Montreal's Cinma Imprial temporarily shut down

Cinma Imprial, a landmark theatre and heritage building in downtown Montreal, was shut down Friday, after one of the building's walls was damaged duringconstruction work happening next door.

Organizers of the Cinmania film festivalsaidaround 5:30 p.m., about 300 people were ordered to leave the building.

In a statement to Radio-Canada, Centre Cinma Imprial(CCI) the non-profit that manages the theatre said, "following a situation out of our control that affectedpart of the structure of the building,Cinma Imprialhadto temporarily close all of its installations."

CCIsaid the move wasprecautionary and the building is not at risk of collapsing. It says it will remain closed until the structure isdeemed safe engineers will be coming to do a risk evaluation on Monday.

Cinma Imprialwas built in 1913 and opened its doors as a vaudeville theatre that same year. Itchanged hands several times through the 1900's and various owners made changes to the building.

In 2001, Quebec designated the theatrea historical monument and in 2004 it underwent an award-winningmajor restoration.The venue hosts several film festivals, movie premieres and special events each year.

Cinmania, which is showing films in personthrough Nov. 14 and online through Nov. 23, had to cancel one of its Friday screenings at the Imprialandrelocateseveral others to an auditorium at Concordia University.

The festival says it's still working onalternative plansfor three filmsthat were scheduled to be shown at the theatre next week.