Select members of the Sidewalk Staff have picked some of their favorite romantic movies for our Valentine’s Staff Picks Weekend (Feb. 14 – 20)! Spend a date night with your partner or bring your closest friends to a weekend full of love, heartache, and…vampires? That’s just how Sidewalk rolls.
Roman Holiday (1953), selected by Projectionist Kate Burney
Overwhelmed by her suffocating schedule, touring European princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) takes off for a night while in Rome. When a sedative she took from her doctor kicks in, however, she falls asleep on a park bench and is found by an American reporter, Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), who takes her back to his apartment for safety. At work the next morning, Joe finds out Ann’s regal identity and bets his editor he can get an exclusive interview with her, but romance soon gets in the way.
“I grew up on a steady diet of Roman Holiday and other mythologies. As I’ve gotten older, the 72 year-old film has steadily rang truer to my experiences of love and loss, challenging or delighting me, depending on the day. Roman Holiday sparked several of my research interests as a film scholar, including film-induced tourism, geography in narrative film, and the romantic comedy genre. Ultimately, it’s one of my favorite stories for how it captures the bittersweet. That’s a hard note to hit right, but Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck make it sing. And yes, I cry every time!”
– Kate Burney
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), selected by Box Office Manager Jennifer Freehling, Senior Box Office Associate Richard O’Brien, and Front of House Associate Teresa Kelley
After a painful breakup, Clementine (Kate Winslet) undergoes a procedure to erase memories of her former boyfriend Joel (Jim Carrey) from her mind. When Joel discovers that Clementine is going to extremes to forget their relationship, he undergoes the same procedure and slowly begins to forget the woman that he loved.
“Like all of Charlie Kaufman’s work, Eternal Sunshine is ultimately a film about violently cracking yourself open to see who you really are, finding instead the people you’ve met and loved in your life. There’s a definite (and obvious) read that Joel and Clementine are doomed, trapped in an eternal recursion of the Aging Hipster Couple no one can stand, but there’s a less obvious read pointing to a state of grace: hell might be other people, but love can be a door to a place we can’t imagine going by ourselves. I watch this movie every Valentine’s Day.”
– Richard O’Brien
“This movie takes me through all the various emotions that come with love; it’s scary, sweet, exciting, stupid, and painful. It asks the old question, is it better to have never loved than to have loved and lost? As a bit of a realist, and as one who manages mental health issues, I can absolutely empathize with the desire to forget everything that ever hurt me, even if that means losing the good part too. It’s heartbreaking and comforting at the same time.”
– Teresa Kelley
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), selected by Front of House Associate Violet Gein
Artistic, sophisticated and centuries old, two vampire lovers (Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston) ponder their ultimate place in modern society.
“Only Lovers Left Alive is not your average vampire movie. It is an exploration of immortal love, life, and the human condition. The moody cinematography and dark humor represent my mind very well. I’ve always had this film in my yearly rotation and I hope to make this your next favorite vampire movie! I encourage guests to dress up in their finest Gothic attire when attending this showing.”
– Violet Gein
When a mysterious artifact is uncovered on the Moon, a spacecraft manned by two humans and one supercomputer is sent to Jupiter to find its origins.
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.
An ex-Foreign Legion officer recalls his once-glorious life of leading troops in Djibouti.
Three men attempt to make a living in Prohibitionist America after returning home from fighting together in World War I.
A pair of NYPD detectives in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a heroin smuggling ring based in Marseilles, but stopping them and capturing their leaders proves an elusive goal.
Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family.
Sidewalk aluma 
Along with the run of Luther: Never Too Much, Sidewalk will be hosting 
T. Marie King
J. Matthew Cobb
Nick Ferlisi
Charlie Brown Sanders III
Programming Manager + SHOUT LGBTQ+ Programmer
OPENING NIGHT!
This is my 11th year involved with the Festival (either volunteering, co-producing, or serving on the board) and I NEVER miss the 
I’ve got two options @ 12:30 – either 
I’ve got another game time decision to make for my last screening of the day. I might catch the 
Sunday morning at The Alabama is another annual ritual for me, this year with the South Korean thriller 
I caught the trailer for 
Between the Closing Night Film and the Awards Show @ The Lyric, I’m going to pop back over to the Sidewalk Cinema to see 
10am ASFA Recital Hall: 
12:30pm ASFA Recital Hall: 
3pm ASFA Recital Hall: 
5 pm Alabama Theatre: 
10am Lyric Theatre: 
12:30pm Alabama Theatre: 
3pm Alabama Theatre: 
10am
12pm
3:15pm
10am
The latest film from Veronica Franz and Severin Fiala (The Lodge, Goodnight Mommy) is a harsh and uncompromising look at the agonizing depression of a newlywed wife in rural 18
Why did one of the most popular software programs for teaching typing at the dawn of personal computing use a Haitian-born model on its cover? In Seeking Mavis Beacon, two young filmmakers/investigators dig into the program’s legacy, particularly on young Black women with an interest in technology for whom Mavis Beacon was an unexpected inspiration — even though she was a fictitious figure. Seeking Mavis Beacon isn’t just an investigative doc on a pop culture subject, though, as the filmmakers document their own lives, the making of this film and a broader examination of the intersection of technology and identity.
In this Korean black comedy-horror film, a newlywed husband (the late Lee Sun-kyun of Parasite) starts committing increasingly disturbing acts in his sleep. What’s the cause — something medical or supernatural? His wife (Jung Yu-mi of Train to Busan) can only watch in horror as her husband’s unconscious behavior grows worse — until she decides to take action to solve the problem herself, and things, somehow, get even stranger. A deft mixture of tones and genre that could only come from South Korea, Sleep recalls the slippery thrillers of Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, proving hard to pin down and even harder to predict what’s coming next.
The story of a group of comics who go on a reproductive rights-related comedy tour to protest the narrowing of abortion access (including a memorable visit to Birmingham), No One Asked You depicts the push back against our nation’s misogynistic erosion of bodily autonomy and civil liberties in funny, furious and unforgettable ways. Lizz Winstead, the co-creator of The Daily Show, hits the road with her Abortion Access Front and fellow comedians and activists, and places herself at the frontline of the abortion rights debate by visiting and supporting providers and clinics besieged by protestors and hypocritical politicians. 
It’s fair to say Sidewalk loves the films of Joel Potrykus — largely deadpan, grimy examinations of arrested development in modern men — and Vulcanizadora, a sequel to Buzzard, might be his best work yet, following his thematic concerns to an unavoidably bleak but logical conclusion. Vulcanizadora follows Marty (Joshua Burge) and Derek (Potrykus) as they trek into the Michigan woods. As in Buzzard, the talkative Derek chatters away as Marty broods — but this is a trip that only gradually reveals itself to be far darker than your average camping excursion. And when their plans go awry, the film morphs into an examination of immaturity, existential dissatisfaction, and the walls men can erect around them to avoid being damaged by their own feelings or the consequences of their own actions.