Your local cinemas need you

Last week, the Centre for the Moving Image entered administration, forcing Edinburgh International Film Festival and two Scottish cinemas to cease trading, while this week Cardiff’s Premiere Cinema announced their immediate and permanent closure. This follows hard on the heels of Cineworld, the world’s second largest cinema chain, announcing it has gone into administration, placing 128 cinemas across the UK and Ireland at risk. Our thoughts are with all those that have lost, or risk losing, their jobs. 

While Wales and the wider UK are enjoying a hard-earned boom in film and TV production, film exhibition is facing significant challenge, with cinemas and mixed-arts venues still recovering from reduced ticket sales following Covid as they see rapidly rising venue running costs.

During the pandemic, independent cinemas and arts centres across the country followed forced closures with significant innovation, continuing to support their local communities with digital offers such as online and hybrid film festivals alongside essential services such as meals and groceries, for example. Cinemas and mixed-arts venues offer important cultural hubs for our communities to gather and enjoy storytelling, which people have valued across the centuries. As a society, we will be much poorer if we lose these safe, warm and welcoming spaces at the heart of our communities.

Recognising the importance of these spaces and the growth potential of the creative industries, HM Treasury made crucial funds available to support people and businesses through Covid, including the Cultural Recovery Fund administered in Wales by the Arts Council of Wales and Welsh Government. Ffilm Cymru also continued to support cinemas, arts centres and film festivals through our Film Exhibitor Fund and Emergency Relief Fund, as well as providing advice, advocacy and opportunities to share concerns and ideas.

This support allowed cinemas to reopen and welcome audiences back to the big screen. But now the film exhibition community is struggling to survive again with the rocketing costs of keeping their premises open. 

We understand times are very hard for everyone, but we are calling upon politicians and members of the public to help protect these social and cultural spaces. Our recent evidence to the Welsh Parliament’s Culture Committee called for additional Welsh Government support for cinemas, and we will continue to work with the UK Cinema Association on collective action and advocacy for the sector.

Cinemas aid us in understanding ourselves and the world around us by showing us stories, voices and ideas we might not otherwise be able to experience. They also provide a livelihood for many.

If you are able to, please visit a cinema or arts venue near you and help sustain a vibrant and valuable cultural community for current and future generations. 

Pauline Burt
Chief Executive, Ffilm Cymru Wales 
October 2022