Richmond's Byrd Theatre named one of the world's coolest theaters

The big picture: The magazine's roundup puts Richmond's nearly 100-year-old film house in Carytown alongside places in India, Iceland, Mexico, South Korea and France.

• And the writer doesn't hold back on giving it its flowers.
• The Byrd Theatre, she writes, is "one of the country's most elaborate movie palaces, and one of the most intact examples of lavish cinema architecture."
• "The effect is of being in a French Empire opera house."

Coincidentally, over a decade ago, the international Cannes Film Festival's main theater in France offered to give the Byrd its cushy seats for free.

• But the Byrd turned it down because it'd cost up to $100,000 to actually put them in and store the old ones.

Zoom in: Variety also hit us with a fun fact of their own that we didn't know: Grammy award-winning local Lucy Dacus shot her "Hot and Heavy" music video there.

• The Byrd is also featured in the cover of her "Home Video" album.

The bottom line: Richmond's been cool — we're just glad the world is finally starting to notice.