The trustees of Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), which runs Filmhouse Cinema in Edinburgh, Edinburgh International Film Festival and Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen, have appointed administrators.
A statement explained that the charity is facing a "perfect storm" of sharply rising costs, alongside reduced trade due to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. "The combination and scale of these challenges is unprecedented and means that there was no option but to take immediate action," it added.
The Filmhouse Cinema and Café Bar in Edinburgh, the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Belmont Filmhouse will all cease trading immediately.
The decision means 102 staff have been made redundant (58 at the CMI, 22 at the Edinburgh Filmhouse, 20 at the Belmont and two at the film festival) with five being retained to assist with the administration process.
Administrators FRP Advisory will work with Creative Scotland, The City of Edinburgh Council and Aberdeen City Council in assessing what options there are for the future of the individual elements of the charity’s work and supporting staff through the process.
The board of the CMI stated: “We have been proud to have led the CMI through incredibly challenging times, and in particular during the worst days of the pandemic.
“Unfortunately, the combination of sharply increasing energy and other costs, together with both the lasting impacts of the pandemic and the rapidly emerging cost of living crisis affecting cinema attendances, means that we have had no other option but to appoint administrators at this time.
“We would like to put on record our immense gratitude to the entire staff team whose passion for film as an artform and for the audiences and communities we work with and serve has remained undented by the challenges of recent years. We’re fully aware that this will be an exceptionally stressful time for them.”
Nicola Sturgeon said her government will do all it can to support the “important cultural organisations”.
Addressing the announcement from CMI during First Minister’s Questions, she said the closures are of “huge concern” and will leave many “profoundly upset”.
The Scottish Government will do “everything possible” to support the impacted organisations, she added.
Even with the recently-announced energy price cap for businesses, the CMI’s energy costs rose by approximately £200,000 over the next 12 months.
As an accredited Real Living Wage employer, CMI also faced an increase of 10.1% in payroll costs over the next 12 months.
Public funding has been standstill or reducing for more than eight years and had been reducing in real terms value throughout that period. The more recent steep rise in inflationary costs reduces the real terms value even further.
"Additionally, our funders and the Scottish Government have indicated that the outlook beyond March 2023 for public funding is highly uncertain, given the other pressures that they have, making planning and beyond that point almost impossible," the statement explained.
General cost inflation is meanwhile running at between 10% and 30% for goods and services. "There is no way of addressing this without passing on the cost increases to customers, but at a time when the cost of living crisis is beginning to hit more and more people this would make coming to the cinema less affordable for more people," the CMI noted.
Cinema admissions at Filmhouse and Belmont Filmhouse have been running at approximately half of pre pandemic levels, which was deemed not sustainable in the medium term.
The Filmhouse at 88 Lothian Road is in a former church, which was taken over in 1976, with screenings commencing in 1978.
Since its inception, the Filmhouse has been the home of the Edinburgh International Film Festival - which has been running since 1947, making it the world’s oldest continually running film festival.
The two organisations have always worked closely together, with this arrangement formalised in 2010 with the formation of the CMI.
From 2014, the CMI also began operating the Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen.
The joint administrators will now focus on marketing the assets for sale, as well and seeking to transfer the brand and trademark of the film festival.
Joint administrator Tom MacLennan said: “We are hopeful that businesses already operating in the film industry or entrepreneurs looking to enter the film industry will be encouraged to register their interest in the assets.”
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