Filmhouse

Filmhouse is a proudly independent, non-profit cinema and registered charity in the heart of Edinburgh, committed to screening the full diversity of cinema from across the globe.

Based on Lothian Road on a site originally built as a church in 1831, Filmhouse first opened as a one screen cinema in 1979. Eventually expanding to become a three screen venue, Filmhouse championed some of the UK’s most diverse and radical film programming – as well as being the home for the Edinburgh International Film Festival – until the collapse of Filmhouse’s parent company, CMI, forced the cinema’s closure in 2022.

Thanks to a grassroots campaign supported by dedicated Filmhouse audiences, alongside support from the Community Ownership Fund, Creative and Screen Scotland, the Nancie Massie Charitable Trust and Edinburgh City Council, Filmhouse has been fully refurbished and reopened as a four screen cinema in 2025. While we are inspired by our cinema’s past, we are nevertheless a completely new venue and organisation, looking to the future and here to serve audiences in Edinburgh, Scotland and beyond.

As well as operating a four screen cinema, Filmhouse houses a 100-seat bar cafe that offers a space to eat, drink and socialise from morning until night.

We are also a registered charity offering a year round educational programme to schools and young people in Edinburgh, which is central to our social mission. Opening our doors to the widest range of cinematic storytelling from around the world, we are a place where all are welcome, and where people from a multitude of backgrounds, young and old, come together to make new connections through a shared love of film.