Filmhouse returns to Edinburgh

Filmhouse has been completely refurbished and now boasts comfier seating Photo: Amber Wilkinson

The buzz was restrained but palpable at Edinburgh Filmhouse last night as a happy group of cinemagoers awaited one of several thank you screenings that were laid on for those who supported its Crowdfunder afer the collapse of its parent company in 2022.

It has been a fairly long road back, with the crowdfunding campaign begun a year later, which went on to raise more than £324,000, with £1.5m from the UK Government's Levelling Up Community Ownership along with additional funding trusts, donors, Screen Scotland, Creative Scotland and the City Of Edinburgh Council.

Rod White: 'We think of all of you as one of the team because you've contributed so kindly to all the efforts made by people to get Filmhouse back' Photo: Amber Wilkinson

This week, the team of chair Ginnie Atkinson, head of programming Rod White, cinema strategist James Rice, technical manager David Boyd, and strategic financial consultant Mike Davidson said thanks to those in the community who had chipped in with a free drink in the sympathetically updated bar area and screenings of Cinema Paradiso.

While some of us may mourn the passing of hand pulled beer ahead or post-screening, there is still a wide range of choice on offer and the space has been modernised while still retaining a feel that regular visitors will find comfortingly familiar.

Better still, the seating in Filmhouse 1, which now has a capacity of 186 with two wheelchair spaces, is considerably more plush than its previous incarnation. The seats - still in traditional red, offer cupholders, more legroom and a lot more comfort. The screen offers dual 35mm/70mm film projectors, 4K digital projection and 5.1 audio.

Elsewhere, there are 70 seats and a wheelchair seats in Screen 2, while Screen 3 has a capacity of 57 plus two wheelchair spaces. They will be joined by Screen 4, late next month, which will have 22 seats plus one wheelchair space.

Introducing the film, Rod White noted that although there had already been two thank you screenings the previous night, "It'll be a long time before. I don't get excited about seeing audiences in this particular cinema".

He added: "It's been a very depressing room for two-and-a-half years and it's just wonderful to see people sitting in the seats, ready to watch a film.

The refurbished box office area at Filmhouse Photo: Amber Wilkinson

"It's not really a public spelling anyway because we think of all of you as one of the team because you've contributed so kindly to all the efforts made by people to get Filmhouse back. And that's what the screening is for, to thank you for your contributions on behalf of us, all the staff, and everyone who will ever use this cinema in its long future."

Recalling the effort that has put in after the Centre for the Moving Image collapsed, White, who was head of programming at the Filmhouse in its previous incarnation, said: "It took us about a month to kind of get over the shock, I suppose, and decide that really we needed to try to do something about the fact that Filmhouse was closing. We agreed on a lot of things, but one of them was that it's completely unthinkable that a city like Edinburgh wouldn't have a cinema like Filmhouse.

"I also had a very strong personal feeling of how unfair it all was because, not to put to fine a point on it, CMI, the umbrella organisation, didn't go into administration because the cinema failed, it was a victim of a wider ill, so that never seemed fair to me and was another reason to do something about it."

Some warm applause followed as White thanked the great and the good who had helped, especially as he said he hoped everyone was now enjoying the aditional leg room."

Edinburgh Filmhouse opened its doors to crowdfunders with screenings of Cinema Paradiso Photo: Amber Wilkinson

He added that they are still in the process of finishing one or two things up, asking audiences "not to be too harsh" for a month or so. As if to prove the point, the fire alarm briefly made its presence felt - thankfully just a glitch - or perhaps it was just the very bones of the building also wanting to celebrate this return to being a cinema space.

The opening programme features a host of great films from the past year or so, including 70mm screenings of The Brutalist. At the time of writing, several of the films on the opening weekend are sold out or close to it but if you're looking for something to catch then I highly recommend Close Your Eyes - which, like Cinema Paradiso, is also a celebration of cinema in many ways - the vibrant All You Imagine As Light and the homegrown inspiration documentary Make It To Munich, which will be followed by a Q&A with Director Martyn Robertson, Ethan Walker, cyclist Stephen Collie, and former Motherwell, Chelsea, Everton and Scotland winger Pat Nevin. Whatever you choose, buy a ticket, we know what it was like to lose this cinema... let's make sure we hang on to it this time.

Tickets available from Filmhouse.org.uk.