Cook has been in the film business for 20 years.

“We’re not a pop up, fly by night group,” Cook said. “We worked hard at it for 20 years and I have been involved (with Sidewalk Cinema) for the past 10 (years).”

In fact, in the last decade, the Sidewalk Film Festival has managed to quadruple in ticket sales. Plus, the estimated economic impact of the new film center could generate a million dollars a year.

The Sidewalk Film Festival has been gaining national notoriety since 2009.  Publications such as Time Magazine, USA Today, The Washington Post and more have covered the Birmingham film festival.

The festival on average yields about $1.4 million a year, with a wide audience base of 14,000 people.

“The reach of our organization extends beyond the Birmingham community and really positively impacts the whole state,”  Cook said.

In case one is unfamiliar with the Sidewalk Festival, “it is a week long celebration of film.”

Over the years, Cook has been dispelling the pre-conceived notion that independent films have a lesser quality than premiere films.  The thing that gives premiere films the upper edge is their budget.

“Typically the films that we are showing , they’re just like any other movie that you would watch, they just don’t have a giant studio backing the films,” Cook said. “The festival is really just a place for people who like movies to come together with other people that like movies and watch films.”

This year’s festival will premiere 270 independent films.

 No matter the category or genre, the Sidewalk Film Fest has something in-store for avid movie watchers.  

“The films will cover everything imaginable,” she said

Filmmakers can submit their movie to the Sidewalk Fest. This year they had a little under 2000 total submission  Then a seven group committee makes a decision rather or not a film should be played at the fest.

“We also do panels, workshops and table reads. So if you have a young person in your life who’s interested in filmmaking, television, broadcast radio, or podcasting we offer a bunch of different classes and workshops throughout festival weekend on those subjects . And all of those panels and workshops master classes are absolutely free.”

During the festival week, there will be about 150 visiting filmmakers coming to Alabama from around the world.

Festival week starts from the August 20-26. For more information go to the Sidewalkfest.com