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Cromarty Cinema marks 5th anniversary with £150K Creative Scotland boost





There was much to celebrate at the fifth birthday of Cromarty Cinema. Picture: Cromarty and Resolis Film Society
There was much to celebrate at the fifth birthday of Cromarty Cinema. Picture: Cromarty and Resolis Film Society

VOLUNTEERS with a Black Isle film society had 150,000 reasons to celebrate the group’s fifth anniversary last week.

Cromarty and Resolis Film Society (CRFS), which owns and operates the Cromarty Cinema, marked its milestone with a three-year grant funding deal from Creative Scotland.

That means a £50,000 boost per annum and means the project will be sustainable at its current level of operation.

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Cromarty Cinema has enjoyed strong local support and has now landed a three-year grant package from Creative Scotland which should help ensure a sustainable future. Cromarty and Resolis Film Society
Cromarty Cinema has enjoyed strong local support and has now landed a three-year grant package from Creative Scotland which should help ensure a sustainable future. Cromarty and Resolis Film Society

CRFS described it as “a huge achievement” and a tribute to the hard work of all the volunteers and the support of local community audience.

It says the funding ensures that the cinema can enhance its sustainability while providing more opportunities for volunteers, community groups and industry practitioners to engage with film.

The 35-seat purpose-built cinema in Cromarty, which is run in partnership with Eden Court Highlands, opened at the end of January 2020 - just in time to be shut down by the Covid-19 lockdown.

Since then, however, the cinema has grown the number of screenings, its audience and group of volunteers. Over the last 12 months the cinema has held 173 screenings of first run films achieving an audience of 66 per cent capacity; double the industry average.

In addition, the cinema has hosted talks, international live streamed and broadcast conferences, corporate events, classic film club screenings for older members of the community, animation workshops with the local primary as well as private hires – a perk for the 130 folk who are members of the cinema.

The cinema has become a local hub since its opening - which coincides with the Covid-10 lockdown. Cromarty and Resolis Film Society
The cinema has become a local hub since its opening - which coincides with the Covid-10 lockdown. Cromarty and Resolis Film Society

The cinema has become a destination and social hub, bringing together a diverse group of volunteers who are committed to sharing their passion for film with the community.

In total around 4000 tickets were sold for various screenings and events in the financial year 23/24 and the majority of those were repeat visitors.

Fraser Mackenzie, one of the CRFS trustees, said: “We are absolutely delighted that our efforts over the last five years have been recognised and rewarded with this offer of multi-year funding. We understand that we are the only cultural organisation on the Black Isle to have been awarded funding from Creative Scotland and we will ensure that we utilise it productively to further boost our audience and diversity of events.

“We are also extremely pleased that Eden Court has also secured multi-year funding which means that our productive, collaborative and innovative relationship can continue.

“The whole CRFS team is immensely grateful for the support from Creative Scotland and proud to be part of Scotland’s creative community.”

The community-run charity has evolved over the last 20 years from a small group of friends who wanted to share their favourite films with each other into a constituted community film society which held public screenings in halls in Cromarty and Resolis, through to a charity which offered an annual screening programme including a nationally recognised film festival and on to the development, ownership and operation of a purpose built 35 seat cinema.

The Society currently comprises a board of trustees, a group of 20-plus volunteers and a part-time manager who work together to deliver a range of screenings and other events in the purpose-built state-of-the-art cinema adjacent to the harbour in Cromarty.

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