Latest news with #independentcinema
The Guardian
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Edinburgh's Filmhouse banks on celluloid as it reopens after three years
One of the UK's most famous independent cinemas, the Filmhouse in Edinburgh, is banking on a surge of interest in celluloid film screenings when it reopens after a three-year closure. The Filmhouse reopens later in June with a promise to put on 70mm film versions of the recent blockbusters Oppenheimer and The Brutalist, and other major films, to capitalise on growing interest in analogue screenings. Andrew Simpson, its new executive director, said audiences increasingly wanted 'films on film' – a trend similar to the renaissance for vinyl LPs. 'There is an experience of watching film on film that can't be replicated by digital cinema, despite the advances of that technology,' he said. 'It provides a unique experience. You know, the grade, the colour spectrum – it's a completely different experience. Audiences want things which are real and authentic and connect them with the history of the media. 'The Filmhouse is a venue that is able to offer that experience in a way that few other venues can.' The cinema, which will have four screens, is reopening after a major community-led campaign to save it, launched by senior staff and board members when it closed suddenly in October 2022 after a financial crisis. Simpson, hired from the Tyneside cinema in Newcastle, said the venue would again become a hub for independent film festivals, and make great use of its collection of heritage film projectors. The Filmhouse's original set of 70mm, 35mm, 16mm and 8mm projectors, as well as television broadcast-grade equipment that used large, so-called 'exhibition tapes' known as Beta SPs, allow it to screen a huge range of current and historic films. The venue also has modern digital projectors, but the collection of heritage machines was quite rare in the UK, Simpson said. 'We're here to celebrate full diversity of film, to celebrate the full history of cinema, and actually being able to display films on those formats is a really vital an important part of that mission.' He said the use of those traditional formats 'really connects with audiences'. The Glasgow Film Theatre had a bigger box office when it screened The Brutalist, starring Adrien Brody, in 70mm than it had during its original opening weekend three weeks earlier. The 'open the doors' campaign to save the Filmhouse, backed by stars and patrons such as Brian Cox, Dougray Scott, Charlotte Wells and Jack Lowden, raised £324,000, and won £1.5m in UK government funding and backing from the agencies Screen Scotland and Creative Scotland. The refurbished cinemas, complete with new seating and a reopened bar and restaurant, are being leased for 25 years from the building's current owners, the pub and restaurant chain Caledonian Heritable. Sign up to What's On Get the best TV reviews, news and features in your inbox every Monday after newsletter promotion There was widespread shock and anger when the cinema's then owners, the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), suddenly announced the Filmhouse and the Belmont cinema in Aberdeen were shutting down, putting scores of people out of work. It also led to the temporary loss of the Edinburgh international film festival, which was run by CMI and was until then the world's longest-running film festival. The Belmont has reopened, and the film festival was rescued in 2023 by Screen Scotland and appeared as a strand of the international festival; in January 2024, it re-emerged as a self-standing annual festival. The Filmhouse is expected to again become a festival venue. Simpson said the 'extraordinary' success in reopening the Filmhouse should embolden and encourage community campaigners elsewhere. 'It can offer some real sort of hope for how local communities can fight to hold to the things that are really kind of important to them,' he said.
BBC News
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Prince Charles Cinema listed as asset of community value
One of London's most famous independent cinemas has been listed as an asset of community value (ACV).The Prince Charles Cinema, in Leicester Square, announced the news that Westminster City Council had bestowed the title months after it revealed concerns about its future as a result of its landlord seeking to impose new cinema's current lease is due to expire in September and the building's owner wants to raise the rent. The listing provides the local community with the right to try to raise funds and bid for the building first if it is put up for cinema described the recognition as "a huge honour", but added "the fight continues to secure a long term lease". If a building is listed as an ACV, its owner must notify the council if it is put up for sale. A six-month moratorium on the sale can then be invoked by the local community to give them the chance to raise finance and make a bid to buy it on the open it does not require a landowner to sell their property to a community group and does not mean a landowner has to continue any existing a statement about the listing, the cinema said: "Though this recognition is a huge honour, the fight continues to secure a long term lease that will enable us to invest in our future development and continue to bring the best of what we do to Leicester Place."We believe that any truly great venue is built on the shoulders of those who work within and those who support it – and we couldn't have asked for a more passionate and vocal level of support from the many thousands of you who signed the petition, bought tickets, became members or simply just kept coming through our doors."Thank you to every one of you who took a moment to support our cause." More than 160,000 people have signed a petition to save the Thomas Anderson, the director of Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood and Inherent Vice, has previously spoken up for the Leicester Square cinema, which he described as "like tuning into your favourite radio station".Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs director Quentin Tarantino said it was "everything an independent movie theatre should be", adding that "for lovers of quality films, this is Mecca".The venue, one of the last remaining independent cinemas in central London, has accused the landlord, Zedwell LSQ, of trying to "bully" the business out of the Capital, Zedwell LSQ's parent company, said the terms of a new lease were standard practice and not unreasonable.
BBC News
08-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Name of Wolverhampton's new independent cinema revealed
The name of a new independent cinema in Wolverhampton's Grade II listed Chubb Building has been Cinema is taking over the space that was previously The Light House, an independent cinema and arts venue which closed in 2022 after 35 council-owned space will be run by independent commercial operator PDJ, which is converting it from a two-screen cinema to a "state-of-the-art" four-screen offering, City of Wolverhampton Council chose the new name in tribute to the building's heritage, as it was once the headquarters of Chubb Locks. Redevelopment works are ongoing, and the cinema is on course to open to the public ahead of the school summer holidays, the firm is also recruiting locally for three permanent and 20 part-time already runs cinemas in Worthing, Kings Lynn and Lytham St Annes, and has reopened the former Empire in Walthamstow as Forest Cinemas and Sutton Coldfield as the Royal Cinema. PDJ and the council are making a £2m joint investment in the "critical" refurbishment and have entered into a 30-year council says the new-look venue is predicted to attract up to 130,000 visitors a year to the city centre and boost the local economy by half-a-million pounds annually. James Jervis, director at PDJ Management, said he could not wait to "throw open the doors"."We are absolutely delighted with the progress so far on the site," he leader councillor Stephen Simkins said the refurbishment would provide "an exciting, affordable luxury offer in our city centre" that would enhance the existing arts, culture and entertainment scene. Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
