In just six weeks, movie fans in Birmingham will head downtown for the Sidewalk Film Festival, ready to dive into a slate of more than 300 narrative films, documentaries and shorts.

About 15,000 people typically attend the festival, spending the weekend at venues that range from the 2,150-seat Alabama Theatre to a small screening room at First Church Birmingham.

Some of the more ambitious folks will attend panel discussions, parties and workshops; others will simply slide into their seats and break out the popcorn.

Festival dates are set (Aug. 23-25), tickets are on sale ($85 weekend pass, $30 daily, $245 VIP) and the movie lineup is slowly being revealed, with 10 films announced to date. (The full lineup will be unveiled on July 22 during a sneak-peek event at Saturn in Avondale.)

All business as usual.

But this year is different for the nonprofit festival, which is celebrating its 21st year. Organizers have undertaken a significant and imposing task: They aim to raise $5 million in a capital campaign and open an art house theater and film center on the lower level of the Pizitz building at Second Avenue North and 19th Street.

Ready for more indie movies in Birmingham? Sidewalk plans $5 million cinema and film center

“This is a new venture for everybody,” says Chloe Cook, Sidewalk’s executive director. “We are serious and we are moving forward.”

The Sidewalk Cinema — designed by Davis Architects and built by the Stewart Perry construction company — is meant to supplement the annual festival, not replace it. But Cook and other members of the Sidewalk team intend to open the 11,000-square-foot space in tandem with this year’s festival, making a splash with Sidewalk’s fan base and using the new cinema as one of the festival venues.

To date, Sidewalk has raised about $4.5 million of its goal, Cook says, and her team has its fingers crossed for the final $400,000 or so. The actual budget for the cinema and film center is $4,987,400, but Cook says reaching $4.9 million will make her feel as if they hit a bullseye.

Update, July 15: The precise figure Sidewalk has raised to date is $4,463,106, according to the latest newsletter from organizers. They hope to raise $436,894 before the end of July, the newsletter says.

Deadlines are looming. Fundraising continues. Construction is ongoing, and has amped up to seven days per week.

Will they make it?

Cook says she can’t issue an ironclad promise, but she’s feeling confident as crunch time approaches. Unless something unforeseen happens, Cook says, she expects the cinema to make its debut at Sidewalk 2019, most likely as a venue for encore screenings.

“I definitely think we’ve got a challenge in front of us to close the campaign,” Cook says during an interview with AL.com. “And we have a challenge to get everything ready, so we can actually be open at the festival. Will I be a little disappointed if we aren’t open fest week for some reason? Of course I will be. Is it the end of the world? No. Does it mean the project’s been a failure? Hell, no.

“The city’s been without an independent cinema the entire 21 years that Sidewalk’s existed, and a number of years in advance of that," Cook continues. “Are we going to make it six more weeks, if that’s what it takes? Yes. Everybody’s going to survive, and we will, too. It’s fine. I don’t think’s what’s going to happen, though.”

Cautious optimism is Cook’s motto these days, as Sidewalk forges ahead and Stewart Perry delivers reassuring updates that say construction is on schedule.

Final inspections of the Pizitz space — officially known as the Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema — are set to start on July 22, Cook says. If all goes well, new furniture and gear from the current Sidewalk headquarters could be moved in July 26-29.

Training events are set to follow, as employees and volunteers get used to the new digs over a two-week span. After that, donor events are planned for Aug. 13-15.

“We hope to have three days of rest and last-minute festival prep, and we’re down here on Monday, the 19th of August, for our Alabama Filmmakers Spotlight Night in our own cinema space. That’s the game plan,” Cook says.

If there’s been any negative buzz in Birmingham’s film community about the cinema project — or skepticism about its opening date — Cook says she hasn’t heard it. She’s been too busy with her regular duties for the festival, along with a spate of new responsibilities as the cinema takes shape.

“The festival season is very much a marathon, not a sprint, and it takes a lot out of everybody,” Cook says. “We’re not rocket scientists here, but it’s complicated work with a lot of moving parts and pieces, and many, many, different partners and volunteers, and all these layers. It requires a lot. That hasn’t changed. We’re adding to that, opening a new business in a space that’s still under construction. It’s a Herculean effort. It feels like it.”

The Sidewalk festival is facing some extra challenges this year, Cook says, as filmmakers and others in the movie world ponder the implications of screening their movies in Alabama. The state’s new abortion law, one of the strictest in the country, is not sitting well with progressive-minded actors, directors, producers and others in the entertainment industry. This has added a potential roadblock to Sidewalk’s negotiations for programming.

“It’s been an intensely challenging year for programming, and we’re still in the middle of it,” says Rachel Morgan, Sidewalk’s creative director. “Each year brings its own challenges, but this one’s unique for a number of reasons.”

Morgan doesn’t elaborate, but Cook makes it clear that fallout from the abortion law has been a factor. She says Sidewalk has lost some out-of-state sponsors because of the law, as well.

“We’re not directly a part of the decisions that our state government is making, you know?” Cook says. “We’re not sitting in Montgomery, but there’s been a negative impact on the nonprofit organization, and I think that’s part of what Rachel’s been trying to deal with on the programming side — to explain why not screening might be the opposite of what the person’s trying to accomplish, might lead to the opposite of what they’re hoping for. But it’s just added a layer of complication to what is already a complicated event to make happen.”

Nevertheless, the Sidewalk team persists.

Programming is underway for the cinema, which is scheduled to open for an encore weekend in late August, screening popular movies from this year’s Sidewalk festival. Normal operation of the cinema is set to begin on Sept. 1.

“It’ll be about 50 percent first-run indies that will run just like a movie theater seven days a week, with multiple screen times every day," Morgan says. "About 50 percent is retrospective or one-off screenings — in other words, where we do a screen talk, or something like that, and screen a film once and move on.

“A lot of those retrospective screenings are auteur series, or celebrations of particular actors, or a flashback series representing a particular generation or decade. It’s a calendar model, meaning that every single day will look different in the cinema. You can put the calendar virtually on your computer or on your fridge, and you can kind of go, ‘What do I want to do on Wednesday?’ There’s several different things happening at the Sidewalk Cinema."

As lagniappe, the bar and lounge areas will screen movies and TV shows, all of which will be thoughtfully chosen by the programming team.

“That’s going to be a lot of fun, and it doesn’t cost anything,” Morgan says. "I mean, we hope people will come get a drink and buy a snack. But it won’t cost anything to do that. And that will be everything from Hitchcock movies to Melrose Mondays to “Riverdale” night. So you name it, we’re going to sort of celebrate it.”

Need more proof that the Sidewalk Cinema is well underway?

Postings for several job openings recently have appeared on the Sidewalk Facebook page, including calls for concessions workers, bartenders, box office staffers and a digital projectionist. Also, a volunteer program for the cinema is in the works.

“It’s a way for people to have free access to films and that sort of thing, by kind of working an usher shift, tearing tickets," Cook says. “Simple, simple. But important to us.”