Exclusive:Reopening timeline revealed for reborn Edinburgh Filmhouse with revamp set to start within weeks

Work to revive Edinburgh's boarded-up art house cinema is to finally get underway within the next few weeks.

Edinburgh's Filmhouse cinema has been closed since October 2022.

The charity spearheading efforts to bring the Filmhouse back to life on Lothian Road has confirmed contractors will start work in the middle of this month.

The Filmhouse cinema in Edinburgh closed suddenly in October 2022 after the arts charity Centre for the Moving Image went into administration (Picture: Chris Scott)

The £1.9 million revamp will include a full refurbishment of the three existing cinema spaces, including installing new seating to create extra legroom for cinemagoers, and the addition of a fourth room for screenings.

It is hoped the work, which will also include refurbishments of the cafe-bar and foyer spaces, will be completed by the end of May ahead of a public reopening in June. This would mark more than two-and-a-half years after the FIlmhouse was forced to close its doors when its parent company collapsed.

Edinburgh's Filmhouse cinema has been closed since October 2022.

The start date for the revamp has been revealed ten months after the new Edinburgh Filmhouse charity revealed it had secured vital backing from the UK government for the project. The charity has also raised more than £300,000 via a crowdfunding campaign and secured the backing of stars including Emma Thompson, Ewen Bremner, Jack Lowden, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming and Timothy Spall.

The Filmhouse, which ran for more than 40 years in the former church building, closed with immediate effect in October 2022 when the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) went into administration.

Edinburgh's Filmhouse cinema has been closed since October 2022.

Also affected were the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which has since been revived under a new director Paul Ridd, and the historic Belmont Cinema in Aberdeen, which is planned to reopen and be run by a new charity after it was named preferred operator by the city council, which owns the 19th-century landmark.

Hopes of reviving the Edinburgh Filmhouse appeared to be dashed nearly two years when it was sold by the CMI administrators to pub operator Caledonian Heritable.

The boarded-up Edinburgh Filmhouse on Lothian Road. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

However, the company, which owns The Dome, Ryan's Bar and the Theatre Royal in the city centre, agreed to lease out the building to the new charity.

Caledonian Heritable has carried out significant repairs and restoration work on the external fabric of the building, including its roof, guttering, windows and stonework.

Although some seating has been removed from the existing screens, with fans of the Filmhouse offered the chance to snap them up in return for a donation, most of the internal refurbishment work is still to be carried out.

Former Filmhouse chief executive and charity staff member Ginnie Atkinson said: "Work should start this month and be completed at the end of May. We hope to be completely open by June.

"Once the work is done we will open and that will be a huge milestone in the life of the city, which has been without a cultural cinema provision for over two years. The Filmhouse is an institution at the heart of the city and there has been a tangible gap since it closed.

"A unique cultural film programme that has been unavailable will be restored for the thousands of audience members that have missed this provision. It is not just a cinema, but a welcoming place that people can meet, a community hub and an asset - particularly the much missed cafe-bar."

Ms Atkinson said it was "crucial" for the future of the Edinburgh Filmhouse that it received long-term funding from national arts agency Creative Scotland when it decides on hundreds of applications at the end of this month.

She said: "We have had amazing, tangible support from Screen Scotland to date for the development of the project to open our doors again and as part of the screen infrastructure we are optimistic."