The Scottish government was warned by Creative Scotland about the financial woes of the charity behind the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) and the Filmhouse cinemas in the middle of September, but a public bail-out was ruled out.
The Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) charity warned Creative Scotland about the risk of insolvency on September 15, according to a report in The Scotsman today. Creative Scotland is a public body that supports the creative industries, and houses film and TV agency Screen Scotland.
A public bail-out was ruled out as the CMI was unable to ”demonstrate ongoing viability” according to a statement from Creative Scotland.
The CMI is the parent charity that ran the EIFF, the Filmhouse Cinema in Edinburgh and Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen. Employees were told last week (October 6) that the CMI had gone into administration, leaving 102 out of 107 employees redundant, effective immediately, with no prior warning, citing the pandemic, cost of living crisis and public funding not rising in line with inflation.
The CMI board has been run by chief executive Ken Hay since 2011. It is not known whether Hay is one of the 102 who has been made redundant.
Creative Scotland statement
Creative Scotland gave £1.7m in public funding to the festival for the 2022-23 period, and £2.5m for 2021-22, including £1.3m in Covid emergency funding.
In a lengthy statement today, Creative Scotland spelt out its version of events leading to the collapse of the CMI, together with a timeline: “The CMI executive and board has been responsible for the running of CMI, the business decisions it took, and the organisation’s responsibilities to CMI staff and audiences.
“As a Regularly Funded Organisation [RFO] CMI and Creative Scotland had regular dialogue. CMI contacted Creative Scotland on September 15 stating that they were facing significant financial challenges threatening the viability of the business. CMI also informed Creative Scotland that they were taking advice from insolvency experts.
“CMI provided a summary of the position and some financial information to Creative Scotland on September 19 and Creative Scotland met with the organisation on September 20, and again on 26 and 27 following a meeting of CMI’s Audit and Risk Committee.
“CMI informally tested the prospect of additional funding with Creative Scotland when we were informed of the severity of their financial challenges mid-September. We understand it was similarly tested with Aberdeen City Council and City of Edinburgh Council. With no financial flexibility available, Creative Scotland indicated further additional funding was unlikely. No formal request was made.
“The Creative Scotland board were briefed and met on October 3 to discuss the situation and confirmed RFO funding remained available if CMI could demonstrate ongoing viability. CMI and its professional advisors had continued to assess and discuss the financial position but concluded that there were no available options, or time, in the current financial climate to change the underlying structural challenges of the business, or the longer-term prognosis.
“The CMI Board met on October 3 and moved to formally appoint administrators to begin the process of winding-up the business.”
Creative Scotland also addressed the possibility of a 2023 edition. The statement said: “Creative Scotland is focussed on discussions with the administrators and partners to explore options for cultural cinema programme activity in both Edinburgh and Aberdeen, as well as a 2023 edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, with the associated opportunities for employment and audiences those will bring.”
Ben Roberts response
British Film Institute (BFI) CEO Ben Roberts addressed the CMI’s collapse during his keynote address at the Film London Production Finance Market this morning (October 11).
Roberts had been criticised for what was deemed a “passive” response by social media users, after he tweeted on October 7: “I’ve been thinking about the EIFF, the Filmhouse and Belmont in Aberdeen. A big loss to the cultural landscape - for Scotland and the UK. Culture is precarious. Sorry for those who’ve lost their jobs. I hope that a form of cultural cinema can continue for their audiences…”
Nick Higgins, a professor of media practice at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), tweeted in response: ”With respect Ben this is a shockingly passive response to the loss of the oldest continually running film festival in the world. Might not the BFI commit to playing a significant role with other agencies in the search to find a way to resurrect the EIFF?”
Filmmaker Hope Dickinson Leach tweeted: ”Seconding Nick. This is an incredibly passive response to something that is a culturally seismic event in Scotland, and the UK. I hope this is not the end of the BFI’s response to the situation.”
Speaking this morning, Roberts said: “Obviously Edinburgh is being seen as perhaps a canary in the coal mine, in terms of the impact of the rising costs and the impact that is having on the cultural exhibition sector. We are, and have been, ever since the work we did with the [government-backed pandemic support fund] Cultural Recovery fund, in a really close dialogue with cultural exhibition partners about their health.
“As we know from the Cultural Recovery Fund, crisis funding is hard to come by. We did successfully make the case at that moment. But we don’t have the funds to give crisis support to organisations that are in difficulty. We just don’t have enough resource to do it.
“Edinburgh is further complicated by the fact that cultural exhibition is devolved in Scotland to Scottish government. I got absolutely hammered on Twitter over the weekend. I offered my sympathies, and got met with: ‘Why don’t you do something about it.’ Fair enough, but it’s very complex.
“We are having many conversations with our counterparts at Screen Scotland. We are in touch with all of the affected parties within the CMI. There is a lot of emotion attached to that particular situation. These things don’t play out on social media but conversations are happening behind the scenes about each of those affected entities. There is solidarity happening through action, if not through slightly naïve tweets.”
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