The 20th Annual Sidewalk Film Festival, a celebration of new independent cinema in downtown Birmingham, is set to take place August 21-26, 2018. Since its debut in 1999, filmmakers from across the country and around the world have come to Birmingham to screen their work at Sidewalk and have been thrilled to discover fresh, enthusiastic crowds eager to devour new independent cinema. With ten venues located within Birmingham’s historic Theatre District (featuring the Alabama Theatre, a 2,200 seat movie palace built by Paramount in 1927, and the newly restored Lyric Fine Arts Theatre), spontaneity rules the schedule of Sidewalk attendees. Low-priced weekend passes provide easy access to Sidewalk venues, encouraging attendees to seek out new films and sample programming they may not otherwise see. The result is a crowd rich in diversity and united in a hunger for new film.