The 2019 Milwaukee Film Festival will expand its footprint to two new sites this fall.
Festival operator Milwaukee Film announced it will screen films at the Rivoli Theatre in Cedarburg and the Broadway Theatre Center in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward this year.
“We’ve always had ambitious dreams of expanding our festival throughout the greater Milwaukee area,” said Jonathan Jackson, chief executive officer and artistic director of Milwaukee Film. “It is thrilling, thanks to several incredible new sponsors, that we are able to introduce our film festival to two new neighborhoods and audiences this year.”
The Rivoli Theatre, which opened in 1936 at W62N567 Washington Ave. in downtown Cedarburg, was recently renovated to restore its original art deco facade and red marquee.
The 358-seat Cabot Theatre in the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway, is designed as a replication of an 18th-century European opera house.
The festival lineup now includes eight screens across six venues, the largest footprint in its history.
The Oriental Theatre, at 2230 N. Farwell Ave., remains the anchor venue. Milwaukee Film took over operations of the 92-year-old theater in 2017, and has since completed a series of upgrades to the facility. Work is currently underway to replace the Oriental’s current concession stand, upgrade the sound system in the main theater, add a new assisted-listening device system, replace all seats in the westernmost theater and upgrade the building’s emergency systems in time for the 2019 festival.
Other screening venues include the Jan Serr Studio Cinema, 2155 N. Prospect Ave.; Times Cinema, 5906 W. Vliet St., and the Avalon Theatre, 2473 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.
The festival runs Oct. 17-31. The 2018 event screened more than 300 films and brought in nearly 80,000 attendees.
