Festival Theatre will open doors to film

Published on Wednesday 7 January 2009 00:59

MAJOR gala premieres at the Edinburgh International Film Festival are set to be staged in one of the capital's main theatres, under plans which will be road-tested later this month.

The Scotsman has learned that the Festival Theatre, in Nicolson Street, has been earmarked for the return of proper red-carpet screenings at the festival for first time in seven years.

Organisers have been without a main venue big enough for international premieres for the past six years, since the closure of the historic Odeon, in nearby South Clerk Street.

Instead, audiences attending the majority of major premieres at the film festival are divided up between several screens at the Vue multiplex in the Fountainbridge.

However, talks are under way which would see a cinema screen, projection equipment and new loudspeakers into the 1,900-capacity venue. If all goes according to plan, the first premiere could be staged at this summer's festival.

Officials at the Festival Theatre, which is owned by the city council, have been keen to host major premieres for years but lack the proper equipment to meet the specifications demanded by film distributors.

The Festival Theatre is also leased out for the whole of August to the Edinburgh International Festival, which stages opera and dance events. However, the film festival's decision to move its dates to June means the venue is now available for it to use.

Next week's screening of Mamma Mia! is being organised by both the film festival and the Filmhouse cinema.

They are hiring equipment to test what kind of screen may be appropriate for use in the auditorium and how suitable the venue's acoustics are.

In a statement, the film festival said yesterday: "The Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Filmhouse and are working with the Festival Theatre in anticipation that it can become such a venue."

John Stalker, the chief executive of the Festival City Theatres trust, which runs the Festival Theatre on behalf of the council, said: "We've been keen to do more of this kind of thing for years but we don't have any permanent facilities suitable for film screenings.

"The Festival Theatre could well be very suitable for film screenings but we don't know at the moment how much it would cost for any new facilities "

Free tickets for the screening of Mamma Mia! at the Festival Theatre on Thursday, 15 January, are available by ringing 0131-529 6000.