Sidewalk Cinema hosts free X-Men '97 watch party in Birmingham

Sidewalk Cinema turned its downtown Birmingham lobby into a free X-Men ’97 watch party Monday night, bringing fans in at 8:30 p.m. for a season 2 premiere celebration with Sanctum Tattoos and Comics. Reservations were recommended, but seating was first come, first served, making the event feel less like a ticketed screening than a shared hangout built around the show.

The night came with the kind of participatory details that have become a Sidewalk signature: a cosplay contest, themed cocktails, pop-up games, door prizes and giveaways. Sidewalk also encouraged superhero apparel, which helped the lobby read like a gathering place for people who came ready to dress up, talk shop and stay awhile. Even with Marvel Animation at the center of the event, the programming fit the same habit that drives Birmingham’s indie-film crowd, treating audience-building as something social, not passive.

That approach has been central to Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema since it opened in August 2019 in the Pizitz Building. Sidewalk describes the nonprofit as dedicated to encouraging filmmaking in Alabama and building audiences for independent film, and the cinema’s roughly 11,300- to 11,400-square-foot footprint includes two intimate theaters and a bar-lobby area built for events like Monday’s watch party. The space has made it possible for Sidewalk to keep programming moving between larger anchor moments, including the Sidewalk Film Festival each August, which uses historic Birmingham venues such as the Alabama Theatre, Lyric Theatre and Carver Theatre.

The cinema’s investment has continued this year. In March 2026, Sidewalk received an $85,000 Alabama State Council on the Arts Creative Places Arts Facilities grant to upgrade audio equipment and expand its tech loft, a sign that the organization is still building out the physical side of its year-round work as much as the social side. The free X-Men ’97 event fit squarely into that strategy, giving Birmingham fans a reason to come downtown outside the festival calendar and turning the lobby into part of the attraction.

Sanctum Tattoos and Comics added to the local feel of the night. The shop, located at 2325 1st Ave N in Birmingham, identifies as locally owned, which made the collaboration read as a neighborhood partnership rather than a standard promotional tie-in. With X-Men ’97 season 2 already drawing attention after its 2026 Tribeca Festival world premiere and wider summer release, Sidewalk used a television event to do what it has long done best: keep Birmingham’s screen culture visible, social and full of people.