6 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
National Lottery funding blow for Edinburgh Filmhouse revamp
However the planned refurbishment will not be complete when the doors of the Filmhouse reopen for the first time in almost three years later this month.
Read more:
A new fourth screen cinema is not due to open until later in the summer, when the new-look Filmhouse is expected to host Edinburgh International Film Festival screenings.
It is understood around £100,000 is still needed for other key elements of the project, to ensure the new-look Filmhouse is as accessible and energy efficient as possible.
The bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund was also intended to help for improvements to the façade of the former church building, which is part of Edinburgh's city centre culture quarter, along with the Usher Hall, and the Lyceum and Traverse theatres.
The Filmhouse cinema in Edinburgh is due to reopen by the end of this month. (Image: Rod White)
However it was turned down a bid for up to £250,000 in April – months after multi-million pound pledges were made over two other major cultural projects in the city.
Up to £5 million has been pledged for plans to turn the former Royal High School on Calton Hill into a new National Centre for Music, while a further £4.5m has been pledged towards efforts to reopen the Leith Theatre building on a permanent basis for the first time in more than 40 years.
New seating has been installed in the Filmhouse cinema ahead of its reopening. (Image: Alastair McCrum)
The UK Government, the Scottish Government agency Screen Scotland and Edinburgh City Council have all supported the rescue bid for the Filmhouse, which had been running for more than 40 years until its operating company went into administration in October 2022.
The Filmhouse and the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which were both run by the Centre for Moving Image, were forced to cease trading with immediate effect.
The Filmhouse crowdfunder, which has raised more than £325,000 to date, has been backed by stars including the Jack Lowden, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Emma Thompson, Dougray Scott, Kate Dickie and Timothy Spall.
The rescue of the cinema has been led by a group of former staff who led an unsuccessful bid to buy the building, but managed to persuade Caledonian Heritable, the Edinburgh-based bar and restaurant operator, to agree to negotiations over a potential lease agreement after it snapped up the building for £2.65m.
Their new charity, Filmhouse (Edinburgh) Ltd, would go on to secure a 25-year lease, and £1.5m in crucial funding from the UK Government to pay for a refurbishment which was seen as critical to the future success of the reopened cinema.
New seating has been installed in the Filmhouse's three long-running screenings rooms, which will have a lower capacity but with more leg room and more comfortable seats, the much-loved café-bar has been refurbished and expanded, and the cinema will have a revamped foyer.
However the Filmhouse website states: 'We have the funds to reopen Filmhousem but the more we have the better it will be, so our crowdfunder remains open.'
The crowdfunding page adds: 'The crowdfunder has been a huge success and has enabled Filmhouse to look forward to welcoming you back very soon.
'We are still fundraising to make sure we have enough to cover all the costs incurred as we ramp up the new Filmhouse organisation – and for key improvements such as accessibility and minimising environmental impact.
'Any funds we can raise here will make a real difference to the future of Filmhouse.'
Former Filmhouse and film festival chief executive Ginnie Atkinson, one of the four former staff members behind the rescue bid, said: 'Of course we were disappointed not to receive anything from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, but we know that is a very competitive environment.
"We do have the funding in place to create the fourth screen at the back of the Filmhouse.
"However I would say that we still need to raise around £100,000 for the important work that we still want to do."
Caroline Clark, National Lottery Heritage Fund director for Scotland, said: 'I can confirm that we did not award support to a recent project funding application relating to the Filmhouse.
"We know this is very disappointing news. Unfortunately, we have a high level of competition for grants at every stage of the grant application process and we are unable to support all the applications we receive.'
