THE timeline to reopen one of Edinburgh’s most iconic cinemas has been announced.
Work to revive the Filmhouse on Lothian Road will get underway within the next few weeks, The Scotsman reported.
The charity spearheading efforts to reopen the site confirmed that contractors will start work later this month.
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 that 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.
The news comes just 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 Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Jack Lowden, Emma Thompson, Timothy Spall and Ewan Bremner.
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 went into administration.
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.
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.”
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.”
