Edinburgh’s Filmhouse Cinema and Café Bar, the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen will all cease trading with immediate effect.
The trustees of the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), the parent charity which runs all three entities, have appointed Tom MacLennan and Chad Griffin of FRP Advisory as joint administrators.
“The charity is facing the perfect storm of sharply rising costs, in particular energy costs, alongside reduced trade due to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis,” said the CMI.
“The combination and scale of these challenges is unprecedented and means that there was no option but to take immediate action.
“Filmhouse Cinema and Café Bar in Edinburgh, Edinburgh International Film Festival and Belmont Filmhouse will all cease trading immediately and FRP Advisory have been appointed administrators to all entities in the group.
“The administrators will work with Creative Scotland, 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 CMI said cinema admissions at the Filmhouse and Belmont Filmhouse have been running at 50% of pre pandemic levels.
The board of the CMI said in a statement: “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.”
The CMI said that even with the recently announced energy price cap for businesses, CMI’s energy costs are rising by approximately £200,000 over the next 12 months.
“The price cap is also only in place for six months and so planning beyond March 2023 is highly uncertain,” said the charity.
It said as an accredited Real Living Wage employer, CMI is facing an increase of 10.1% in payroll costs over the next 12 months.
On public funding, it said: ” … public funding has been standstill or reducing for over 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.”
On general cost inflation, the CMI said: ” … this is 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.”