The Filmhouse to close

[hibsbollah]

It’s gone into administration. I’ve always gone there regularly and really bad news for the 100+ ex employees but also if you like independent cinema. I hope my favourite The Cameo can hang on but the future looks bleak for the whole business model.

[CropleyWasGod]

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It’s gone into administration. I’ve always gone there regularly and really bad news for the 100+ ex employees but also if you like independent cinema. I hope my favourite The Cameo can hang on but the future looks bleak for the whole business model.

The Cameo is part of a chain, which might provide some protection, but it's not looking good. If Cineworld can struggle, then so can everyone.

Lockdown was great for Netflix, but once the habit of going out to see films is broken, it's very hard to get it back. Cinemas struggled badly at the start of the 70's, when colour TV became popular. It regained its audience by churning out blockbusters......

[bigwheel]

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The Cameo is part of a chain, which might provide some protection, but it's not looking good. If Cineworld can struggle, then so can everyone.

Lockdown was great for Netflix, but once the habit of going out to see films is broken, it's very hard to get it back. Cinemas struggled badly at the start of the 70's, when colour TV became popular. It regained its audience by churning out blockbusters......

Cineworld parents also own Cameo …

[CropleyWasGod]

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Cineworld parents also own Cameo …

Well there you go. I didn't know that.

[overdrive]

To think they were planning the big new building in Festival Square as well.

Hopefully the Film Festival part of it can be saved as well.

[patch1875]

Try to go when I can love the old cinemas.

Another problem is the lack of films being released since covid other than Bond and Top Gun the releases have been poor.

[Jones28]

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Try to go when I can love the old cinemas.

Another problem is the lack of films being released since covid other than Bond and Top Gun the releases have been poor.

And further to that lots of straight to platform releases.

I’m not a fan of cinema really, I used to enjoy orange Wednesdays back in the day but the last time I went to see a film it was extortionate and I couldn’t help but think “I’d rather watch this at home”.

[heretoday]

I like the Filmhouse a lot. Great to hide in the dark for a bit eating wine gums while watching an incomprehensible arthouse movie.

[Hibbyradge]

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It’s gone into administration. I’ve always gone there regularly and really bad news for the 100+ ex employees but also if you like independent cinema. I hope my favourite The Cameo can hang on but the future looks bleak for the whole business model.

That's very sad news.

Is there any hope of a rescue?

[hibsbollah]

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That's very sad news.

Is there any hope of a rescue?

There’s noise on Twitter about a Scot gov bailout (the EIFF is a charity) but I’m not sure how realistic that is. I was thinking about the Dominion the other day as well, great independent cinema off Morningside Rd with insanely comfy seats. I’d imagine electricity and lighting costs must have gone through the roof.

[G15 Hibs]

20-odd years ago I'd be at the Filmhouse pretty much every week. Midweek matinee prices plus student discount meant tickets were less than two quid. I'd pick from whatever was on, never really planned it much in advance. Saw all sorts. Classics, foreign language, indie, arthouse. Really broadened my mind. Anything that takes that ease of access to the arts away is really sad.

[Hibby70]

I went decades ago to see some Belgian arthouse film. At the end the director got on stage and started asking the audience their thoughts. I was petrified he was going to ask me.

Didn't think my response of the lead actress has nice tits would have been appreciated

[danhibees1875]

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There’s noise on Twitter about a Scot gov bailout (the EIFF is a charity) but I’m not sure how realistic that is. I was thinking about the Dominion the other day as well, great independent cinema off Morningside Rd with insanely comfy seats. I’d imagine electricity and lighting costs must have gone through the roof.

I'm not sure the government would set that precedent unfortunately.

[s.a.m]

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20-odd years ago I'd be at the Filmhouse pretty much every week. Midweek matinee prices plus student discount meant tickets were less than two quid. I'd pick from whatever was on, never really planned it much in advance. Saw all sorts. Classics, foreign language, indie, arthouse. Really broadened my mind. Anything that takes that ease of access to the arts away is really sad.

Me too. And since lockdown ended I started going regularly again - saw some of my favourite films of the past year there. The staff are great, the cafe is good. I'm really sad about this.

[Hibby Bairn]

No point in being independent. niche and cultural etc. if you can't balance the books. Either become a wee bit more commercial in "what's on", find a philanthropic benefactor or persuade the govt. that it should be subsidised.

