In exciting news for Filmhouse fans, a spokesperson for Caledonian Heritable, who now own the Filmhouse, has told The Edinburgh Reporter that they are making progress with plans to restore a film offering in the Lothian Road building saying: “Caledonian Heritable are working closely with the Filmhouse in the expectation of arriving at a scenario similar to that existing before”.
Filmhouse was previously run by a charity Centre for the Moving Image which went into administration last October. Since then the building has been sold to city developer Kevin Doyle and his company Caledonian Heritable which owns The Dome, Ryans and also Archerfield in East Lothian.
The joint administrators, Chad Griffin and Thomas MacLennan of FRP Advisory Trading Limited, explained in March that they were close to achieving a sale of the building but had taken steps to preserve other assets owned by Filmhouse.
In a statement they said: “Ever since the appointment for the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), we have engaged with the creditors, trustees, interested parties, potential funders and various public bodies with an interest in the administration and more broadly arts and the city of Edinburgh. On cultural matters we prioritised the sale of the intellectual property relating to the Edinburgh International Film Festival, enabling the festival to be remounted in 2023. We have also overseen a project to archive a significant amount of cinematic materials for historical preservation, working with the National Library of Scotland. However, our overriding legal duty is to maximise value to the Company and its creditors.”
In June the administration of CMI transferred to a creditors’ voluntary liquidation, but following the sale of the building for £2.65 million there appeared to be sufficient funds to settle sums due to secured creditors including The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (£123,996) and Lothian Pension Fund (£567,000).
All employees in Edinburgh and in Aberdeen were made redundant. There were unsecured creditors of just under £67,000 and sums owed to employees in the region of £400,000. It is not yet clear what the final payout or dividend to creditors will be.
Apart from the sale of the property the brand and intellectual property assets of EIFF were sold to Creative Scotland for £15,000.
Edinburgh International Film Festival will be run as a capsule programme over six days in August. More information here.
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