Filmhouse reopening plans revealed with programme of missed films

Edinburgh's reborn art house cinema is to finally reopen next month after a £1.7 million refurbishment, launching with a programme of films “missed” during the venue’s two-and-a-half-year closure.

- by Jane Bradley

Directors of the Edinburgh Filmhouse said building work was on schedule for a June opening.

The soft launch will include up to a week of screenings of major films from the past two-and-a-half years, including Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, on 70mm film using historic equipment from the cinema's pre-digital days, ahead of a “major and very visible celebratory” launch event.

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 new Filmhouse will include a revamped bar and cafe area, as well as an additional fourth screen, which will give the cinema capacity to expand its programme, directors Andrew Simpson and Rod White said.

Work on the building, which is largely cosmetic, started earlier this year. Builders have stripped out “historic complexities” from the building, including what Mr White described as “50 years of telephone cables”.

"The idea was that it was well planned enough that it would be delivered in a very tight timeframe,” said Mr Simpson. “And I think we're making good progress. Slightly more than two weeks ago, it was just a shell. And the last few weeks things have started to go in.”