Long Island City<\/a> she had built in about two months. She strolled through auditoriums with 45 and 50 seats, smiling and a survivor in a tough business.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe cinema has comfortable chairs (yes, more comfortable than her first cinema), a better caf\u00e9 and shows blockbusters and smaller movies.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took me eight years to build the audience and the following. I had to move quickly. I found this space,\u201d she said as she walked through the cinema, which opened in May. \u201cI\u2019m super happy. The old space was smaller. We didn\u2019t have a kitchen. We always wanted to have a kitchen so I could offer more food.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cinema-movie-theater-blooms-queens03.jpeg\")
A screening at Stuart Cinema and Caf\u00e9Courtesy of Stuart Cinema & Cafe<\/p>\n
Businesses open all the time, but this new cinema is not an ordinary business, showing movies, dreams on the screen, and doing much more, providing a venue for everything from parties to festivals as well as blockbuster and smaller movies just blocks from the Museum of the Moving Image.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t really need to be on a main avenue, because we draw in foot traffic. They were willing to offer me a long-term lease and willing to work with me,\u201d Stuart said of a landlord that gave her a launchpad to keep her dream alive. \u201cI\u2019m only 10 minutes from my old location. So I wouldn\u2019t have to lose those customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuart invested in new projectors, as well as $350 leather seats and soundproofing and, as she puts it, has a space as good and modern as any other movie theater.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have everything they have in the theater, but it\u2019s smaller,\u201d she said. \u201cThe studios had no issue giving me movies.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
She and her cinema do more than show big movies, presenting private events and private screenings and a path to at least consideration for big awards.
\n![\"Stuart](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cinema-movie-theater-blooms-queens04.jpeg\")
Stuart Cinema and Caf\u00e9Courtesy of Stuart Cinema & Cafe\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe help filmmakers qualify for the Oscars,\u201d Stuart said of smaller movies. \u201cWe do birthday parties, panels. A lot of people meet in our space. People can play their wedding anniversary video and have a whole night for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queens World Film Festival Executive Director Katha Cato sees the new cinema as boosting indie movies in the borough.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Stuart Cinema and Cafe is another giant leap forward for a thriving indie film community exploding in Queens,\u201d Cato said. \u201cTwo additional screens in Queens make so much more possible for all of us working to bring these independent voices forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Local movie makers see the new movie theater as a new way to reach audiences at a smaller venue.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thrilled to screen at Stuart Cinema,\u201d said Patricia Silva, whose award-winning movie \u201cBright Vignettes: How Astoria Got its Pride,\u201d was screened there, near the core of the movie itself. \u201cIt\u2019s an independent theater.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuart worked in corporate America, at large law firms and brokerage houses, before she began producing film and television, facing problems with distribution.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople were like, \u2018You\u2019d better build your own movie theater,\u201d Stuart said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I did. And here I am.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
While movie theater food typically means popcorn and soda, not being a huge fan of this fare, she opened a smaller caf\u00e9 at her first cinema and a larger one here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m Dominican,\u201d Stuart said before going over the menu in her film version of a field of dreams. \u201cI\u2019d love an empanada. What if we had a spicy latin burger? What if we had a Cajun chicken sandwich?\u201d<\/p>\n
She offers Coquito Spanish egg nogg, in keeping with her Dominican roots. \u201cWe sell it every day,\u201d Stuart said. \u201cMost people make it only for Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuart said there is more space between rows and the \u201ctheater is bigger\u201d as crowds arrive, often to see big movies, even as she works on projects as well in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
The new cinema has been doing well, opening with the new \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada\u201d movie and Michael Jackson biopic \u201cMichael.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThey both did amazing,\u201d she said of showings that attracted old and new fans, not just of the movies, but the movie theater.\n<\/p>\n
The cinema, she said, is the only Afro Latina-owned movie theater in New York State in an industry that often remains male-dominated.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very closed, old boy, old school network,\u201d Stuart said. \u201cA lot of people pass their theaters down generation after generation.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
They just finished showing \u201cScary Movie\u201d and \u201cToy Story Five,\u201d helping drive business. \u201cMovies are doing better here than at my other theater,\u201d Stuart said before pausing. \u201cIt could also be that we have better movies now. We\u2019ve got movies that people are excited about.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also shows smaller movies and thinks out of the box (office) when it comes to menu, providing popcorn with a twist, such as chocolate whiskey flavor.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have something nobody else has,\u201d Stuart said. \u201cWe have liquor-infused popcorn. People don\u2019t have to drink alcohol. They could also eat the popcorn.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cinema-movie-theater-blooms-queens01.jpeg\")
The crowd at Stuart Cinema and Caf\u00e9.Courtesy of Stuart Cinema & Cafe<\/p>\n
We talk as Stuart walks through her cinema where others get to see, if not her dreams, movies she shows, and share in her dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re about to start \u2018Toy Story,\u2019\u201d Stuart says, although every day is another page in her own story as well. \u201cA staff person comes in and programs all the movies and then we\u2019re good to go and they just play.\u201d<\/p>\n
She is running a movie theater, half Hollywood and half home, with pillows on a bench that make you feel like you are in a place built and furnished with love.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese days, my favorite movie is \u2018The Greatest Showman,\u2019\u201d Stuart says of a movie that, in some ways, echoes her story. \u201cIt\u2019s really about the underdog and it\u2019s a musical with dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n
They have a stage (although no backstage) in both auditoriums where they presented a puppet show, burlesque show for Pride month, comedians, spoken word and showed the FIFA World Cup United States versus Bosnia.<\/p>\n
They also offer special discounts ($8 movies on Wednesday) as a dream that nearly turned into a disaster, like a phoenix, grew wings and turned into a sequel in an industry where that sometimes happens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe audience is out there,\u201d Stuart said with a smile that just months ago might have been difficult to imagine. \u201cWe consider ourselves a gathering space. It\u2019s not just about the movies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Emelyn Stuart was told the building containing her movie theater in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, for eight years was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64673,9,24,63,111392,122,124,123,111393,111394],"class_list":["post-291618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-emelyn-stuart","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-patricia-silva","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-queens-world-film-festival-executive-director-katha-cato","tag-stuart-cinema-and-cafu00e9"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Emelyn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cinema-movie-theater-blooms-queens02.jpeg\")
Emelyn StuartCourtesy of Stuart Cinema & Cafe<\/p>\n