The summer movie season is officially underway in theaters right now, but for Brew City cinema lovers, the most exciting film news isn't coming out this month or this season, but almost a year away: the 2022 Milwaukee Film Festival, which today announced its official dates.

With the annual Milwaukee Film Festival being held this May, the local nonprofit Milwaukee Film is continuing renovations on the festival's host theater, the Oriental Theatre on the city's east side. Check out the attached slideshow to get a look at the progress on the work being done on the prominent venue.

Milwaukee Film festival will add new technology to its virtual film festivals while continuing ahead on renovations to the Oriental Theatre on Milwaukee's east side. Milwaukee Film expanded the second annual Minority Health Film Festival to 15 days from Sept. 10-24. It was previously just a four-day festival.

Milwaukee Film, the nonprofit owner and operator of the Oriental, offered a behind-the-scenes look of the project construction on Wednesday. Crews on Wednesday were painting and cleaning the plaster on the ceiling and walls of the main theater. Milwaukee Film expects to complete the current phase of the project by the end of October.

The Oriental Theatre, home to the annual Milwaukee Film Festival, said Tuesday it will remain closed into the fall. Milwaukee Film, the nonprofit organization that operates the theater, said the organization plans to complete extensive renovations to the main and east theaters over the summer months.

The 2019 Milwaukee Film Festival drew a record 87,618 attendees over the 15-day event. Attendance at this year’s festival, which ran from Oct. 17-31, was up 12% over 2018.

MILWAUKEE — After several months of preparation, organizers for the 2019 Milwaukee Film Festival were ready to welcome tens of thousands of guests on opening day. Milwaukee Film is hosting the 15-day festival. This year they will show 349 films and host more than a hundred events.

The annual Milwaukee Film Festival returns to southeastern Wisconsin later this week, bringing more than 350 films and related events to nine area venues from Oct. 17 to 31. Now in its 11th year, the two-week event, presented by Associated Bank, annually attracts tens of thousands of attendees (nearly 80,000 in 2018).

Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the top cinema in Milwaukee, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of where to venture next time you're in the market for cinema.

The renovation of Milwaukee's historic Oriental Theater on the east side hit a milestone: the removal of the concession stand in the lobby. The old concession stand, which was not an original feature of the theater, is being replaced by a new concession stand that will improve efficiency, speed up service, and allow for more offerings for customers.

There are about 220 seats, installed during the 1988 renovation, for sale and you can take home as many as you want – or can carry (they're not delivering them). Replacement of the seats in the main and east houses is expected to take place next year.

The Oriental Theatre is closing one of its two small screens for a few months, as part of Milwaukee Film's second phase of renovations at the east side movie palace. The theater's westernmost screen — the one closest to the theater's entrance at 2230 N. Farwell Ave. — will go dark after Sunday's showings, Milwaukee Film said Wednesday.

The 2018 Milwaukee Film Festival had 78,510 attendees, a 6 percent drop from 84,072 last year. But at the same time, the film festival's parent organization reported gains in membership and fundraising.