I've only been once in past 5 years to see It's a wonderful life on Christmas Eve. Packed and very enjoyable. Nothing since has attracted my attention. Not that I'm a cult cinema enthusiast.

The ever decaying remains of The Odeon on South Clerk Street should be a warning. There again the apparent success of the Festival Theatre shows what can be done.

[pollution]

The Cameo and Filmhouse were great in the mid eighties when I was last there.

I suppose for many it was a phase one went through, those types of films.

Now they are ten a penny on Tv.

[grunt]

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No point in being independent. niche and cultural etc. if you can't balance the books.

I could imagine Truss saying something like this.

[grunt]

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It’s gone into administration. I’ve always gone there regularly and really bad news for the 100+ ex employees but also if you like independent cinema. I hope my favourite The Cameo can hang on but the future looks bleak for the whole business model.

https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/ar...crisis-3871485

National Galleries of Scotland issues closure warning over growing cash 'crisis'

Edinburgh’s flagship art galleries are facing extended or partial closure in the face of the “perfect storm” engulfing the Scottish cultural sector.

[CropleyWasGod]

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https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/ar...crisis-3871485

Do you have the full article?

It's behind a paywall, and I'm loath to give them any money

[grunt]

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Do you have the full article?

Sorry, I don't think it was paywalled earlier. And no, I don't have a subscription either.

[hibsbollah]

I’m just back from the Cameo, The Lost King with Steve Coogan and the excellent Sally Hawkins. The cinema experience still gives me something a streaming service can’t, it’s just fantastic, love going there.

Support your local cinema!

[Mibbes Aye]

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Do you have the full article?

It's behind a paywall, and I'm loath to give them any money

Not from the Scotsman but this was the full statement to Committee:


Sir John Leighton (National Galleries of Scotland)


Thank you very much for inviting me to join you this morning. I know that you do not want any grandstanding or opening statements, but perhaps I could begin with something positive, because if you are speaking about funding all morning, it is going to be completely miserable, isn’t it? All of us represent sectors and organisations about which there is a huge amount to be optimistic, as we are all about enhancing people’s lives, so I hope that you will indulge me just for a moment.

Stepping back, I think that there is a huge amount that we can be positive about, certainly at the National Galleries and in the wider museums and galleries sector. Levels of interest in what we do have steadily increased over the years, certainly at the National Galleries. In the past decade, visitor numbers at our Edinburgh sites have more or less doubled. Pre-Covid, we were welcoming on average 2.5 million visitors to our Edinburgh sites.

We have also managed to keep national programmes running. We have lent works of art across the country in exhibitions from Dumfries to Shetland. We have run national programmes in learning outreach, and we have worked with disadvantaged teenagers in the west and in the Borders. We run all manner of programmes for all ages at our Edinburgh sites, from BOYB—bring your own baby—through to the fantastic gallery socials for dementia sufferers. We also work internationally, lending hundreds of works of art across the world, as well as exhibitions. Every one of them is a mini ambassador for Scottish culture.

Finally, our activity online has blossomed and our offer online now reaches millions of people across the world. We saw during the pandemic how important that has been and has the potential to be. We have lots to be positive about and we all know that we look after assets that are of immense importance for the life of people in this country.

That is the positive bit. When we turn to funding, of course, it is inevitably less positive. I am sure that what you will hear this morning is fairly familiar from right across the culture and heritage sectors. In our case, we face a funding challenge the like of which I have never before witnessed or, indeed, imagined. Already, before the events of recent months, we were looking at a pretty substantial deficit in our budget for next year, widening in the years beyond that.

When you layer in the lingering impact of the pandemic and when you layer in the dramatic inflationary costs that we are seeing at the moment—the pressure to try to keep paying a fair wage to our staff and, particularly in our sector, the rising energy costs, which for my organisation are predicted to at least double next year from a six-figure sum to a seven-figure sum—you are talking about a crisis that, to me, feels more serious and more difficult to deal with than the pandemic itself.

It would be tempting to relate all this to the immediate context of the pandemic, war, inflation or the cost of living, but to my mind the roots of this go further back and lie in patterns of funding across a longer period. It is fashionable at the moment to refer back to the financial crash of 2008, but if you go back to that time, you will see that budgets for organisations such as mine were reduced in the aftermath. They never recovered and what happened in the period from, say, 2011 onwards is a pattern of more or less level funding across the piece, if we take out increases that were designed to cover Government pay policy and if we take out the more variable nature of capital funding.

