Film Exhibition Fund Recipients Announced

We are delighted to announce the organisations that have been successful in their funding applications for this round of the Film Exhibition Fund.

The Film Exhibition Fund ensures that audiences across Scotland can access and enjoy a diverse range of films, regardless of geography or circumstance, as part of BFI’s Screen Culture 2033 strategy. The fund supports Film Hub Scotland members bringing the best independent film and broader screen experiences to their local communities, made possible thanks to BFI National Lottery and Screen Scotland funding.

Members can apply for between £1,000 – £10,000 to support audience-facing screening projects that reach new and diverse audiences. The 2023-24 Film Exhibition Fund had two deadlines: 23 April and 14 August 2023.

We are proud to support:

Glasgow Artists’ Moving Image Studio (GAMIS): CineRoma Festival 2024

CineRoma Film Festival, a collaboration between GAMIS and Romani advocacy community organisation Romano Lav, will return in spring 2024. CineRoma is the UK’s first Roma film festival, and only the third in Europe. It represents an ongoing collaborative relationship between GAMIS and Romano Lav who have been working together on film programming and community events in the Govanhill area of Glasgow since 2021.

The 3-day festival will be curated in collaboration with young Roma people through a series of workshops to be held in October 2023 (supported by the National Lottery Awards For All).

Cample Line: Film at Cample Monthly Screening Programme 2023/24

Cample Line offers a monthly film programme in rural south-west Scotland. They are committed to screening long form cultural film, with an emphasis on women directors and/or material that is focused on marginalised or under-represented communities or places.

The Film Exhibition Fund will support their 2023/24 programme from October – May. Their diverse screenings will span experimental narrative and non-fiction material that focuses on the relationship between people and the natural world, or the places they live.

Macrobert Arts Centre: Central Scotland Documentary Festival 2023

Central Scotland Documentary Festival (CSDF) will take return in November 2023. Organised and hosted by Macrobert Arts Centre, CSDF curates an exciting and diverse programme of documentary films originating from both the UK and abroad.

The 2023 event will deliver an extensive lineup of films, enriched by accompanying introductions, interactive Q&A sessions, and supplementary events. Located on the University of Stirling campus, CSDF’s goal is to foster interest and active participation from communities where engagement may historically have been limited.

Glasgow Short Film Festival 2024

Glasgow Short Film Festival hosts an inclusive community of filmmakers and film lovers, showcasing ground-breaking works of visual storytelling. The festival aims to inspire and nurture diverse forms of cinematic expression, in Scotland and around the world.

Beyond the core international and Scottish competitions, and the Young Scottish Filmmaker Prize, their 2024 programme will connect various threads around social organisation and collective living, through the lens of both archive films and works using new media forms such as video games and Artificial Intelligence.

The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival (Hippfest) 2024

HippFest celebrates silent film – films made without synchronised sound, roughly from the first four decades of film production. This focus is married with the heritage of the Hippodrome as Scotland’s first, purpose-built cinema.

Their 2024 programme will offer a distinctive range of high-quality screening events at the Hippodrome Cinema with additional activity at partner venues around Bo’ness town and the wider Falkirk District, with some new work ear-marked for touring nationally and internationally. Silent cinema will also be explored through opportunities to learn, interact and create, with activity and marketing developed for families, Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences. Themes for 2024 include Women in Silent Film (behind and in-front of the camera).

Your Kirky: Kirky Picture Palace Programme 2023 /24

Through October 2023 – March 2024, Your Kirky will provide their local and affordable programme of screenings in Kirkintolloch, an area with no large multiplexes and limited access to cinema.

As well as providing a new release cinema option for people, the Kirky Picture Palace Programme also seeks to provide more inclusive screening options. Their 2024 programme will develop regular cinema events for dementia sufferers in partnership with Alzheimer’s Scotland and local care homes. Plus, they aim to grow their monthly parent and child screenings and expand their partnerships with local schools.

Take One Action: Renewal Programme 2023/24

Take One Action’s 2023-24 project is ‘Renewal’, an exploration of a renewal of art, material, society. Their programme asks, ‘What new possibilities arise from old materials and systems?’; ‘What role can cinema play in exploring narratives of renewal rather than endless growth?’.

The project will comprises Renewal Film Festival in Glasgow, featuring screenings, performances and workshops. Alongside this, a regional tour in partnership with Screen Machine will bring films to audiences outside the central belt, accompanied by eco-filmmaking workshops for young people inspired by techniques used in the films.

They will also build on their community-run social justice Film Clubs across Scotland, providing access to a catalogue of titles that invite conversations around societal, systemic and environmental renewal.

The Barn Arts: Barn Communities’ Film Programme 2023/24

The Barn is an arts organisation in Banchory, Aberdeenshire that offers creative opportunities to connect rural communities in north-east Scotland. Their Barn Communities’ Film Programme (September – March) aims to reach targeted rural communities who are most vulnerable to isolation and loneliness.

The Barn collaborate with communities by co-creating arts experiences to support wellbeing and enable conditions to explore sustainable ways of learning and living on earth. For this project, they are collaborating with film partners, community partners and Barn Associate Artist, Caitlin Dick who will help shape their programme to creatively connect their community to the ecological themes explored through. Together, they will ensure that stories presented in our programme resonate with their community and that they see themselves in the films presented.

The Pyramid at Anderston: Community Film Programme 2023-24

The Pyramid in Glasgow is a community organisation actively responding to the needs of their community by offering cost of living support, fuel vouchers and holiday food programmes, alongside increasing cultural provision in their area with an affordable film programme.

Their community film programme will continue with a mixed programme of screenings and accompanying activity October 2023 – March 2024 in their refurbed hall and the Pyramid space. This will include seasonal screenings linking into wider cultural festivals and celebrations, e.g. Hallowe’en, St Andrew’s Day, Diwali, Christmas, Lunar New Year, etc, heritage film, as well as the different backgrounds and interests of our community, with foreign language film, e.g. Gaelic Film Weekend, New International Cinema, Celebrating Women in Film, etc.

Comrie Cinema and Events Club: Comrie Film Festival 2024

Comrie Cinema Club helps bring films to their remote, rural community through a series of showings over the winter months when weather and road conditions deter people from travelling far.

Comrie Film Festival 2024 will present a weekend of diverse features, shorts and documentaries accompanied by music, food and guest speakers.

Aya Films: CineAstra Festival 2023

CineAstra is a collaborative festival from Aya Films that brings together curators, festivals, arts organisations, and local businesses across Glasgow. The 2023 festival will consist of a range of bold film events that use cinema to re-imagine and represent the spirit of community.

The festival will consist of a total of 30 events taking place both in person and online. It will bring together 5 early-career and 4 mid-career curators who are undertaking the Curate-It Fellowship and Curatorship programmes to further expand their skills in film curation. In addition to this, to expand the collaborative elements of the festival, they will work with local festivals, arts organisations, and businesses to curate and position films.

The Phoenix Cinema: Specialist Film in Orkney Programme 2023-24

The Phoenix Cinema’s 2023-24 programme will present a range of specialised films and accessible screenings in Orkney’s only full time cinema from September – March.

Their regular specialised screenings will incorporate classic, archive and Japaenese Anime films, as well as those raising awareness of environmental issues, Black History Month, LGBT History Month and more. These will be accompanied by focused programmes including: screenings at Orkney Science Festival; Halloween-horror films and a Festive programme during December.