Edinburgh’s Filmhouse is set to reopen its doors this Friday 27 June after three years of fundraising and campaigning, and has released a batch of new images showing off its new interiors. 

Originally opened in 1978 in a repurposed church, the Lothian Road cinema unexpectedly closed its doors in October 2022 after the liquidation of its owners the Centre For Moving Image (CMI). The company blamed rising costs and falling profits for its closure, resulting in the loss of more than a hundred staff and the closure of Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, Aberdeen’s Belmont Filmhouse and the Edinburgh International Film Festival (which re-emerged a year later in a scaled-back form). 

Having gained financial backing from various sources including crowdfunding and the UK Government, Edinburgh’s Filmhouse (now under ownership from Caledonian Heritable, who signed a 25-year lease on the premises alongside the campaign group Filmhouse Edinburgh Ltd) announced its plans to reopen last year, with a £2 million refurbishment promising comprehensive improvements on the filmgoing experience. 

Central to the refurbishment has been improving the screening rooms themselves, as well as adding an additional fourth screen to the premises. According to details shared by the company, Screen 1 has a capacity of 186 seats and two wheelchair spaces. The screen has dual 35mm/70mm film projectors, 4K digital projection and 5.1 audio. Screen 2 has a capacity of 70 seats and one wheelchair space. The screen has dual 35mm film projectors and can screen 2K digital projection with 5.1 audio. Screen 3 has a capacity of 57 and two wheelchair spaces. The screen has dual 35mm film projectors and a 16mm film projector and can screen 2K digital projection with 5.1 audio. Finally, Screen 4 will have a capacity of 22 and one wheelchair space, and will include 2K digital projection and 5.1 audio. 

Extra legroom and comfortable seats have also been promised for every cinema screen. The Filmhouse bar, meanwhile, will be able to seat 100 people for lunch and dinner, with drinks available throughout the day, and a reworked foyer. 

The first film to welcome audiences back to the venue will be the ode to cinemagoing, Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso. Also on the opening weekend is Scottish sleeper hit Make It To Munich, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, Sébastien Marnier’s Origin Of Evil, Christian Petzold’s Afire, Gints Zilbalodis's enchanting animation Flow, Hlynur Pálmason's Godland, Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera, Maryam Moghadam & Behtash Sanaeeha’s My Favourite Cake, Mario Martone’s Nostalgia, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts, Ilker Çatak’s The Teachers’ Lounge, Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte's Count Of Monte Cristo, Manuela Martelli’s noir 1976, Víctor Erice’s Close Your Eyes, Robert Zemeckis’s Here and Celine Song’s acclaimed Past Lives. We’ve already bought our ticket for a marathon-length showing of The Brutalist, which is joining Oppenheimer in a screening of two films which trail far and beyond the three-hour mark (the perfect stress-test for those upgraded seats). Find more details of the first weekend of screenings here. 

In related news, the Filmhouse has also begun an ‘eleventh-hour’ fundraising appeal to complete its revamp. According to The Herald’s Brian Ferguson, more than £100,000 is still needed for ‘vital’ improvements to the projection equipment, with supporters being asked donate when they’re buying tickets. 

The new message to Filmhouse supporters reads: ‘It is through the generosity and hard work of many that Filmhouse is here today, and we are so grateful to those who supported our journey towards reopening.

‘The support we have received to date has not only allowed us to reopen Filmhouse, but has also enabled us to create a fitting home for cinema at 88 Lothian Road.

‘Filmhouse is now a more accessible and comfortable venue, while remaining a warm and welcoming place for people to come together to watch and talk about cinema.

‘As a charity, we will need to continue to fundraise to support our cultural mission.

‘We also remain more than £100,000 short of our full reopening refurbishment fundraising target, which is key for vital environmental and accessibility improvements to our building, including upgrading our digital projector equipment to new, energy efficient laser projection.’ Read The Herald’s article in full here.