Like other organisations, we have tried to make up the difference by pedalling ever harder with self-generated income, and we work very hard at that. We have set up a very successful trading company with revenue from shops and cafes. We have explored venue hire. We have lent commercial exhibitions abroad. Car parking charges, donations—you name it; we have pulled every lever we can think of, and with some success. The model broadly was of Government subsidy supplemented by self-generated income. That Government subsidy has been covering less and less of the activity that activates what we do and what the public see. We have reached a point now where 92 per cent of our grant in aid goes to the salary bill. All the other things that make a difference, whether it is displays, exhibitions, learning, education programmes—you name it—are now covered by earned income.

The model broke during the pandemic, of course. That income shrivelled and we are now in a period where it has not yet recovered. With the two key parts of the funding—the Government subsidy and the self-generated income—under pressure, we face a crisis that will, in our case, lead to a severely reduced offer, with national and international programmes reduced, different patterns of opening hours and partial closure of sites. In short, as we said in the submission, we will have an offer that falls severely short of what you would expect from a national cultural organisation.

That sounds bleak, but it would be no exaggeration to say that, as I look to next year and beyond, I am thinking that this is about how we protect the collection, keep the lights on and doors open—and that is it.

[CropleyWasGod]

Thanks for posting that.

A tough read .

[Mibbes Aye]

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Thanks for posting that.

A tough read .

If the implication is correct and the core grant funding (which is discretionary by its nature) doesn't even cover payroll then it reads like an existential threat.

Time to start thinking about a permanent move to Prague or Vienna, before the barbarians get past the gate.

[He's here!]

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There’s noise on Twitter about a Scot gov bailout (the EIFF is a charity) but I’m not sure how realistic that is.I was thinking about the Dominion the other day as well, great independent cinema off Morningside Rd with insanely comfy seats. I’d imagine electricity and lighting costs must have gone through the roof.

I'd heard a lot of good things about the Dominion so took one of my kids there last Christmas Eve to see the most recent Spiderman movie. Magical experience. As you say, extraordinarily comfortable sofas and just a great vibe about the place. It's always been family-run I gather and you can feel a sense of pride there. Quite pricey compared to the likes of Cineworld but I didn't mind paying a bit more for the quality of the experience and we've made the effort to go back a couple of times since. Hopefully the overheads don't end up putting the lights out but I'm guessing that with them being situated in a relatively affluent part of town they may get by.

[Mibbes Aye]

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I'd heard a lot of good things about the Dominion so took one of my kids there last Christmas Eve to see the most recent Spiderman movie. Magical experience. As you say, extraordinarily comfortable sofas and just a great vibe about the place. It's always been family-run I gather and you can feel a sense of pride there. Quite pricey compared to the likes of Cineworld but I didn't mind paying a bit more for the quality of the experience and we've made the effort to go back a couple of times since. Hopefully the overheads don't end up putting the lights out but I'm guessing that with them being situated in a relatively affluent part of town they may get by.

I lived in Morningside for a few years in my early thirties and every couple of months we would have a night out going for an Indian at the Clay Oven or the Morningside Spice, then the Dominion for a film, then a couple of snifters at the Canny Man's and the Hermitage. All in all, no more than ten minutes walk from the house and brilliant in the depths of winter.

Not been to the cinema for maybe ten years but back then the owners would be out, front-of-house, in tuxedos, you could buy a bottle of wine to take in with you, either the sofas or the individual super-padded chairs, and you were handed a mini-itube of Pringles as you found your seat! Great times indeed.

[He's here!]

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I lived in Morningside for a few years in my early thirties and every couple of months we would have a night out going for an Indian at the Clay Oven or the Morningside Spice, then the Dominion for a film, then a couple of snifters at the Canny Man's and the Hermitage. All in all, no more than ten minutes walk from the house and brilliant in the depths of winter.

Not been to the cinema for maybe ten years but back then the owners would be out, front-of-house, in tuxedos, you could buy a bottle of wine to take in with you, either the sofas or the individual super-padded chairs, and you were handed a mini-itube of Pringles as you found your seat! Great times indeed.

The tuxedos are still in evidence and there's table service available.

Think the Clay Oven has been replaced by a more contemporary curry house.

[heretoday]

Bad news re the Filmhouse. I often ducked in there to see a foreign film.

[Hibbyradge]

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Bad news re the Filmhouse. I often ducked in there to see a foreign film.

You're confusing the Filmhouse with La Scala!

[He's here!]

The building is now up for sale:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...-fife-63499988