2025: Our year in review

As 2025 comes to a close, we reflect on our highlights from a great year of film screenings and events.

Thanks to BFI National Lottery and Screen Scotland funding, we are proud to have supported over 60 Scottish film exhibitors to create great screening events in 2026.

This year, we welcomed 47 new members, including Jali Collective, Leith Kino, 16 Collective (Sapphic Film Club) and Brightons Village Hall, each of whom were awarded funding to support their activity. View our members here.

Image: Ingrid Mur for Samizdat Film Festival 2025

Key highlights

• Supported 26 projects through our Film Exhibition Fund, and 25 projects through our Pitch Pot fund
• Awarded 25 Bursaries to support members to attend training & events
• Supported four New Producers’ to curate their own screening programmes
• Increased the number of community screenings taking place in Moray & Inverness through our Spotlight programme
• Partnered with Equal Media & Culture Centre to produce research on gender equity in Scottish film exhibition
• Supported 12 projects as part of BFI FAN’s season, Too Much: Melodrama on Film
• Hosted in-person member events, including our Exhibitors Day at Glasgow Film Festival and a Festival Forum in Edinburgh, plus monthly online Coffee Mornings

Film Exhibition Fund

This year, we supported 26 projects through our Film Exhibition Fund. The Film Exhibition Fund is awarded to audience-facing screenings and events that meet the priority outcomes outlined in BFI’s Screen Culture 2033 strategy.

Projects that were supported by the Film Exhibition Fund in 2025/26:

• Ayr Film Society: 2025/26 programme
• Borscht Film Club: 2025/26 programme
• CentreStage Communities: Reel Scotland
• CinemaAttic: 2025/26 programme
• Cinetopia:DOC: 2025/26 programme
• Cumbernauld Community Cinema: 2025/26 programme
• Dundee Contemporary Arts: Phantom of the Opera Tour
• Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival 2025
• French Film Festival UK
• Glasgow Short Film Festival
• Havana Glasgow Film Festival
• Hippodrome Silent Film Festival
• Iberodocs 2025
• Jali Collective: Film Weekender
• Manipulate Festival 2026
• Montrose LandxSea Film Festival 2025
• Refractive: Paisley Docs and Rebels
• RIG Arts: Galoshans Film Festival
• Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival 2025
• Scotland Loves Anime 2026
• Scottish Documentary Institute: Doc Screen
• Scottish Queer International Film Festival 2025
• Skye Community Cinema: 2025/26 programme
• The Pyramid at Anderston: Community screenings
• Transgressive North: Folk Film Festival 2025
• Whale Arts: Local Cinema programme

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Pitch Pots

We supported 25 projects through our Pitch Pot fund. Pitch Pots are small grants that support impactful, one-off events or special initiatives that help our members to widen their audience.

Projects that were supported by Pitch Pots in 2025/26:

• 16 Nicolson Street: Sapphic Film Club pilot screenings
• Applecross Cinema Club: Winter Season 2025
• Articulate Hub: Care Film Festival
• Birnam Arts: Film Discovery Programme
• Brightons Village Hall: Community screenings
• Broadway Prestwick: Christmas screenings
• Cinetopia: Salon screenings at the French Institute
• Creative Stirling: ‘Unlocking the archive’ series
• Deaf Action: UK Premiere of Milano
• Eden Court: ‘Nature of Humanity’ programme
• Goethe Institute: FOKUS German Film Festival 2026
• Hebridean Film Festival 2025
• Inhouse CIC: Queens Park Arena Shorts programme
• Leith Kino: 2025/26 Community Cinema programme
• MINT Chinese Film Festival: January/February 2026 screenings
• Montrose Playhouse: Falling Into Place screenings + director Q&A
• National Trust for Scotland: 1745: An Untold Story of Slavery screening + discussion
• Outwith Festival: Film Programme 2025
• Robert Burns Film Theatre
• SCAN Summit 2025: Artists’ Short Film Programme
• Screen Argyll: Sea Change Opening Night
• SI-FAN: 2025 Festival
• Uist Film: 2025/26 community screenings
• Whale Arts: On Falling community screenings
• WILDHOOD Festival

Pitch Pots are allocated on a rolling basis until funds are exhausted. Eligible projects must be completed by March 2026.

Too Much: Melodrama on Film

As part of the BFI Film Audience Network, we take part in special programmes led by our colleagues, Film Hub South West, who are based at Watershed in Bristol. This year’s programme – Too Much: Melodrama on Film – Melodrama on Film – offered support for Hub members to screen films that were, eh, more than a little over the top.

We were proud to support 12 Scottish exhibitors as part of the season. Four organisations secured Bespoke funding (up to £10,000) to devise a tailor-made programme, focused on Melodrama:

• International Film Festival Glasgow: Pedro Almodóovar season
• Glasgow Film Theatre: Melodrama on Film
• Offline Glasgow: MERLODRAMA!
• Screen Argyll: Joan Crawford Weekender

Eight Film Hub Scotland members took advantage of the opportunity to book the season’s Menu titles:

• Eden Court Highlands
• Dundee Contemporary Arts
• Hawick Film Group
• Hippodrome Cinema
• Macrobert Arts Centre
• Out of the Blue
• Robert Burns Film Theatre

Other awards

We distributed 25 bursary awards to support Film Hub Scotland members to attend training, events and conferences.

We also offered targeted support as part of our Adventures in Cinema fund, which supported projects that were aimed at welcoming young people and/or family audiences. These included HippFest’s work with Young Programmers on their Taste of Silents season, and Birnam Art’s Adventures in Animation programme.

Through our Fabric fund, we supported five organisations to build networks in their local areas: North East Arts Touring (NEAT), Screen Argyll, the Iris Ayr, Driftwood and Generation Arts.

Thank you to all of our members for your focus on creativity, community and collaboration this year. We very much look forward to working together in 2026!