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Santa Barbara International Film Festival getting its own movie theater complex

Santa Barbara's Fiesta Five Theaters when they were still in operation as commercial theaters.
John Palminteri
Santa Barbara's Fiesta Five Theaters when they were still in operation as commercial theaters.

Festival signs long term lease deal to take over the City of Santa Barbara's Fiesta Five Theater complex in downtown Santa Barbara.

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is getting a new home.

The City of Santa Barbara, and the festival formalized a deal Tuesday for the filmfest to take out a long term lease on a shuttered State Street movie theater complex.

The deal calls for the festival to take over what was known as the Fiesta 5 Theater. Metropolitan Theaters operated it as a commercial movie theater complex for decades, but gave up its lease with the city as the industry has been sagging.

Film Festival officials plan to reopen it in November. They’ll launch a $15 million fundraising campaign to turn it into a state-of-the-art theater complex which be used for festival and community screenings, and events.

The festival already operates Santa Barbara’s Riviera Theater on a year-round basis.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.