Exclusive:Edinburgh Filmhouse: First look inside refurbished Lothian Road venue set to open its doors this week

The Edinburgh Filmhouse is due to open to the public on Friday - and here are the first images from inside the refurbished venue.

It is a much-loved city arts cinema that has been closed for the past two-and-a-half years.

Now the Edinburgh Filmhouse has undergone a £1.7 million refurbishment and is ready to open its doors following a major fundraising campaign backed by stars including Brian Cox and Jack Lowden.

(L-R) Filmhouse programmer director Rod White and executive director Andrew Simpson inside cinema one. Picture: Andy O'Brien/The Scotsman | Andrew O'Brien

The cinema will open to the public on Friday with a premiere of Cinema Paradiso, which tells the story of a young boy’s love for cinema, with a new cafe-bar area and revamped, more comfortable seating within its screens.

However, the organisation has launched a new fundraising drive to raise the final £200,000 needed to put the final touches to the venue.

‘Fantastic’ to welcome back an audience

“Being here at the Filmhouse in cinema one, nearly ready to open again, is fantastic,” said director Ginny Atkinson, who has been associated with the venue for around 20 years. “The idea that there will be an audience in here again very very soon, watching films, is just fantastic.”

The new cafe-bar area is modern, with light-coloured wood, but has retained a similar layout and feel to the original incarnation beloved by Edinburgh cinema-goers.

Meanwhile, the box office in the entrance has been reduced in size, with a light-filled, open space to welcome customers.

Inside screen one at the Edinburgh Filmhouse. Picture: Andy O'Brien/The Scotsman | Andrew O'Brien

Ms Atkinson said: “Refurbishment was absolutely crucial for the business model ... the building was in a sad state. People were very forgiving, but there is a limit to that and if you want to grow audiences, we knew we had to provide an experience for people that brought new audiences to Filmhouse.

The projection room at the Edinburgh Filmhouse. Picture: Andy O'Brien/The Scotsman | Andrew O'Brien

“We also had to improve vastly the public areas of the building. We had an enormous box office desk that was like the Starship Enterprise and we’ve cut that way down to something a lot more pretty. We’ve also done up the cafe bar. It’s a brilliant socialising space for food and drink. It’s a wonderful city centre gathering place.”

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The plan for the four cinema screens

The larger three screens will all be ready to open this week, with the new, “bijou” fourth screen - with capacity for 24 patrons, with the space available for private screenings and rental - set to be finished next month. The three main screens have meanwhile been reduced in capacity, from around 450 seats to 350, allowing for larger, more comfortable seating. A new rake had to be built over the old one in cinema one, which has improved sightlines for audience members.

Screen three at the Edinburgh Filmhouse. Picture: Andy O'Brien/The Scotsman | Andrew O'Brien

A modern-day update

Ms Atkinson said people in the 1940s, when the original seating was designed “didn’t mind having their knees around their ears”. But she said that had to be changed for modern-day audiences. She said the fourth screen would allow for more diverse programming.

The project turned out to be more challenging than the team had expected.

The refurbished bar in the Edinburgh Filmhouse. Picture: Andy O'Brien/The Scotsman | Andrew O'Brien

“The last two-and-a-half years have been quite challenging in lots of different ways,” said Ms Atkinson. “We didn’t realise when we got together and thought ‘we have to reopen somehow’, what we would have to do to do that. We were all innocent. We went on a journey one step at a time.”

The original closure

The cinema, on Edinburgh’s Lothian Road, closed in October 2022 when its parent company, Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), went into administration.

The venue was later saved after a campaign backed by celebrities. A new charity created by a group of staff to try to bring the Filmhouse back to life last year secured £1.5m from the UK government’s Community Ownership Fund, which was created to help groups secure the future of assets at risk of being lost.

Andrew O'Brien

Meanwhile, a crowdfunder raised more than £324,000 towards the costs. People who donated to the cause have been invited to special screenings this week, ahead of the official opening.

‘Open the doors’

The campaign saw screen stars use the words “open the doors” to show support for the Filmhouse.

The entrance and ticket booth inside the Edinburgh Filmhouse. Picture: Andy O'Brien/The Scotsman | Andrew O'Brien

Ms Atkinson said: ”When we opened the crowdfunder, we were overwhelmed with the evidence from the response that people wanted Filmhouse back and that was incredibly energising for us and reassuring. It was an amazing success.”

Edinburgh Filmhouse prepares to open its doors. Picture: Andy O'Brien/The Scotsman | Andrew O'Brien

She added: “The important thing to understand about the Filmhouse is that it was completely unique in the city and that is why it was important to get it back. The reason it’s unique is that we show films that no other cinemas do and we show formats of films that no other cinemas do.”

The outstanding £200,000

Andrew Simpson, executive director and joint chief executive, said the organisation was “exploring options” for funding for the final £200,000 needed.

(L-R) Filmhouse programme director Rod White and executive director Andrew Simpson inside cinema one. Picture: Andrew O'Brien/The Scotsman | Andrew O'Brien

“We’re still a couple of hundred thousand pounds short of the full cost we need to fully finish refurbishing the building,” he said.

“A lot of that is around sustainability and improving access within the building, new lifts and various energy saving measures, as well as upgrading to laser projection in some of our screens. They are very important things which will finish off the project and bring the Filmhouse to the level of being a world-class cultural centre for film located in Edinburgh, which is fit for purpose in the future.

An exterior shot of the Edinburgh Filmhouse. Picture: Andrew O'Brien/The Scotsman | Andrew O'Brien

“We are a charity that takes donations from the public. We’re only really here because we’ve had that enormous groundswell of support from our audiences and we will continue to fundraise to make up that gap and finish the project and bring Filmhouse back in the way it should be.”

The refurbished bar. Picture: Andrew O'Brien/The Scotsman | Andrew O'Brien

New memberships

The cinema sold out its first 1,000 memberships in one day last month and has since sold 1,500 - putting the total around the same number of members it had before the closure.

“We put a number of memberships on sale on June 5 and sold them all out by the end of the day,” said Mr Simpson.

The initial programming includes a series of films “missed” during the venue’s closure.