A CINEMA in the Scottish Highlands has been named one of the UK’s best by the Big Screen Awards.
The Highland Cinema in Fort William has been shortlisted for the Big Screen Awards’ Cinema of the Year (24 screens or under) prize while also being in the running for the Cinema Marketing Campaign of the Year award.
The Big Screen Awards looks to celebrate the achievements of people and institutions in the UK film industry and will host its awards show on November 24 at The Brewery in London.
Other Scottish nominees include the Glasgow Film Festival for the Big Screen Event of the Year and Edinburgh’s Everyman theatre for Cinema of the Year (25 screens or over).
The announcement follows news that a pair of celebrated Scottish independent cinemas have entered into administration due to a “perfect storm of sharply rising costs”.
The Filmhouse Cinema and Cafe Bar in Edinburgh and the Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen have ceased trading as administrators were called in to assess the future of the charity which runs the two venues.
Since then, an online petition has garnered over 18,000 signatures to show support for the two acclaimed institutions.
The petition, started by Paul Sng, reads: “102 cinema workers at Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Filmhouse and Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen immediately lost their jobs when the Centre for the Moving Image ceased trading on October 6.
“Edinburgh and Aberdeen have lost their leading independent cinema, and for their film communities, essential cultural hubs.”
The petition can be accessed HERE.
