Edinburgh Filmhouse is on track for a spring 2025 re-opening, with a board freshly selected and planning applications for alterations to the building now approved.
The Scottish arthouse cinema has been closed since 2022. Its revival is being spearheaded by a team of former Filmhouse staff, Ginnie Atkinson, Rod White, David Boyd and James Rice.
The spring opening date marks a slight pushback from the team’s initial ambition to open around the end of 2024 or early 2025.
Lizzie Francke, a former Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) director and BFI exec, and current head of the directing fiction MA at the National Film and Television School, has joined the cinema’s board.
Also on the board is Flore Cosquer, director of the Scottish Documentary Institute; Joe Tree, a designer and start-up entrepreneur; and Katie Corrigan, head of real estate at Edinburgh-based legal firm Vialex. The cinema’s executive director will be announced imminently.
In October, a planning application was approved by the local council for internal refurbishment.
A 25-year renewable lease was signed in July between the former Filmhouse staff and Caledonian Heritable, the 88 Lothian Road building owners. Caledonian Heritable bought the building for £2.65m in April 2023. The building was put up for sale after parent company, the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) – which also ran the Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen and the EIFF – went into administration in October 2022. The cinema has been closed since this point.
Aftersun director Charlotte Wells and actor Jack Lowden were named inaugural patrons of the venue in July.
No comments yet